Literature Analysis #1 A Bend in the Road by Nicholas Sparks

1. The book starts off with Miles (the main character) smoking and grieving for his wife who was killed two years ago in a hit and run car accident. Johan (miles son) later brings him a note to talk to his 1st grade teacher Sarah Andrews. Sarah and miles being going on dates and seeing each other more often, This would be the exposition of the story because it is leading up to the events yet to happen. Through out the exposition there are chapters were an anonymous character is talking about how guilty he feels for getting in the "accident" with Miles wife. This is the highest point of the story because you are trying to figure out who this character is that is responsible for so much pain for Miles. Eventually you find out who is responsible for the " accident" which is the climax of the story because the story has reached its turning point. After Miles finds out about who hit his wife he is furious and does many things to try to figure things out on what he should do about the situation. While Miles is figuring this out this is considered the falling action since all the events of the story are coming to an end and you know almost everything. The resolution is really shocking and his decisions made about the car accident are revealed and the story comes to a close.

2. The theme of A Bend in the Road is grief. Overall there are many themes in the romantic novel but the one that stuck with me  most is the one about grief. Almost every character in the book was grieving for something and they all did it in many different ways. The book is meant to portray that even though we grieve in different ways we should always weigh the consequences of certain actions before we go about fulfilling them. Another theme would be about forgiveness, Miles learns to forgive the man who hits Missy with the car because he understands the new reasoning's behind how it happened. The readers are supposed to learn that forgiving people is important no matter what they did because you cant move on in life unless you forgive.

3. Nicholas Sparks's tone changes through out the novel. The first tone I caught was of sympathy  “It's okay to be sad. Everyone gets sad now and then. Even me.” This quote is when Miles is taking to his son about his mothers death, every time he talks to him about her the tone becomes very sympathetic because you feel bad for the situation they are in.
"I couldn't escape the image of Missy Ryan, her eyes focused on nothing, and because of that, I became someone I'd never known before." This quote is from the person who hit Miles wife in the car accident. He throughout the book is saying things that reference back to that night that he killed her, and feels terrible for doing it.
Another tone in the book is mysterious. "There are some simple truths in life, and this is one of them: Whenever someone dies young and tragically, there's always interest in the story, especially in a small town, where everyone seems to know each other." I consider this part of a mysterious tone because the author is mentioning the fact that the person who hit Missy is most likely someone who Miles knows. Throughout the book characters are talking about who they think did it, and because it is such a small town everyone is curious who actually did the crime.

4. -Imagery: " Hours passed. Dark now. Outside the window, the winter sky was black and ominous." page 334 Imagery is used in this novel to help describe many events that occur, it helps bring the reader to visualize the event clearly.
-Symbolism: " He created a file, one concerning Missy's death, one that he created after her funeral to remind him of the work he still had to do." page 10  The file Miles has represents how he never wants to give up the past. He continuously keeps going back to the night Missy died and rehashing the event, in hope that he will find out who killed her.
-Flashback: " I remember turning the radio on and fiddling with the dial, but I didn't really take my eyes off the road, my mind was on the drive after that." page 187 This is when the man driving is thinking back to the night he hit Missy.
-Foreshadowing : "Every now and then people say they see the two candles burning in the window seal which is the symbol of love for Kathryn and Harris presser, whether or not you two will see the candles depends on your feelings for each other. " page 155 This is foreshadowing because at the end of the book Miles puts two candles in Sarah's windows as a sign that he is sorry and still loves her.
-Similes: " Her hair caught fragments of light and cast them off like a halo." page 161 Similes are used throughout the story to help the reader visualize and think about certain things.
-Conflict: the conflict isn't just the difficulties Miles has in trying to find who killed his wife, but also he comes to a cross roads after he finds out who did it and has a internal conflict with himself over the matter. "  It was time to let it go, I have already lost two years of my life, and couldn't see the point in prolonging it anymore. Once I realized that.. I don't know.. it just seemed like it was the only right thing I could do." page 356
-Setting: The setting of the story New Bern, North Carolina is a small town. This adds to the plot a lot because everyone knows all the secrets and news about every ones lives. This is found in the beginning of the book as well as various moments throughout the book like page 40.
-Characterization: The characters are very well rounded and different. Each character is unique and they each have different personalities. Miles is a stern father but soft when it comes to everything else as seen on pages 2-5. Sarah is a sweet 1st grade teacher who wants the best for each of her students as developed in the parent teacher conference pages 38-43. Johan is a child who is interested in many aspects of life, seen throughout the whole novel.
-Metaphor: " she was acting like the devils advocate about the situation." This is Miles trying to figure out why Sarah isn't taking his side when he was action irrationally, even though he was the irrational one he thought that she was being crazy and not listening to him.
- Irony: The whole ending of the book is ironic, The man who killed Miles wife is the brother of the woman Miles is now in love with. The irony in this is that Miles wanted the killer and the killers family to suffer in the way that he had to suffer, but in the end that's not what he winds up deciding because overall he loves Sarah more then he hates the fact that her brother killed his wife. You are clued into this twist in the plot around pages 288 to the end of the book page 368.