Love and Destiny
In the world of The Notebook, love overcomes all: class, logic, and even disease. Nicholas Sparks portrays love as an unstoppable power with the ability to change and bring purpose to one’s life. Indeed, when Noah Calhoun and Allie Nelson meet in New Bern, North Carolina in 1932, it is love at first sight. After a summer of love, they are torn apart when Allie’s family leaves town and Allie’s mother begins confiscating the…
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Wealth and Fulfillment
Allie and Noah, the central lovers in The Notebook, come from very different social backgrounds: Allie is a socialite, while Noah comes from a modest, working-class background. The main obstacle to their love is the external pressure Allie faces to marry a wealthy, socially powerful husband—and as the novel progresses, Sparks shows how irrelevant money, status, and social standing are in the face of deeper pursuits. Sparks ultimately argues that while money and…
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Memory, Pain, and Mortality
The frame story of The Notebook is set a nursing home, where the older versions of Noah and Allie are living out their final days together in the midst of great suffering. Allie has been struggling with Alzheimer’s for four years and, on most days, has no idea who she is or who Noah is to her. Noah, meanwhile, lives in constant pain due to rheumatoid arthritis and several battles with cancer. As both characters…
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Comfort and Logic vs. Passion and Instinct
When Allie returns to New Bern, North Carolina to visit Noah—and to revisit her past—she finds herself swept up once more in the passion that marked her carefree teenage years. Reminded of the intense, overpowering, almost instinctual love she had for Noah years ago, Allie finds herself faced with a decision between the comfort and sensibility of her engagement to the wealthy Lon Hammond and the passion associated with her relationship with Noah. Through…
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