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The film The Notebook is a romantic drama centered on the relationship between Noah
Calhoun and Allie Hamilton. The film opens with an elderly man reading (from a notebook) a
love story to an elderly woman; they both appear to be patients in the same retirement home. The
rest of the movie is composed mostly of what the old man is reading. He tells the story of Allie
and Noah how they met, fell in love, were forced to part through ill circumstances, and
ultimately wound up together after a long period with no contact with one another since true love
knows no bounds. After the elderly man finishes reading this love story to the woman, she
realizes that he is reading her their own love story; the man is Noah and the woman is Allie. The
audience realizes that the older woman suffers from Alzheimers and has almost completely
forgotten her own husband. The older man frequently reads her the tale of how they fell in love
in order to try and trigger her memory of him. They have a romantic time together, and shortly
after the woman looses her memories again and freaks out at the sight of a stranger in her room.
It is a heart wrenching film; it is a passionate story of love and also a sad illustration of
Alzheimers.
For this analysis, I have chosen the youngest version of Allie Hamilton to be my
character of focus (the film presents us with three different life stages). I chose the film The
Notebook to write about because, like most women, it triggers a strong emotional response in me
and I have a deep understanding of the film (since I have watched it roughly 300 times in my
life). Allie seems like a worthy candidate to discuss since the audience is exposed to a critical
stage of her life and since she is very impressionable during her younger years. Another reason
why I decided to write about Allie, is because I feel like she is a little bit easier for me to
understand her than the other characters and she goes through a great deal of emotion throughout
Rogers, A. (2013). Human behavior in the social environment (3rd ed.). New York:
Routledge.