A Walk to Remember Essay

A Walk To Remember A Walk To Remember by Nicholas Sparks uses a numerous amount literary elements to create this heart throbbing phenomenon. Sparks uses foreshadowing to create clues to what will happen later on in the novel. â€Å"Jamie, sometimes in life there are times when we will laugh and other times when we will cry† (Sparks 77). Landon Carter the main character says this to Jamie foreshadowing the loving relationship that will develop between the two. Irony took part in this book as well. Landon tells Jamie, â€Å"Jamie, I promise I will not fall in love with you. Now will you go to homecoming with me? † (Sparks 44). It’s quite ironic that he mentions that to Jamie because that’s exactly what he ends up doing. â€Å"As I watched the snow melt, and the fresh essence of spring coming through the air, i realized the most precious thing of all†¦ life† (Sparks 278). Landon realizes that life goes on, even during the coldest times. â€Å"†¦ Casting a prism of light across the slowly darkening water, splitting itself in to a thousand different parts, each more beautiful than the last† (Sparks 216). Landon describes this breath taking sunset at the lake in a perfect sequence of words using imagery. This next quote describes Landon’s feelings of fear and hurt he has when he finds out about Jamie’s leukemia. He describes himself as, â€Å"The blood drained from my face and a sheet of dizzying images fluttered through my mind† (Sparks 292). 57 year old Landon Carter narrates the past of his 17 year old self, from when his life changed drastically. The antagonist and the protagonist of the story is Landon himself. At 17 he was at war with himself to find out who he really was, and who he really wanted to be. This conflict is resolved when Landon if forced to participate in a Christmas play at the town church where his character plays the conductor of an orchestra who is looking for this mystery, music making, girl with the voice of an angel. That girl, is Jamie, the pastors daughter. During there rehearsals Landon finds himself infatuated with Jamie. Jamie brings a whole new light and perspective to Landon’s life. When Landon confesses his love for Jamie, Jamie gets upset because she has to tell him she is sick with leukemia and she has less than a year to live. Landon is angry that their time together is limited, but he still finds himself falling for her more and more everyday. Landon Carter is the popular punk in High School. His foolish ways face him with consequences of an â€Å"after school† activity in a play at the local church. Out first Landon acts stubborn and unreliable. Of course when he lays eyes on Jamie he has need to know her more. A need to get inside her life. All Landon wants is to find out who he really is, to uncover his purpose. When he wasn’t looking, that purpose found him in the most peculiar place of all, inside Jamie’s heart. In A Walk To Remember by Nicholas Sparks, it tells a story about a 17 year old who searches for his purpose, and ends up finding love. This romance is a must read. It starts off a little slow but once it gets going, you will not want to put the book down. Not only is it about love but it is also a tragedy. It’s a book that gives you hope in life, puts tears in your eyes, and a smile on your face. A Walk To Remember is a heart wrenching novel! Landon Carter can be described as a perfect character. Someone who was unreliable, a punk, and then turns out to be the most amazing guy ever. A Walk to Remember Essay When I was 17, my life changed forever. I’m 57 years old, but even now I can remember everything from that year, down to the smallest details. I relieve that year often in my mind, bringing it back to life, and I realize that when I do, I feel a strange combination of joy and sadness†¦. this is my story; I promise to leave nothing out. First you will smile, then you will cry—don’t say you haven’t been warned. ’’ Written by an international bestselling author and my personal favorite Nicholas sparks, comes a tale of true love, first love and everlasting love that you will never forget! A walk to remember’ is most definitely my favorite book of all time. The tale begins with a 57 year old Landon Carter, looking back at the year of 1958 set in, North Carolina. He remembers every single thing in that year. From the smell of both the sea and lilacs to the girl that changed everything in his life forever. Landon had already dated a girl or two. He even swore that he had once been in love. Certainly the last person in town he thought he’d fall for was Jamie Sullivan, the daughter of the town’s Baptist minister. A quiet girl who always carried a Bible with her schoolbooks, Jamie seemed content living in a world apart from the other teens. She took care of her widowed father, rescued hurt animals, and helped out at the local orphanage. Out of guilt and a bizarre twist of fate, Landon asks Jamie to the school dance and ends up volunteering to help her in the town church’s Christmas play. Over time, they become close friends, they share their dreams and aspirations with each other and strangely enough Jamie nurtured a very simple dream to get married in a church full of people where she could walk the aisle. As time passes, Jamie shows Landon how deep the human soul can be, opening his eyes to the power of undying faith and the strength of compassion and love. As their kinship grows, Jamie reveals that she has leukemia, a type of cancer, and her health begins to deteriorate. This totally breaks Landon and he goes frantic not knowing what to do. He finally turns to the bible that Jamie had given him. He looks for answers and finally realizes that his loves Jamie too much to let her dreams slip away. He knows