The Notebook novel analysis

NAME                 : KHOIROTIN NI’MAH

Reg. NUMBER    : 2813123090

CLASS                 : ENGLISH DEPARTMENT (TBI 5C)

LECTURER         : DWI IMA HERMININGSIH

FINAL PROJECT INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE

ANALYZING “THE NOTEBOOK” NOVEL BY NICHOLAS SPARKS

General Overview

This novel  is one of the romantic novel which have been exist in the world. Nicholas Sparks has written this novel in 1996 and published in eBook form on December 1999. About in 2003 and 2004 they have revise the new one in second edition.  The genre of this novel is romance fiction which composed by using a great imagination of the writer. The Notebook was also has copied into a movie with same title around 2004.  Most of the reader will say that this novel is excellent more than Romeo and Julliet although they have to read in thick book about four hundred and  ninety eight pages (in eBookversion). The sacrifice of  love and true love will present in this book eventhough there are  a lot of culture which are not appropriate in the Eastern because this novel background comes from Western. In this novel consist of twelve chapters which is each chapter represent their story during they still alive.

Summaries each chapter

Chapter I MIRACLE

This opening chapter acts as a prologue and foreshadowing of a hoped for miracle. The narrator is an eighty year-old man who says he hasn’t been warm since George Bush has been President! However, the cold also seems to be internal and has been eighty years in the making. He explains his life before living at nursing home because of his ill. In this place, suddenly he met with his beloved friend when they still have been young, but unfortunately those woman did not recognize him anymore because of her Alzhaimer. This man was sure that those woman was his loosing puzzle. Everyday he read for her a notebook about their summer in order to recall her memories. Although it has been impossible but he never give up. “ I realize the odds, and science, are against me.But  science  is  not  the  total answer; this I know, this I have learned in my  lifetime. And  that  leaves  me  with  the belief that      miracles,  no matter  how inexplicable or unbelievable, are real and can  occur  without  regard  to  the  natural order of things.” This chapter is a combination of flashback and foreshadowing as Noah’s present life.

Chapter 2 GHOST

is explained and his past life is revealed. We are also introduced to a girl who turns out to be the love he had never forgotten. She is engaged, but has come back to New Bern to act on her feelings and either reunite with Noah or put those feelings for him away forever.

This chapter switches to the third person point of view as it opens with an introduction to Noah Calhoun in October 1946. Noah’s present life is explained by describing his hobby, reading book especially Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman, writing article and poem, and also singing and playing guitar. He had a dog called Clem. He also had best friend, Gus a seventy years man who always listens Noah’s stiry. One night, he told Gus that he has run a ghost. Noah began to tell about the ghost, he told  his experience when met someone special in the last summer fourteen years ago. “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.”  From those story Gus has guessed that his friend was fallen in love and could not run from the memory. This capter also who is Noah girl, she is Allie a kind and beautiful girl. Both of them have fallen in love but Allie’s mother disagreed. So they have to be separated each other. Allie’s family move to another city. Noah began to find a job and he got it. His boss is Jewish namely Morris Goldman. He build his career successfully. But he could not forget his girl, Noah tried to send some letter but no reply. Allie’s mother has hide those letter from Allie. Finally Allie decided to choose another man, Lon a business man. After working for Goldman, Noah became a soldier and back to his city.

Chapter 3 REUNION

This chapter is more than just a reunion as it’s entitled. It is in fact the new Noah and the new Allie falling once again into the love they had first experienced fourteen years before. It happened when Allie asked to his fiance Lon to spent her holiday and before preparing their wedding in her parents town. She stayed in one the inn in that town.When she read a newspaper, she found something which surprised her, an article about reservation in Noah’s house. She remembered it and decided to go to there. she finally saw the house, Noah begins to approach and then stops short when he sees who it is. For a moment, all they can do is stare at each other without moving. They are “Allison Nelson, twenty-nine years old and engaged, a socialite, searching for answers she needs to know, and Noah Calhoun, the dreamer, thirty-one, visited by the ghost that had come to dominate his life.” Both of them were shocked then they told their experience when they were separated while they memorized their last summer memories fourteen-years before in New Born. Suddenly, Allie told him that she was engaged with Lon and Noah accepted it.Finally, it is a presentation of terrible longing that is so great that it makes Noah weep for all he has lost and may never have again.

