Pop Culture #3

"The Notebook"

Oh, The Notebook, one of the all time favorites of many young girls, and as I've discovered, many boys as well. I too, am a big fan of the movie. I've heard time and time again, "I want a relationship just like Noah and Allie." (The two main characters.) However, personally I myself, have never wanted their relationship. Not neccessarily that it was a bad one, but just the mere fact of the heartache the two face. From the humorous rejection Noah faces in the beginning of the story upon asking the rich, young Allie for just one date, to the end of the summer when Allie's parents drag her

far away from her beloved Noah. Not to mention the constant fighting the two endure. It seems as if they are constantly arguing throughout the movie, only to be brought back together with their passionate emotions. They are always caught up in the moment, going to screaming at each other one minute, to wrapped up in each other making up the next.

 

 

 

Don't get me wrong, I believe the two did have a genuine love for each other, and it's proven at the end of the movie, as we see the much older, Noah and Allie, as Noah patiently reads to her everyday their own love story to remind her of who he is. This movie has several similarities to the movie The Vow; Something happens to the woman and they experience some type of memory loss, as the man stays faithful to her, displayng his love through a devoted and super sweet way.

 

We also see Noah, experience frustrations, disappointments and heart break just as Leo did. The movie ends though with of course, a happily ever after ending. Allie ends up remembering who Noah is and the two crawl into bed together at the nursing home, holding each other in their arms, where later in the morning the nurses find them peacefully dead.

 

As much as I love this movie and its story line, as an extremely well known and treasured movie, the expectations of love and realtionships has some misleading lessons.

 

For example, in the earlier part of the movie, as the young Allie and Noah fall madly in love, not long after being together, (just the summertime) the two have sexual relations. Long before ever marrying, this occurs several times. This portrays yet again, the lack of commitment and importance of purity until marriage to not only young girls, but boys as well. 

 

Later in the movie, after Allie has moved off she falls in love with another man and eventually becomes engaged to him. For a long time, things are going great with them. As for Noah, he is still broken hearted from his loss of Allie, but yet he has a mistress who comes over on certain nights, and it is evident he has no true feelings for this woman, and she knows it, yet still continues to come to his service. However, after seeing Noah's name in the paper due to the house he restored that had originally meant to be lived in by him and Allie, Allie's curiousity gets the best of her and she goes to visit Noah, without telling her fiance.

 

Upon seeing Noah for the first time in a very long time, the two once again get caught up in the moment and let their emotions get the best of him and they find themselves wrapped up in bed, living life as if nothing had ever gone wrong between them. Soon her fiance finds out, and although it ends happily for Noah and Allie, the idea that it's okay to have those sexual relations, and have an affair with another man, simply because you aren't in love with your current significant other, is not morally correct, nor is it right to do that to people.

 

Once again, a wonderful love story, just with a slight misinterpretation of what love really is.