Ew, Romance novels. Something I would never pick up if it wasn’t for this class. Blah. Ugh. I don’t want to read about love and relationships, I want to read about death and despair. But, I want to get the most out of this class, and reading something I usually wouldn’t is part of the learning process. So I went on Google and searched, ‘Romances for Grown Men’. I didn’t want some teenage petty love story (even though that’s what I ended up picking); I wanted something fierce and riveting. I picked A Walk to Remember. I knew that people loved the movie and that it has made many a female cry their eyes out. I figured it couldn’t be that bad. I had no idea what it was about.
The first thing I noticed was that this text was easy to read. None of the vocabulary used was foreign to me and the characters did happen to be in high school (teenage audience). I thought this was going to be some sappy bullshit love story about teens fighting over one another, but I kept on reading anyway because it was so easy. The main character, Landon, a senior in high school, is indecisive and gets influenced by his friends a lot, especially when it came to girls. This reminded me a lot of myself; even though my friends turned out to be drug addicts and thankfully I wasn’t influenced that much. Landon comes from a rich family, but his father is a politician and isn’t around at all. Jaime Sullivan, also a senior, comes from a poor family. Her father is the town minister and doesn’t like Landon’s family. Jaime is the kindest person to ever walk the Earth. She comes off as a resurrected, female Jesus. She walks around with a bible and says everything is, ‘In the Lord’s plan’. All she does is help people and be kind no matter what. It was annoying. Landon had chosen a Drama class, thinking he could take it easy, but was the only male suitable to play the masculine lead role. Jaime was the lead female. Landon doesn’t like Jaime. He dislikes her mundane style and perpetual kindness. This is where Conventional Form comes into play:
-Recurrent Situation: Landon encounters Jaime many times outside of practicing for the play. He waits to long to find a homecoming date and resorts to asking Jaime to the dance. Jaime says she will go but, “You have to promise that you won’t fall in love with me.” Landon laughs it off. Landon walks Jaime home from class many times throughout the story. Her father is very disapproving and Landon doesn’t like doing it much either but does it because it feels ‘right’. Landon helps Jaime with orphans at the orphanage, because it felt ’right’ and because Jaime didn’t drive and was trying to do so much on her own. He tells himself he is doing the ‘right thing’ when he is helping Jaime. Deep down he knows it feels good.
-Substantive and Stylistic features: Landon repeats his dismay about doing these things with Jaime many times throughout the book, mostly to himself. Even when Landon is mean to Jaime she is so nice to him he regrets it and feels bad about it. Every time he is with her and witnesses the kind acts she does, he unconscientiously falls a little more in love with her. In one scene, Landon is angry about having to do the play, angry that he is becoming closer to Jaime, and says, “Don’t you get it?” I said, exasperated. “I’m not nervous about the play; I just don’t want to be here. I don’t want to walk you home, I don’t want my friends to keep talking about me, and I don’t want to spend time with you. You keep acting like we’re friends, but we’re not. We’re not anything.” Jaime says ‘I see’ and thanks Landon for walking her home, making him feel bad. He is always questioning his attraction towards Jaime and her kindness.
-Organizing Principle: The organizing principle is that Hegbert (Jaime’s father), strongly dislikes Landon even thought he is becoming friends with Jaime and is treating her kindly. There is history between the two families but Hegbert should be able to get over it. Landon is never allowed to get too close to Jaime. When he finally falls in love with her we learn why. Jaime has leukemia and was given 7 months to live at the beginning of the school year. Landon confesses his love in January. Jaime is going to die. This organizes everything else into a giant cloud of sympathy and sadness that I felt as a read the rest of the story. Everything was so predictable. You knew Landon was going to fall in love with Jaime, knew he was going to use his own money to buy the orphans presents, knew he was going to nail his lines in the play for Jaime. I even knew she was going to die. It was all so predictable, and even a little cliché. But that was the power in it all. I knew these things were going to happen but I was hoping that they wouldn’t happen. Then it did happen, my predictions were confirmed, but I didn’t want to be right. I knew Landon would marry Jaime, because that’s all she wanted in life, and that she would die after anyway. I didn’t want it to happen. I wanted some miracle to come about, but none did. I guess that was what organized the story.