Chapter 4 PHONE CALLS

What is interesting about Lon’s character in this chapter is exactly what Allie had referred to in her thoughts - she is really second in his life to his career. He fears Allie may be with the man she had fallen in love with years before, and he curses that the trial is not over. She was in New Bern, and Lon found that very interesting. What’s more, for the first time in a long time, he was frightened. What if she is with him? He curses his trial wishing it were over and wishing he had gone with her. “And he made up his mind then not to lose her. He would do anything it took to keep her. She was everything he’d always needed, and he’d never find another quite like her.” He kept dialing the phone, but it remained unanswered.. However, he makes no move to find her by allowing another attorney to take his place in the trial. It is all about him, and even when he makes up his mind not to lose her, it’s not because he can make her life special; it was because she was everything he has always needed. Lon will be a formidable opponent for Allie’s love, but he was still much more selfish than Noah could ever think of being.

Chapter 5 KAYAKS AND FORGOTTEN DREAMS

The juxtaposition of their morning activities shows the reader how much their reunion has re-attuned Allie and Noah. ”The view is spectacular, as if the world is being born again.” He wonders about why she has come, but gives in to the power she has over him. She was so affected by his belief in her talent that she buys art supplies and draws two works to show him. She is also seemingly unconcerned about the calls from Lon and anticipates the day with Noah. It sets up the tension that is natural when there is a romantic triangle building. “She has to call him now . . . but she doesn’t want to, strangely. . . she feels almost as if talking to him now will spoil the day.”

   

Chapter 6 MOVING WATER

The purpose of this chapter is to build the memories between Noah and Allie. They spend the time traveling to Noah’s surprise spot either thinking about each other or talking about the feelings they had first felt for each other fourteen years before. The time on the river also allows Allie to compare Noah to other men, especially to Lon. It’s obvious that Lon, no matter how good a man she knows he is, falls short of the kind of man Noah is. “Artistic . . . There’s something almost artistic about him . . . Something natural, as if being on the water is beyond his control, part of a gene passed on to him from some obscure hereditary pool.”

Chapter 7 SWANS AND STORMS

This chapter is the culmination of the sexual tension and the renewal of the love between Noah and Allie. “I’m not saying it because I’m sweet. I’m saying it because I love you now and I always have. More than you can imagine.” It is full of wonderful feelings and the re-discovery of what Noah believes to be two souls that are destined for each other for all time. “She realizes then that something has changed since she’s come here . . . she knows that she has fallen in love with Noah Taylor Calhoun again, and that maybe, just maybe, she has never stopped.” Allie remembers the note Noah had given her when she left New Bern fourteen summers before. In it he had said, “Our souls are connected . . . I know I have spent every life before this one searching for you . . . We will find each other again, and maybe the stars will have changed, and we will not only love each other in that time, but for all the times we’ve had before.” Now she wonders if it could be, and that sitting here now seems to test the theory that they are destined to be together. In the morning, Noah awaken first and stared down at the beautiful woman he has spent his night with her. Before she can speak, he says, “You are the answer to every prayer I’ve offered. You are a song, a dream, a whisper, and I don’t know how I could have lived without you as long as I have. I love you, Allie, more than you can ever imagine. I always have and I always will.” Allie pulled him close and knows that she wanted him, needed him now more than ever, like nothing she was ever known.

Chapter 8 COURTROOMS

Lon is meeting with the defense lawyer and the judge in the judge’s chambers. He has asked the judge for permission to adjourn the trial until Monday. His reason is personal, and the defense attorney agrees, because Lon has agreed to reopen discussion on a matter not covered by that proceeding. The judge doesn’t like it, but he agrees since Lon has never asked for such permission before. Two minutes later, Lon is leaving the courthouse and heading for New Bern, his hands shaking.This entire chapter foreshadows the inevitable meeting between the characters involved in this romantic triangle. The reader can assume that Allie will eventually be placed into a position of having to choose between Noah and Lon.

