The Last Song by: Nicholas Sparks
Nicholas Sparks is known for his stories of romance and issues that families deal with. His book, The Last Song is an emotional story about a girl around my age who deals with family and personal issues. He uses his passion to create a form of art that truly moves his readers. I was attracted to this book because I love to read and have read many of Spark’s novels. I was also interested in this particular story because it was going to be made into a film.
The story is about a teenage girl, Ronnie, and her younger brother, Jonah. Their parents are divorced and they live with their mom in New York City. The summer of her seventeenth birthday, Ronnie and her brother are sent to spend the summer with their dad in Wilmington, North Carolina. Ronnie has feelings of anger towards her father because she does not agree with the divorce and she does not want to spend the summer with him away from her friends. Before the divorce, she and her father shared a love of the piano, and after the divorce, because of her anger, she quit playing. Every night, her dad plays the piano, but Ronnie refuses to touch it until her relationship with her and her dad is healed. During the time she spends in Wilmington, she finds meaning in herself and learns to forgive and build a relationship with her father. She learns to appreciate all the things in her life even when she isn’t with her friends or in a familiar place. She grows a love for the beach, sea turtles, and eventually a boy.
The story is powerful because it is written from Ronnie’s point of view. As readers, we feel what Ronnie feels and get to experience her struggles. The tone of the story is interesting because it goes from being rebellious and hateful to loving and caring. Sparks changes tones through Ronnie as she begins to change from being angry to happy and appreciative. Sparks uses Ronnie’s little brother Jonah, as an example of acceptance and forgiveness. Jonah holds no grudge against his father and is open to spending time and rebuilding the lost relationship. On the other hand, Ronnie is not open to rebuilding the relationship and looks toward Jonah as a form of comfort.
The imagery in the story is dominant for me because I love the beach and the story is set at the beach. Sparks describes the little beach house in which Ronnie, Jonah and her father live in a way that makes me long for the summer so I too can spend time in a little beach house. Sparks talks about the warm sand and water and introduces Ronnie to sea turtles.
Another tool Sparks utilizes is symbolism. The story is very sad because Ronnie’s father is dying of cancer. Ronnie and Jonah do not know that he is dying, and that this is the last summer that they will get to spend with him, and to mend their relationships. Sparks connects life and death with sea turtle hatchlings and their father’s situation. He uses the hatchlings as a symbol of new life and new creation and as a way for Ronnie to appreciate life and the importance of relationships.
Throughout the story, Ronnie’s father is writing a song on his piano, entitled “The Last Song”. He really wants this song to be shared between him and Ronnie. Sparks uses the song as a symbol for the relationship between Ronnie and her father. The song symbolizes Ronnie’s final transformation as she finishes the song right after her father’s death. Her love for her father grows to a point where she realizes she has to finish the song for her father because he cannot. Ronnie exposes her talents as a way of revealing her feelings for her father. At the end of the story, she plays the song at his funeral and sun shines through the stain glass window that he and Jonah created together. This final symbol brings Ronnie, Jonah and their father finally together.
As readers, the story is very emotional and brings the strongest to tears. I cried my eyes out when I read the book. Art makes the viewer reach into him or herself and connect personally to what is being written. I feel that Sparks draws the reader in by getting them emotionally attached to the characters, the setting, and the plot of the story, and then shatters their world when Ronnie’s father dies. Because he is able to provoke these powerful emotions from the viewers, he is creating great art. Hence, a very successful author. A reason that this story became a best seller and a movie is because Sparks wrote such an enthralling tale that readers of all ages could easily understand, sympathize, and relate to.
Art is considered powerful because it has the ability to move people. I consider this art because Sparks moves the readers with this story. I highly recommend the book to anyone looking for good art.
Must art ALWAYS be emotionally overpowering in order to be good?
ReplyDeleteWell, I haven't read the book, but I didn't see most of the movie. (What did you think of the movie? Did Miley do an OK job?)
I do wonder about the use of sea turtles as a symbol of life. Since so many of the hatchlings don't survive -- many are lost even before they hatch and then again as they scuttle to the water for the first time -- this symbol seems to speak of the way life is, well, cheap. Or over-abundant and easily crushed. Obviously, the symbol has to fit naturally with the setting of the story, but I think this particular animal-symbol suggests other attitudes toward life and death than the ones we might want to explore in the context of a beloved family member's death from a terrible disease.