what to do when he reads the following passage in the bible. â€Å"I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of you love by comparing it to the earnestness of others. † He asks Jamie to marry him. The most memorable part of the book is the wedding ceremony when Jamie gets up from her wheelchair and calls upon all of her remaining strength to walk down the aisle to stand beside Landon. It was as Landon recalls the most difficult walk anyone ever had to make. It was in every way a walk to remember. Soon enough Jamie passes away. But she doesn’t leave before teaching Landon the depths of the human heart; she teaches him the power of forgiveness. She was an angel in Landon’s eyes, who brought him and his father together and she taught him to believe in miracles. A walk to remember was published by grand central publishing in October 1999. It is a hardcover paperback consisting of 250 pages. A walk to remember is an entirely a work of fiction. Romantic drama is the genre of the book. This book is listed as no 12 on the list of 1999 best seller. A walk to remember, received mixed reviews from all over the world. 9% of the reviews being positive, there were some who didn’t share the same opinion as the rest of those who consider the book as unforgettable. while ‘ African sun times’ rates the movies as ‘ a remarkable love story that, like its predecessors will touch the hearts of readers everywhere’, Clarissa Cruz of ‘entertainment weekly’ pans the novel saying that its cliche riddled pros and twists can be predicted after skimming the prologue. A walk to remember is my favorite book because of the fact that it touched me so deeply. It was the first and only book that ever made me cry. It is a sweet, simple, and beautiful story of how love can lead to miracles. Some may consider it sappy, but that’s just how Mr. Sparks wanted it to be. It wasn’t a cheesy ending where Jamie miraculously recovers from cancer. Jamie teaches Landon forgiveness, she teaches him to pray, she teaches him love. There is a part in the book where Landon asks Jamie whether, she’s lost her faith. When she replies no, he asks her, whether it is because she thinks she will get better. And Jamie replies ‘no, it’s because it’s the only thing I have left’. And that’s what I learn from the book. Faith! Faith in god, faith in the fact that things will get better someday, faith that I will be a better person than I am today, faith that I’ll see my dreams come true. And finally I would like to conclude with a passage from the bible that Landon considered Jamie to be as the truest essence of its description. ‘Love is always patient and kind It is never boastful or conceited. Love takes no pleasure in other peoples pain. But delight in truth. It is always ready to trust, to hope and to endure whatever comes† A Walk to Remember Essay If I were diagnosed with a terminal illness, I would probably change a lot of things in my life. The majority of people don’t take risks or make rash decisions on a daily basis because they know it will impact them the next day. There are so many sayings like ‘live in the present’ ‘live like there’s no tomorrow’ etc, but the problem is that for most people there IS a tomorrow. I’m not saying it’s bad to think about what you do before you do it by means though. In fact, I am a strong believer in thinking things out first- even to a fault sometimes-. So, if I were to be diagnosed with 6 months to live, that would most likely be the first thing I would change. I’m sure it would be crazily hard for my family and I if I had a terminal illness and I’m sure we would go through all 5 of the stages, but I don’t think it would hit us as hard as most. My family and I are strong Christian believers so we all know what will happen to us after we pass on. I believe that the stages of denial and bargaining would go over more smoothly with me than others I know. If I were diagnosed I have I feeling I would accept it easier than expected due to my beliefs and upbringing. In the movie â€Å"A Walk to Remember† Jamie and Landon go through the stages together, but in very different ways. Jamie has a much easier time with it than Landon because she knows what will happen to her when she dies while Landon had very undecided thoughts on the afterlife. Eventually after going through all the stages though, Landon’s view on life and death changed dramatically. He realized that life was too precious to worry about what people think about you and he learned to believe in himself. He turned into a better person overall and learned that everyday is a blessing. Because of Jamie’s faith in him, Landon starts to realize his potential; he applied for medical school and was accepted and started setting goals for his life. For Jamie on the other hand, she learns not to be afraid to fall in love. That even though she doesn’t have long to live; she shouldn’t deny herself some of the most important things in life. Her priorities changed to making sure she lived out her life as much she could with Landon. While Landon’s priorities changed in many aspects. He no longer cared what other people thought about him as Jamie became his main focus. When he decided to make all of Jamie’s dreams come true, he showed how selfless he was becoming and how his view on life and the people around him was changing. So all in all if I were told I had 6 months left to live, I would try and accept it as quickly as possible. Personally, I would be mad with myself if I wasted time being depressed while I could’ve been living my life. I know in reality I’m sure I would be depressed for at least a little bit of time, but I would try to get over that as quickly as possible so I could make my last 6 months the best they could be!