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 Allie’s profound struggle, Nicholas Sparks explores the wide gulf between the safety of the status quo and the terrifying but thrilling draw of the unknown. Ultimately, Sparks suggests that the right choice is not always the easiest one—and that sometimes, one must leave comfort and logic behind in order to experience life to the fullest.
Throughout The Notebook, Sparks uses the central conflict of Allie’s need to choose between two suitors, Noah and Lon, to illustrate how painful the choice between a safe, logical option and an uncertain but impassioned, instinctual decision can be. While Allie initially believes that “passion […] fade[s] in time, and things like companionship and compatibility […] take its place,” after reconnecting with Noah, she begins to see how important passion, instinct, and feeling truly are. At the start of the novel, Allie seems ready to settle down with her fiancé, Lon. Lon is a powerful lawyer from a wealthy family—he is a strait-laced provider, and a marriage to him would open up a new world of social mobility and material wealth for Allie. Allie’s love for Lon is restrained and nearly chaste—she loves him in a quiet, passionless way, and her attraction to him is rooted in his ability to give her the stable yet luxurious life she believes she’s always wanted. Lon represents comfort, safety, and logic: to choose him would be to choose certainty, ease, stability, and socioeconomic security. “Though he wasn’t Noah, Lon was a good man, the kind of man she’d always known she would marry. With Lon there would be no surprises, and there was comfort in knowing […] the future would bring […] the kind of life she’d always expected to live.” Allie thinks these words privately about Lon while weighing her relationship with him against her memories of the passion she and Noah once shared. Allie tells herself that what she wants is what she has “always expected”—she feels that to challenge herself or her values would be to open herself up to the unexpected and the uncertain. Allie, who has been raised to value sensibility, safety, and security, is scared to live an unscripted life. However, as she begins to realize that she’s only staying with Lon out of fear for what leaving him would mean, she begins to reconsider the importance of comfort, logic, and surety in her life.
Though Allie’s head tells her to choose Lon, her heart urges her to choose Noah, with whom she once shared a wild summer of love and an intense, powerful connection. Though Noah and Allie were only together for one summer, the times they shared made an indelible mark on Allie—and 14 years later, she’s left questioning whether she is making the right decision in marrying Lon. Allie’s love for Noah represents the intense, passionate side of her personality—the side she has repressed in order to convince herself that to follow her heart would be reckless and ill-advised. “Poets often describe love as an emotion that we can’t control, one that overwhelms logic and common sense,” Noah tells Allie during a journey down the river during their period of reconnection in New Bern. He knows from Allie’s confessions about her bland but comfortable relationship with Lon that she is only partly fulfilled. Noah wants to urge Allie to realize her life’s true potential—to push herself out of her comfort zone and give herself over to the passion and instinctual connection that has always defined their own relationship. Ultimately, Allie does choose the passion Noah represents over the comfortable but passionless and stale companionship she’s found in Lon. With Noah’s support, Allie is able to pursue her dreams of being an artist and unapologetically take professional, emotional, and financial risks. Allie’s life with Noah is colorful and unpredictable—she realizes her long-repressed dream of becoming a famous artist, she experiences life lived through the lens of her and Noah’s shared passions for nature and stillness, and before losing her memories to Alzheimer’s, she ultimately writes Noah a letter thanking him for instilling in her (and in their children) a reverence for life’s unpredictability.
As Nicholas Sparks explores the choice between comfort and logic versus passion and instinct, he investigates a nearly universal struggle. Sparks knows that when it comes to love, security, and the metrics by which society measures success, it is tempting to choose the safest, surest route. But through The Notebook, he suggests that in order to truly understand the deepest emotions and most profound experiences life has to offer, one must choose to surrender to passion and instinct rather than simply sticking to the status quo.
Related Themes from Other Texts
Comfort and Logic vs. Passion and Instinct ThemeTracker
Comfort and Logic vs. Passion and Instinct Quotes in The Notebook
But he had been in love once, that he knew. Once and only once, and a long time ago. And it had changed him forever. Perfect love did that to a person, and this had been perfect.
[Lon] was handsome, intelligent, and driven, a successful lawyer eight years older than she, and he pursued his job with passion. […] [Allie] understood his vigorous pursuit of success… […] In the caste system of the South, family name and accomplishments were often the most important consideration in marriage. In some cases, they were the only consideration. Though she had quietly rebelled against this idea since childhood and had dated a few men best described as reckless, she found herself drawn to Lon's easy ways and had gradually come to love him.
