The Notebook Movie Analysis

Interpersonal Analysis of the Notebook

1. Interpersonal Movie analysis: “ The notebook” by Bethany Pendleton film and novel by Nicholas sparks

2. The characters Allie Hamilton: 17 year old daughter of wealthy, Anne and John Hamilton. Summer resident of Seabrook Island, North Carolina. Noah’s love interest in the film. Noah Calhoun: Hardworking country boy, native to Seabrook Island. Brooding romantic, gentleman immediately smitten with Allie Hamilton . Lon Hammond: Charming soldier who falls in love with Allie, later turning into her fiancé. He is a very loyal man who fights for Allie until the end. Martha Shaw: Neighborhood woman who falls for Noah and gets involved with him, whilst Noah is desperately trying to find ways to get Allie off from his mind in her absence. Anne Hamilton: Mother of Allie Hamilton. Very wealthy and protective of her daughter. John Hamilton: Allie’s father. More easygoing in comparison to Allie’s mother, yet still encourages a social class standard amongst their family. Frank Calhoun: Noah’s dad. Hardworking and warm-spirited native to Seabrook Island. Very supportive of Noah and Allie’s relationship. Fin: Noah’s best friend.

3. Film Plot Noah Calhoun is a mill worker, who diligently dedicates his time to work and helping his father, Frank, as much as he can to help make a living for them. His focus is soon disrupted by Allie Hamilton, a wealthy summer visitor, who immediately turns Noah smitten for her. Noah is devoted to getting Allie to like him, and won’t stop prying for her love until she agrees to go on a date with him. They go on the date, and begin to fall in love, which leads to a summer of passion and drama, causing Allie to leave early for school and Noah heartbroken with her absence. Because Noah is so entangled in Allie’s love, he continues to write letters to her every day for the next year, but little do either of them know that Allie’s mother, Anne, is secretly keeping the letters hostage, forcing Allie to try and move on with her life. Allie seemingly forgets about Noah, and gets engaged to Lon Hammond, an army man with a lot of charm. After time passes, Allie understands she is still very much in love with Noah, and travels back to Seabrook Island to look at the beloved house that Noah promised he would fix up for her someday, that she saw up for sale in the newspaper while trying on wedding gowns.. To both of their surprise, Noah is there working on the almost finished house, and Allie and him rekindle their love, causing her to completely rethink her current life and choices. Noah has a different life of his own now too with Martha Shaw, a neighborhood woman who Noah took interest in to get his mind off Allie in her absence. Noah and Allie revisit their love and Noah tells Allie of all the letters she wrote to her while she was away, which causes Allie to completely leave everything in her life behind to begin again with Noah. The story of their love is told through the voice of the elder version of Noah, in a nursing home. Noah reads to Allie the story of their love every single day, as Allie has Alzheimer’s and can’t remember who he is most of the time, nor the family they made together. Allie shows great interest in their story, even though she often forgets her favorite story is really an auto-biography of the life they made together.

4. NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION between noah and allie THE LOVESTORY THAT IS NOAH AND ALLIE STEMMED FROM OBVIOUS PHYSICAL ATTRACTION TOWARDS EACHOTHER, BUT LASTED DUE TO THEIR WILLINGNESS AND THE PLEASURE THEY GOT OUT OF HANGING OUT WITH EACHOTHER EVERY DAY . NOAH AND ALLIE WOULD SPEND EVERY DAY WITH ONE ANOTHER, WHICH SAYS MORE THAN JUST THEIR DAILY COMMUNICATION. Noah would also go through the extra effort of gifting allie flowers, several times throughout their life together, just to make her happy. This is a symbol of his love and willingness to make her a priority in his life. Another telling example of the importance of nonverbal communication amongst noah and allie , is the hard work noah puts into rebuilding the old house for allie , where they first lost their virginity to one another. This house is a symbol of their everlasting love and resilience through the distance that separated the m for years while they tried moving on with their lives. Noah writes allie 365 letters while she is away , hoping she will read them and understand how he feels about her deep down, regarldless of their fight they had before she left. This shows that he trusts her with his words, and values the ability to write to her and hiopefully get his words understood in times of trouble. When they reunite towards the end of the film, allie is unsure about leaving her life behind to start again with noah , until she is told that noah wrote all those letters to her and they were being hidden by her mother. The letters that were shared amongst the two of them mended their relationship fully, which is telling of the power of their nonverbal communication in the film. NOAH’S DEDICATION TO MAKING ALLIE REMEMBER THEIR TIME SPENT TOGETHER THROUGH STORY TELLING WAS ALSO A SYMBOL OF HOW MUCH HE CARED FOR HER AND HOW PASSIONATE HE WAS ABOUT HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH HER. One’s efforts in showing their love and respect without having to say it verbally, is a true sign of their level of respect for one’s feelings.

