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Prologue:
The novel was inspired by Sparks' sister, Danielle Sparks Lewis, who
later died of cancer in June 2000. Although the story is largely
fictional, certain parts were based on real experiences.
A Walk to Remember is set in North Carolina. It begins with the
The Characters:
Analysis:
When Landon opens the story with the words that his life changed
when he was seventeen years old, he is preparing us for profound
events that hes never forgotten.
When Landon warns us that we will laugh and we will cry, he
foreshadows the loving relationship that will develop between him
and Jamie.
The fact that Jamie has underlined one particular Psalm in her Bible
foreshadows that she knows Landon will need those words to carry
on in the face of her death.
FORESHADOWING
There are several other literary devices that pop up at various
times in the story. One of the most prevalent ones is foreshadowing
which frequently presents clues of something that will happen later
in the novel. Some examples of foreshadowing include:
IRONY
Another element that is important to note is irony - when
something happens, or is seen, or is heard that we may know, but
the characters do not, or that appears opposite of what is
expected. Some examples of irony include:
Landon promises Jamie that he wont fall in love with her if shell go
to the homecoming dance with him, but thats exactly...........
As winter begins to turn into spring, Landon is struck by how life
comes back even as Jamie lays dying.
CREATIVE LICENSE
Another literary device used by the author is creative license. This
device allows the author to imagine obviously impossible things
and make the reader suspend his disbelief. Nicholas Sparks uses
creative license when he has his main character, Landon, see
anthropomorphic changes take place in his body and in the town he
lives in, so that he is no longer imagining his past; he is actually
there.
Love is like the wind, you can't see it but you can feel it.
gradually gets to know Jamie his attitude slowly begins to change. He first m
passage that he finds the answer to the question that has been troubling hi
Coming of Age
The novel covers only a few months in the life of Landon Carter, but these a
most of the classes. Hegbert Sullivan thinks he is irresponsible, and his judg
learning to follow his own heart and moral conscience, even if this means a
comes.
Maybe God has a bigger plan for me than I had for myself.
When the novel begins, there are some deep-seated, long-held family woun
angel.
There are moments when I wish I could roll back the clock
and take all the sadness away, but I have the feeling that if I
did, the joy would be gone as well.
Essay Q&A
1. How does the 2002 movie version compare to the book?
A Walk to Remember was made into a movie in 2002, starring Mandy Moore
The movie was updated from the 1950s to the late 1990s. The filmmakers w
Another change is in the character of Hegbert Sullivan. In the film he is still
There are many other changes as well, the principle ones being that Landon
behavior from Landon.
Unlike some authors who dislike how their works are treated in the movies,
According to Nicholas Sparks on his Website, this is the most frequent quest
would have been such a startling conclusion to the story that the narrator c
alive. However, on his Website Sparks claims that he was unable to write ab
3. What is the relationship between Landon and Eric? Why are they
Eric and Landon have known each other since kindergarten, and Landon ref
Theme Analysis
his growing friendship with Jamie. He seems to enjoy making his friend unco
discovers that Landon is serious about acting in the play, he gives him his fu
Might
A Walk
to Remember
beimmature
described
asofa Landon
Christian
novel?
In the early part of the novel, religious faith is presented only in the form of4.
Jamie
Sullivan
as seen
through the
eyes
Carter.
He mo
Sparks notes with some pride on his Website that A Walk to Remember
reader's mind.
They figures,
can range
thumbnail
sketches
to deep,This change
Jamie are presented through the eyes of the narrator Landon Carter as unattractive,
distasteful
thefrom
objects
of ridicule
and derision.
wordy,ofhighly
detailed
biographies
ofno
each
character.
It's anyone
important
from his former state of ignorance. He also learns from Jamie the Christian value
forgiveness,
since
she holds
grudges
against
for having
5. A Walk to Remember is popular, but is it good literature?
character development.
Like Sparkss previous two novels, A Walk to Remember was a best-seller. But a popular book is not necessarily a good book. Reviewers of all Sparkss
segment of the book-buying public that likes to read simple love stories that do not belong in the category of romance novel. Specific criticisms that
Writing Style -- How the novel is written. Is the writing style
and their relationships: Jamie might be seen as too good to be true, the relationship between Landon and Jamie unconvincing (given their great differen
efficient or complex? Does the author use an extensive vocabulary
or get straight to the point? Are words used appropriately with
regard to meaning, or do they seem written to showcase the
"sound" of a sentence? Style should always be appropriate for the
genre or story. An appropriate style adds to the texture of the
novel; an inappropriate style does just the opposite. Literary fiction
The Four Basic Elements Of Any Novel
by Nicholas Sparks
It's critical to understand these elements and how they are related.