"You did a wonderful job restoring it. It looks perfect, just like I knew it would someday."
[Noah] turned his head in the same direction as hers while he wondered about the small talk and what she was holding back.
“Thanks, that's nice of you. It was quite a project, though. I don't know if I would do it again."
"Of course you would," she said. [Allie] knew exactly how he felt about this place.
"When's the big day?"
"Three weeks from Saturday. Lon wanted a November wedding."
“Lon?"
"Lon Hammond Jr. My fiancé."
[Noah] nodded, not surprised. The Hammonds were one of the most powerful and influential families in the state. Cotton money. […] "With his name, he must be busy."
"He is. He works a lot."
He thought he heard something in her tone, and the next question came automatically.
"Does he treat you well?"
"Do you remember sneaking over here the night you first told me about this place? […] I got home a little late that evening, and my parents were furious when I finally came in. […] My mother had a long talk with me later that night. She said to me, 'I'm sure you think that I don't understand what you're going through, but I do. It's just that sometimes, our future is dictated by what we are, as opposed to what we want.’ […] It was a terrible thing for a girl to learn. That status is more important than feelings."
"Lon's handsome, charming, and successful, and most of my friends are insanely jealous. They think he's perfect, and in a lot of ways he is. "But there's always going to be something missing in our relationship." […]
"Why?"
[…] "I guess I still look for the kind of love we had that summer."
"C'mon," he said, reaching for her hand, "I want to show you something."
She got up and followed him through the door to the living room. He stopped in front of the fireplace and pointed to the painting that hung above the mantel. […]
"You kept it?"
"Of course I kept it. […] It makes me feel alive when I look at it. Sometimes I have to get up and touch it. It's just so real—the shapes, the shadows, the colors. I even dream about it sometimes. It's incredible, Allie—I can stare at it for hours."
"Poets often describe love as an emotion that we can't control, one that overwhelms logic and common sense. That's what it was like for me. I didn't plan on falling in love with you, and I doubt if you planned on falling in love with me. But once we met, it was clear that neither of us could control what was happening to us. We fell in love, despite our differences, and once we did, something rare and beautiful was created.”
Would Lon encourage her painting? She remembered showing him one of her paintings a couple of months after they had first started going out. It was an abstract painting and was meant to inspire thought. In a way, it resembled the painting above Noah's fireplace, the one Noah understood completely, though it may have been a touch less passionate. Lon had stared at it, studied it almost, and then had asked her what it was supposed to be. She hadn't bothered to answer.
Though he wasn't Noah, Lon was a good man, the kind of man she'd always known she would marry. With Lon there would be no surprises, and there was comfort in knowing what the future would bring. He would be a kind husband to her, and she would be a good wife. She would have a home near friends and family, children, a respectable place in society. […] And though she wouldn't describe theirs as a passionate relationship, she had convinced herself long ago that this wasn't necessary… […] Passion would fade in time, and things like companionship and compatibility would take its place.
"Noah, what are they doing here?"
"I don't know. I know the swans from up north migrate to Lake Mattamuskeet every winter, but I guess they came here this time. I don't know why. Maybe the early blizzard had something to do with it. Maybe they got off track or something. They'll find their way back, though."
"They won't stay?"
"I doubt it. They're driven by instinct, and this isn't their place."
'What are you going to do?" her mother asked, pulling back. There was a long pause.
"I don't know," Allie finally answered. They stood together for another minute, just holding each other. […]
On her way out the door, Allie thought that she heard her mother whisper, "Follow your heart," but she couldn't be sure.
"You can't live your life for other people. You've got to do what's right for you, even if it hurts some people you love."
"I know," she said, "but no matter what I choose I have to live with it. Forever. I have to be able to go forward and not look back anymore. Can you understand that?"
I open a drawer and find the flowers I'd once given her long ago, old and faded and tied together with ribbon. They, like me, are dry and brittle and difficult to handle without breaking. But she saved them. "I don't understand what you want with them," I would say, but she would just ignore me. And sometimes in the evenings I would see her holding them, almost reverently, as if they offered the secret of life itself.