To sum everything up: A stubborn, slightly popular boy unintentionally falls in love with the bible freak nice girl, who happens to have leukemia and will eventually die. He suffers through this by loving her until the very end, and still loves her today. I remember crying before she even told Landon she had leukemia, because I saw it coming. I cried even more when she confirmed it and again during their sad wedding. I felt like a pussy, I am a man, this was a story; I’d been through worse in real life. But part of me knew it was alright to cry, because it was humane.
The first thing I noticed was that this text was easy to read. None of the vocabulary used was foreign to me and the characters did happen to be in high school (teenage audience). I thought this was going to be some sappy bullshit love story about teens fighting over one another, but I kept on reading anyway because it was so easy. The main character, Landon, a senior in high school, is indecisive and gets influenced by his friends a lot, especially when it came to girls. This reminded me a lot of myself; even though my friends turned out to be drug addicts and thankfully I wasn’t influenced that much. Landon comes from a rich family, but his father is a politician and isn’t around at all. Jaime Sullivan, also a senior, comes from a poor family. Her father is the town minister and doesn’t like Landon’s family. Jaime is the kindest person to ever walk the Earth. She comes off as a resurrected, female Jesus. She walks around with a bible and says everything is, ‘In the Lord’s plan’. All she does is help people and be kind no matter what. It was annoying. Landon had chosen a Drama class, thinking he could take it easy, but was the only male suitable to play the masculine lead role. Jaime was the lead female. Landon doesn’t like Jaime. He dislikes her mundane style and perpetual kindness. This is where Conventional Form comes into play:
-Recurrent Situation: Landon encounters Jaime many times outside of practicing for the play. He waits to long to find a homecoming date and resorts to asking Jaime to the dance. Jaime says she will go but, “You have to promise that you won’t fall in love with me.” Landon laughs it off. Landon walks Jaime home from class many times throughout the story. Her father is very disapproving and Landon doesn’t like doing it much either but does it because it feels ‘right’. Landon helps Jaime with orphans at the orphanage, because it felt ’right’ and because Jaime didn’t drive and was trying to do so much on her own. He tells himself he is doing the ‘right thing’ when he is helping Jaime. Deep down he knows it feels good.
-Substantive and Stylistic features: Landon repeats his dismay about doing these things with Jaime many times throughout the book, mostly to himself. Even when Landon is mean to Jaime she is so nice to him he regrets it and feels bad about it. Every time he is with her and witnesses the kind acts she does, he unconscientiously falls a little more in love with her. In one scene, Landon is angry about having to do the play, angry that he is becoming closer to Jaime, and says, “Don’t you get it?” I said, exasperated. “I’m not nervous about the play; I just don’t want to be here. I don’t want to walk you home, I don’t want my friends to keep talking about me, and I don’t want to spend time with you. You keep acting like we’re friends, but we’re not. We’re not anything.” Jaime says ‘I see’ and thanks Landon for walking her home, making him feel bad. He is always questioning his attraction towards Jaime and her kindness.
-Organizing Principle: The organizing principle is that Hegbert (Jaime’s father), strongly dislikes Landon even thought he is becoming friends with Jaime and is treating her kindly. There is history between the two families but Hegbert should be able to get over it. Landon is never allowed to get too close to Jaime. When he finally falls in love with her we learn why. Jaime has leukemia and was given 7 months to live at the beginning of the school year. Landon confesses his love in January. Jaime is going to die. This organizes everything else into a giant cloud of sympathy and sadness that I felt as a read the rest of the story. Everything was so predictable. You knew Landon was going to fall in love with Jaime, knew he was going to use his own money to buy the orphans presents, knew he was going to nail his lines in the play for Jaime. I even knew she was going to die. It was all so predictable, and even a little cliché. But that was the power in it all. I knew these things were going to happen but I was hoping that they wouldn’t happen. Then it did happen, my predictions were confirmed, but I didn’t want to be right. I knew Landon would marry Jaime, because that’s all she wanted in life, and that she would die after anyway. I didn’t want it to happen. I wanted some miracle to come about, but none did. I guess that was what organized the story.
To sum everything up: A stubborn, slightly popular boy unintentionally falls in love with the bible freak nice girl, who happens to have leukemia and will eventually die. He suffers through this by loving her until the very end, and still loves her today. I remember crying before she even told Landon she had leukemia, because I saw it coming. I cried even more when she confirmed it and again during their sad wedding. I felt like a pussy, I am a man, this was a story; I’d been through worse in real life. But part of me knew it was alright to cry, because it was humane.