Chapter 9 AN UNEXPECTED VISITOR

The next morning, Anne Nelson admited to her daughter that she knew she would be at Noah’s. She had seen her reaction to the newspaper article and how distracted she had been, but she had told no one where she had gone this day. She told Allie that she came here, because she had to, just like Allie had had to come. She also told Noah that he may not think so, but she had always liked him; she had just never thought he was right for her daughter. However, Noah has no sympathy for her feelings, saying, “. . . it wasn’t fair to me, and it wasn’t fair to Allie. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be here.” Anne Nelson ignored Noah’s comment and revealed that Lon had called her the night before and revealed that he knew Allie was with Noah. She told them that he was on his way. Allie asked her what she should do, but Anne said that such a decision is up to Allie. Then, Anne looked pointedly at Noah, until he excused himself and leaved the room. Then, she and Allie discussed whether she loved Noah and whether she loved Lon. Allie admited she loved them both, but that Lon just did not make her feel the way Noah did. Then, Anne gave her all the letters that Noah had written over the years. Allie was shocked that her mother had kept them. Anne said she had kept them from her daughter to protect her, but she had never opened and read them. Then, she got up to leave, advising Allie that she has some serious decisions to make. Allie told her mother that she did not know what she is going to do, but as Anne leaves, Allie was sure she heard her mother whisper, “Follow your heart.” The arrival of Anne Nelson is unexpected in two ways: Allie thinks no one in her family knows she’s at Noah’s home and her mother may be more supportive of Allie than she or the reader thinks. It also sets into motion the feeling that maybe we are assuming too much when we think that Allie will choose Noah.

Chapter 10 CROSSROADS

This chapter is extremely poignant as Allie makes the decision to leave Noah. “. . . I keep asking myself what I really want in my life, and do you know what the answer is? The answer is that I want two things. First, I want you. I want us. I love you and I always have . . . But I also want a happy ending without hurting anyone. And I know if I stay, people will be hurt.” Noah said that she could not live her life for other people, and that she has to do what’s right for her. Allie’s thoughts deal more with being able to go forward and not look back anymore. Noah did his best to convince her to stay, including telling her that it would kill a part of him if she has chosen to live with someone else. But once again, her eyes tell him what he did not want to hear – she was not going to stay. Finally, he tells her, “Allie, I can’t force you to stay with me. But no matter what happens in my life, I’ll never forget these last couple of days with you.I have been dreaming about this for years.”
 However, it was totally unexpected for the reader who was no doubt convinced that their reunion has sealed the feelings they have rekindled.

Chapter 11 A LETTER FROM YESTERDAY

This chapter is full of ironies about how life goes on no matter how difficult our own lives, how the day can be beautiful even when we are in agony, and how a final letter from twelve years before can be so much like a goodbye in the present. Just as she’s about to face the consequences of her decision, she notices the letters her mother had given her. She stops for a second and reaches for the first one. Then, she changes her mind, more interested in reading Noah’s final letter to her, perhaps wondering how he said goodbye and maybe how she will. She sees it is dated March 1935, two and a half years after receiving no answer to any of his letters. She imagines that she sees tear stains on the paper, and then she begins to read. It is a letter full of pathos, one in which Noah acknowledges that they came from different worlds, but that she had taught him more about the value of love than anyone ever had. He says, “I am not bitter because of what has happened. On the contrary, I am secure in knowing that what we had was real, and I am happy we were able to come together for even a short period of time.” He ends the letter by hoping that she will always savor the memories they had shared. It is so like the parting that they have just experienced that it could have been written only minutes before. For a moment, she debates reading another and then decides she can’t delay any longer. Lon is waiting for her. However, she still isn’t sure what she is going to say to her fiancé until she opens the door and sees him standing in the lobby of the inn.

Chapter 12 WINTER FOR TWO

The novel returns to the present day as the narrator finishes reading the notebook. This final chapter is really open to interpretation. Obviously, it is meant to show the reader Noah’s devotion to Allie and how the promise she made to him comes true. However, the ending – when they begin to make love and she recognizes him at last – can just be interpreted as a miracle of recognition and a heavenly moment of love together. Or it can be interpreted that they die together just as they lived together. The latter is an even more romantic way to think of the two characters, albeit somewhat unrealistic. Nonetheless, it is an interpretation the reader must consider as the book comes to an end.

Plot

The plot of this novel is double or complex plot, it means that this novel provides two plot. The first plot is narrated by showing the situation of the character when he accompanied his wife at nursing home until they have been dead (in chapter one and twelve).  Then the next plot is flash back which presented by showing the setting of the story when Noah read his notebook for Allie. In this plot, the writer described as we are going to live at that moment when they still have been young (in chapter two until eleven).

