Hayley

​​ ​  Dear John  by:Nicholas Sparks jkf "  "Beautifully moving...Has tremendous emotional depth, revealing the true meaning of unconditional love." -Romantic Times BOOKreviews Magazine " For Sparks, weighty matters of the day remain set pieces, furniture upond which to hang timeless tales of chaste longing and harsh fate." -Washington Post Book World

"Brims with longing" -Publishers Weekly media type="youtube" key="r0fq5dd0C60" height="295" width="480" //"What does it mean to truly love another?" -John Tyree//

//"I've always loved full moons. Ever since I was a kid. I liked to think they were an omen of sorts. I wanted to believe that they portended good things. Like if I was making a mistake, I would have a chance to start over." -Savannah Curtis//

//"...So this is what I want you to do. Wherever you are and no matter what is going on in your life, on the night of the first full moon- like it was the first time we met- I want you to find it in the nighttime sky. I want you to think about me and the week we shared, because wherever I am and no matter what's going on in my life, that's exactly what I'll be doing." -Savannah Curtis.

media type="youtube" key="uLw3NYydHNU" height="344" width="425" //

Memorable passages: 1. I chose the first quote, "What does it mean to truly love another", because I think is probably one of the most important quotes of the ones I chose. It was said right in the beginning, foreboding what was coming. I also think it is something John questions throughout the whole book without really saying that he's asking himself what it means to truly love another. To be completely honest, I think Savannah should ask herself that question because it seemed like she said she truly did love John, but she wouldn't even wait for him to get out of the war before falling in love with someone else. I think that this quote was also kind of asking if she really did truly love him, or if it wasn't as real as they both thought it was. With a question like that, you can't help but form your own opinions, and I think that John truly did love Savannah with everything he had beause he was willing to give her up to Tim, and save Tim's life with his father's coins. And at the end of the book when Savannah looks at the moon you know that she does still love him, the timing just didn't work out. I think this quote pretty much sums up the whole book.

2. I chose the second quote because it helps explain why they chose the full moon as a reminder of each other. I think it really helped John understand himself better, and give himself a second chance with his life and Savannah. I think Savannah was trying to show she had a lot of faith, and she thinks everyone should believe in something-from God to the moon. As long as you have something to depend on, you will always have a chance to start over because if you have something to depend on, you give yourself a second chance. I think the moon was a big symbol in this book because it was kind of like saying they both knew that their relationship was like the moon. It was dependable, an omen of sorts, a chance, and big, and it's constantly there (even though they aren't always together.)

3. The last quote kind of ties in with my second quote. It also forebodes and foreshadows a lot. In the end of the book, I learned that Savannah wasn't as big of a liar as I had thought, because John sees her go out to look at the moon and he knows she still remembers. I like to think that they chose the moon beacuse it will always be there; kind of like their love will last as long as the moon does (in a way). It's kind of ironic that Savannah told this to John, because in the end she was the one who ended things, and seemed to forget everything that they had shared. It seems like since she's the one who chose the moon, and was worried he would forget about her and the love they had, she wouldn't have been the one to say she'd fallen in love with someone else and she couldn't stay with John when he was in Afghanistan. Anyway, this quote is important to the story beacuse throughout the entire book they mention the moon and how he will always think of the first week they shared, and how much Savannah changed his life. And at the end of the book, we realize Savannah will too.

Other Pictures and Videos: 1. I chose the picture of the moon because it was a symbol of their love. Savannah chose the moon because it will last forever, and it was a full moon on the first night they met. I think she also chose it because for her it has always portended good things, so she felt that choosing the moon would be like saying the relationship would always be good. And since the relationsihp is such a long distance one, she knew the moon was something they would both see, so it would be like they were together. I think they both knew that their love had a "one in a million chance", kind of like someone being able to walk on the moon was, but they knew it could be done. The full moon is a good symbol from the book because it was so similar to they're love and themselves. Like I said before, the moon is dependable, a chance to start over, big, constantly there, and it's kind of like an omen of sorts, and all of these things seemed to be what their relationship was based off of.

2. I chose the song Breathe by Taylor Swift because it describes the whole book. On the last day that John saw Savannah when he was driving away he saw her waving in his rearview mirror. He knew he wanted to turn back, but he couldn't because they'd each chosen different paths. John chose to defend his country, and Savannah chose to give up on true love and settled for her best friend. This song describes their feelings through the whole book. John and Savannah didn't really think it would end the way it did, and they didn't want the other to leave. The line 'I don't know what to be without you around' describes how they both feel like the other completed the other one. And the chorus describes why John left. And the line 'never wanted this, never wanted to see you hurt' I think describes how Savannah feels about what she did to John. When Taylor says "No one here to save me" it explains that they both felt like the other one had saved them. When she talks about how she feels like she just lost a friend and it's not easy for her, it's just another way to say how they felt after John left that night after he came to her house after his dad died. Even when Taylor is repeating I'm sorry it fits with how they both felt about the ending. Plus, John doesn't want to have to leave Savannah alone, and he never wanted it to end like it did, but he knew he had to "breathe without her" even though he couldn't. All in all, this song describes the whole book.

3. I chose the trailer for Dear John because it really helped me be able to picture the whole thing. It was so much easier to picture what John, Savannah, Tim, John's dad, and the other characters looked like and how they sounded. Seeing the trailer of a book makes it so much easier to read a story that's told from the character's point of view when you know how they talk and how they would deliver the dialogue. I can't really explain it, but It made the whole book seem a lot more real, like since I knew what the people looked like and talked like they really were real people. The trailer captured all of the main parts of the relationship without giving a lot away. Even the song in the trailer does a nice job of relating to the storyline and how they both feel when John's overseas in Germany. This video just does a great job of capturing all of the things that made this book one of the best I've ever read.

4. I chose the picture of someone writing a dear John letter because it was exactly how I pictured Savannah to do. That picture sums up the whole book because the only way they could ever try to make their relationship work was through writing letters. Ultimately, the last letter Savannah wrote pretty much was the whole book. From the very beginning you knew something happened and that she had ended it, and he was never going to let her go completely. I'm pretty sure that the person who took the picture was trying to make it seem like an actual Dear John letter, which also fits with the book because that's what Savannah sent to him. The letters were what made this book seem so real and true about their relationship. In the letters, John and Savannah were both able to tell their true feelings through the letters and that was what kept them going. So the reason I chose the picture of someone writing a letter, was because it really is how I pictured Savannah to look while she was writing a letter to John, and the letters were their whole relationship, which was what a lot of the book was about.