Of course, basic writing rules always apply. Limit the use of adverbs
when describing dialogue ("he said angrily" should read, "he said"),
Plot -- There are many definitions of plot, but plot is essentially the
avoid words that add unnecessary emphasis ("he was a little tired"
story, or the events that make up what the book is about. Plot, of
should read, "he was tired," or "she was very thirsty," should read
"she was thirsty") avoid cliches (like, "It was a dark and stormy
through the window), and the best plots are both original and
No matter what other definition is given, the very best plots are
Max balled his hands into fists. Not this, he thought, anything but
defined by readers with the simple phrase, "I couldn't put the book
this.")
Length -- Just what it says. How long is the book? The length
The Notebook, which in its final form was 45,000 words, was
originally 80,000 words before I edited it down. Why did I cut so
Likewise with novels or scenes that are too short, and though this
much? Because the story was so simple (only two main characters
and two settings, and the majority of the novel was devoted to only
a couple of days) that the additional words didn't add much; in fact,
all they did was slow the story to a crawl. In The Rescue, I cut 20%
from the original draft for the same reason. In A Bend in the Road, I
Hemingway, his advice was to take the first fifty pages of your
novel and cut them down to five pages. Sometimes when writing,
less is more. (Ignore the use of the cliche, but it's appropriate here.)
In most books on writing that I've read, this final aspect is often
overlooked, though I don't know why. Length is critically important
in novels. How many times, for instance, have you read a novel
that seems to go "on and on?" I've read plenty. Too many, in fact.
Books that are too long are the sign of laziness by the writer and
more or less follow. For more on this, check out the article
reader, "I'm the author here and I know what I'm doing, and if you
don't like it, then that says more about you than me, and we both
know which one of us is smarter." Not so. Who, after all, would have
seen the movie Jurassic Park if the length of the movie was six
is enough sometimes. Why are so many books too long these days?
the elements that come up during your world-creation phase. Every story has
a milieu, but when a story is structured around one, the milieu is the thing the
storyteller cares about most. For instance, in Gullivers Travels, it mattered
little to Jonathan Swift whether we came to care about Gulliver as a
character. The whole point of the story was for the audience to see all the
strange lands where Gulliver traveled and then compare the societies he
found there with the society of England in Swifts own dayand the societies
of all the tales readers, in all times and places. So it wouldve been absurd to
begin by writing much about Gullivers childhood and upbringing. The real
story began the moment Gulliver got to the first of the books strange lands,
and it ended when he came home.
Milieu stories always follow that structure. An observer who sees things the
way wed see them gets to the strange place, observes things that interest
him, is transformed by what he sees, and then comes back a new person.
This structure is most common in science fiction and fantasy, but it also
occurs in other types of novels. James Clavells Shogun, for instance, is a
milieu story: It begins when the European hero is stranded in medieval
Japan, and it ends when he leaves. He was transformed by his experiences
in Japan, but he does not stayhe returns to his world. Other stories are told
along the waythe story of the shogun, for instancebut regardless of how
much were drawn into those events, the real closure we expect at the end of
the story is the main characters departure from Japan.
Likewise, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz doesnt end when Dorothy kills the
Wicked Witch of the West. It ends when Dorothy leaves Oz and goes home
to Kansas.
As you conceive and write your own story, if you realize that what you care
about most is having a character explore and discover the world youve
created, chances are this structure is your best choice.
When writing a milieu story, your beginning point is obviouswhen the
character arrivesand the ending is just as plain: when she leaves (or, in a
variant, when she decides not to leave, ending the question of going home).
Such stories are typically most effective when seen through the viewpoint of
the arriving character, as shell be surprised by and interested in the same
strange and marvelous (and terrible) things that engage the readers.
STRUCTURE 2: THE IDEA STORY
Idea stories are about the process of seeking and discovering new
information through the eyes of characters who are driven to make the
discoveries. The structure is very simple: The idea story begins by raising a
question; it ends when the question is answered.
Most mysteries follow this structure. The story begins when a crime takes
place. The question we ask is, who did it and why? The story ends when
the identity and motive of the criminal are revealed.
In speculative fiction, a similar structure is quite common. The story begins
with a question: Why did this beautiful ancient civilization on a faraway planet
come to an end? Why are all these people gone, when they were once so
wise and their achievements so great? The answer, in Arthur C. Clarkes
The Star, is that their sun went nova, making life impossible in their star
system. And, ironically, it was the explosion of their star that the wise men
saw as the sign of the birth of Christ. The story is told from the point of view
of a Christian who believes that this must have been a deliberate act of God,
to destroy a beautiful civilization for the sake of giving a sign to the magi.