PLOT SUMMARY

1.      Exposition

The writer introduce the characters and also the setting of the story. This stage begins in chapter one when the reader of the notebook and also the writer of itself. Because of this plot is complex, so the writer provided more than one plot. The main plot is  when Noah was 80 years old, he lived in nursing home with his wife but she was sick and almost lost of her memories. And then the sub plot is when Noah began to read his notebook during spent his last fourteen summer with Allie. Starting from how can they meet each other until they became lover.

2.      The raising action

The rising action of the sub plot begins when Allie has to leaved New Bern because her mother did not allow her to make a relationship with Noah. They became separated each other until they met again in prompt reunion with new Noah and new Allie. Anne Nelson, Allie’s mother knew about this reunion and came to Noah’s house. Then the raising action of main plot begins when Noah always read for Allie  a notebook about their last fourteen summer when they were still young in order to recall Allie’s memories because of her Alzhaimer, she did not recognize Noah anymore. Noah still struggled for it eventhough most of people especially doctors and nurses and also the science were against by him. He was sure that Allie would be recovered.

3.      Climax

The climax of the sub plot occurs when Anne asked Allie to decide who will be her choice between Noah and her fiance Lon. Lon has already known about Noah. Both Noah and Lon loved Allie with their different ways and so did Allie. It is difficult for Allie to make this decision. The climax of the main plot occurs when Noah was eighty years old and became stroke, read Allie’s final letter again and is reminded of the promise she made when she found out she had Alzheimer’s: she would try every way she knew how to overcome the disease and be with him in the end. Noah’s struggle did not show any progress but he believed for a miracle. Suddenly, the miracle was proven Allie could be conscious but she still forgot their memories.

4.      Falling action

The falling action occurs when Noah makes his way to Allie’s bedside on the night of their forty-ninth anniversary and watches awestruck as her promise to him comes true.

5.      Conclusion/ resolution

Noah goes to Allie’s room late at night even though he is chancing a panic attack when she awakens. He means only to leave a poem under her pillow, but instead kisses her passionately. This causes her to awaken and recognize Noah, glad that he has come back to her. Their passion continues and Noah says they begin to slip toward heaven. This is such a vague ending that it’s possible to believe that they die there together once more just as Allie had promised.

Character and Characterization

Major Characters

NoahCalhoun
The narrator of the book and the main character, Noah is a good and kind man who fell in love with Allie fourteen years before the novel opens. He has never forgotten her and is overwhelmed with how much he still loves her when she returns to tell him she is engaged. He is a hard worker in whatever he engages himself, but will never be sucked into a job that keeps him away from nature and the beauty of poetry. Allie says in her final letter to him, ‘I love you for many things, especially your passions . . . Love and poetry and fatherhood and friendship and beauty and nature.” All of these wonderful traits are ultimately what make her reject a life with Lon for one of spiritual love and adventure with Noah.

AllisonNelson
A young woman who comes from a privileged family, she spends a wonderful summer with Noah when they are young, but is forced to leave when her parents disapprove. She meets Lon and becomes engaged to him, but something in her makes her return to Noah to be sure she is not making a mistake. He described her best: a lover of life, a strength to those who shared in her friendships. She is a dream, a creator of happiness, am artist who has touched a thousand souls. She is led a full life and wanted for nothing because her needs are spiritual and she has only to look inside her. She is kind and loyal, and she is able to see beauty where others do not. She is a teacher of wonderful lessons, a dreamer of better things.

LonHamilton
He is Allie’s fiancé, who fights for her in the end, but is too late. He has allowed his career to disrupt any hope he may have had to win her for himself. Essentially a good and decent man, Lon courts Allie ardently, but once he has won her, she takes second place to his blossoming career as a lawyer. He spends many nights at work and only reserves one night a week when they can be together. Allie knows she is second in his priorities, but sees his better qualities and even though she knows their relationship lacks passion, she believes he offers her compatibility and companionship. She thinks she can live with that until she reconnects with Noah. Only then does Lon know what he is about to lose. He follows her to New Bern and tries desperately to convince her that he can change and be the kind of husband she wants, needs, and deserves. However, it is too little and too late. Allie chooses Noah. To his credit, Lon accept the loss as a gentleman, but Noah knows exactly how devastated he must have been when she turned away from him.