When writing an idea story, begin as close as possible to the point where the
question is first
raised, and end as soon as possible after the question is answered.
he is. Jones faces many problems and adventures, but in the end, his role in
society is exactly what it was before: part-time archaeology professor and
full-time knight-errant.
By contrast, Carson McCullers The Member of the Wedding is about a
young girls longing to change her role in the only community she knows
her household, her family. She determines that she wants to belong to her
brother and his new wife; they are the we of me, she decides. In the effort
to become part of their marriage, she is thwartedbut in the process, her
role in the family and in the world at large is transformed, and at the end of
the story she is not who she was when she first began. The Member of the
Wedding is a classic example of a character story.
The structure of a character story is as simple as any of the others. The story
begins at the moment when the main character becomes so unhappy,
impatient or angry in her present role that she begins the process of change;
it ends when the character either settles into a new role (happily or not) or
gives up the struggle and remains in the old role (happily or not).
STRUCTURE 4: THE EVENT STORY
In the event story, something is wrong in the fabric of the universe; the world
is out of order. In classic literature, this can include the appearance of a
monster (Beowulf), the unnatural murder of a king by his brother (Hamlet)
or of a guest by his host (Macbeth), the breaking of an oath (Havelock the
Dane), the conquest of a Christian land by the infidel (King Horn), the birth of
a child portent who some believe ought not to have been born (Dune), or the
reappearance of a powerful ancient adversary who was thought to be dead
(The Lord of the Rings). In all cases, a previous ordera golden agehas
been disrupted and the world is in flux, a dangerous place.
The event story ends at the point when a new order is established or, more
rarely, when the old order is restored or, rarest of all, when the world
descends into chaos as the forces of order are destroyed. The story begins
not at the point when the world becomes disordered, but rather at the point
when the character whose actions are most crucial to establishing the new
order becomes involved in the struggle. Hamlet doesnt begin with the
murder of Hamlets father; it begins much later, when the ghost appears
to Hamlet and involves him in the struggle to remove the usurper and
reestablish the proper order of the kingdom.
Almost all fantasy and muchperhaps mostscience fiction uses the event
story structure. Nowhere is it better handled than in J.R.R. Tolkiens great
trilogy. The Lord of the Rings begins when Frodo discovers that the ring Bilbo
gave him is the key to the overthrow of Sauron, the great adversary of the
worlds order; it ends not with the destruction of Sauron, but with the
complete reestablishment of the new orderwhich includes the departure of
Frodo and all other magical people from Middle-earth.
Notice that Tolkien does not begin with a prologue recounting all the history
of Middle-earth up to the point where Gandalf tells Frodo what the ring is. He
begins, instead, by establishing Frodos domestic situation and then thrusting
world events on him, explaining no more of the world than Frodo needs to
know right at the beginning. We learn of the rest of the foregoing events bit
by bit, only as the information is revealed to Frodo.
In other words, the viewpoint character, not the narrator, is our guide into the
world situation. We start with the small part of the world that he knows and
understands and see only as much of the disorder of the universe as he can.
It takes many daysand many pagesbefore Frodo stands before the
council of Elrond, the whole situation having been explained to him, and
says, I will take the ring, though I do not know the way. By the time a
lengthy explanation is given, we have already seen much of the disorder of
the universe for ourselvesthe Black Riders, the hoodlums in Bree, the
barrow wightsand have met the true king, Aragorn, in his disguise as
Strider. In other words, by the time we are given the full explanation of the
world, we already care about the people involved in saving it.
Too many writers of event stories, especially epic fantasies, dont learn this
lesson from Tolkien. Instead, they imagine that their poor reader wont be
able to understand whats going on if they dont begin with a prologue
showing the world situation. Alas, these prologues always fail. Because we
arent emotionally involved with any characters, because we dont yet care,
the prologues are meaningless. They are also usually confusing, as a halfdozen names are thrown at us all at once. I have learned as a book reviewer
that its usually best to skip the prologue and begin with the storyas the
author also should have done. I have nevernot oncefound that by
skipping the prologue I missed some information I needed to have in order to
read the story; and when I have read the prologue first, I have nevernot
oncefound it interesting, helpful or even understandable.
In other words, writers of event stories, dont write prologues. Homer didnt
need to summarize the whole Trojan War for us; he began the Iliad with the
particular, the private wrath of Achilles. Learn from Homerand Tolkien, and
all the other writers who have handled the event story well. Begin small, and
only gradually expand our vision to include the whole world. If you dont let us
know and care about the hero first, we wont be around for the saving of the
world. Theres plenty of time for us to learn the big picture.