Minor Characters

MorrisGoldman
A Jewish man who hires Noah for eight years in his scrap yard and leaves him part of his assets as an inheritance, which then allows Noah to restore his house.

Gus
He is the black man who lives down the road from the house Noah has restored. He becomes Noah’s only family until Allie returns.

AnneNelson
She is Allie’s mother and had so disapproved of her being with Noah that she had never delivered his letters to her daughter. She comes to warn them that Lon is on his way to confront them both, and she finally gives Allie the letters. When she leaves, she whispers to Allie that she should follow her heart.

Conflict

In this novel, there are some conflicts in each plot. In the sub plot, the external conflict is between Noah and Allie with Lon and her mother who did not allow her to make a relationship with Noah. Then the internal conflicts are in Noah’s self who really love Allie, but he could not bear her to stay with him and also in Allie’s self who really love Noah but she did not want to hurt everyone who loves her.

While the conflicts in the main plot are the external conflict between Noah and also people who did not believe in miracle. The external conflict is also stated in Allie’s life when she struggled to destroy her disseas. The internal conflict are in Noah’s self who did not want to lose his love and in Allie’s life who try to recognize who was Noah.

Setting

The setting of this story is in New Bern, 1932, 1946, and the present day at Creekside Extended Care Facility when they were old in nursing home. New Bern is one of the capital city in North California. In this story the situation was described as a beatiful town with lot of plantation and also lake, river, and reservoir. The scenery was nature and beautiful. This was very pleasure and quite please and suitable for everyone who wants to refreshing or looking for inspiration.

Point of view

The point of view is first person in the first and last chapters when Noah narrates his experiences with Allie at Creekside Extended Care home. In the middle chapters, it is in third person as Noah reads the story aloud to Allie.

Theme

The main theme of this story is about true love and sacrifice. Noah and Allie is true love eventhough Allie’s mother did not allow her at first, but both of them sacrifice what they are able to do for it. Noah also sacrifice his life for Allie in order to make Allie happy although he was not happy. He was willing to read a lot of story in the notebook in order to recall Allie’s memories.

Style

This novel is written very simplistically in a reader-friendly manner. And yet, he uses many beautiful metaphors and symbols to highlight the point he wants to make about the love between Allie and Noah. As a result, the reader can’t help but be touched by his rhetoric and his story.

Situation and Tone

The mood is at times troubling and even quite sad, because of the disease that is claiming Allie’s mind. However, there is a sense of victory, in spite of the inevitability of Allie’s future, because in the end, love wins, no matter how hard life tries to make it not so.

Survival

Noah survived his life by working at Goldman then he became a soldier. After getting rich, he renovate his house. Although he was busy but he did not forget to do his hobby such as writing and reading poetry, reading book, playing guitar, and etc. In his old, he also truggle to recall Allie’s memories who has Alzhaimer by reading her a notebook about their love in the last fourteen summer. He did it until he found a miracle in order to recover his wife. Allie also survived her life when she was young, she became a volunteer in world war and then met Lon who loved her but finally he did not get Allie’s love. In the last, Allie struggled to awake from her ill. But finally both of Allie and Noah were die as a true love couple.

The Author and its novel

This author is a well-known writer who often uses the themes of love, tragedy, and fate in his stories. He tried many careers in his life until he and his wife moved to the setting of The Notebook, New Bern, North Carolina. There he wrote The Notebook, his first major novel. This was followed by such famous works as Message in a Bottle and A Walk to Remember. Nicholas based this novel, The Notebook, on the lives of his wife’s beloved grandparents. He still lives in New Bern with his wife and five children.

This novel  is one of the romantic novel which have been exist in the world. Nicholas Sparks has written this novel in 1996 and published in eBook form on December 1999. About in 2003 and 2004 they have revise the new one in second edition.  The genre of this novel is romance fiction which composed by using a great imagination of the writer. The Notebook was also has copied into a movie with same title around 2004.  Most of the reader will say that this novel is excellent more than Romeo and Julliet although they have to read in thick book about four hundred and  ninety eight pages (in eBook version). The sacrifice of  love and true love will present in this book eventhough there are  a lot of culture which are not appropriate in the Eastern because this novel background comes from Western. In this novel consist of twelve chapters which is each chapter represent their story during they still alive.