5. Verbal communication between noah and allie from the beginning of the film, Noah and allie have shown interest in eachother . Noah was very blunt with his feelings for allie , and insisted on taking her on a date. Although allie denied his plea at first, she later agreed to go on a date with him, which lead into them delving into each other's lives and falling in love. Noah and allie shared everything with eachother . They fought and played hard, and at the end of the day chose eachother over anything that challenged their relationship. Because of their honesty with one another, they both became extremely vulnerable to one another’s power over their feelings. Everything they said to eachother became much harder to digest if it was negative, which shows in the scenes where they fight, particularly in the beginning during the fight that separates them. They break up, but allie quickly wants to get together with him again and regrets what she says. This shows that the relationship they hold relies heavily on the stability of their communication with one another. Even when they’re fighting, they still love eachother and are looking for relief in each other's words.

6. Self-disclosure between lon and allie Lon and allie’s relationship they shared was entirely genuine, but there was no hiding the fact that allie still deeply cared for noah . During the scene where allie finds out that noah is still pining for her and re-building her dream home, she tells lon that she needs to go and settle things out before their marriage. Lon agrees to let her go, but feels as though there is more to the story. Allie eventually tells him that she still deeply cares for noah , and her time away was spent rekindling with noah . Allie disclosed this information with lon , and he took it well. You could tell that he deeply cared for allie , and just wanted her to be happy in the end, even if that meant losing her. Allie trusted him to handle the situation well, and felt deep remorse for hurting him. This shows that their relationship was healthy enough to disclose the hard parts to one another, even if that meant they wouldn’t end up together in the end.

7. Succesful relationship Stages: allie and gus when we first meet fin, he comes across as a flirtatious boy, like noah , who is looking for a date on the weekend. We see him immediately take a liking to allie’s friend, which causes allie to feel almost immediate trust with him before she even finds out he is noah’s best friend. The night that allie and noah lose their virginity in the old house that they will one day live in, fin bursts in and tells them that their town is looking for them, before they both get in trouble. This is where the trust keeps building amongst the duo. We see allie and fin’s acquaintance stage flourish into a friendly relationship when allie rushes to the mill to tell noah goodbye. Noah isn’t there at the time, so allie trusts him to give noah the message that she loves him. Noah succesfully recieves the message from fin, which then prompts him to write allie 365 letters that summer. One could argue that fin played a vital role in the building of allie and noah’s relationship.

8. Disconfirming messages between noah and john and anne hamilton : Noah comes from a poor family, whom work hard for what they have. Allie was born into a very wealthy family which held the standard of marrying into the same class as you were born. We see anne and john hamilton’s distaste with noah and allie’s relationship when they come home late from hanging out at the abandoned house. Allie’s parents tell noah to go outside while they discipline allie . Anne calls noah trash and threatens allie telling her she has to break up with noah or else it would lead to her becoming pregnant or heartbroken. In the scene where they are all eating dinner with allie’s family, allie’s parents grill noah on his plans for his future. Noah explains he has no plans on going to college and that he would rather stay home and make money which seals the idea for them that noah and allie aren’t meant to be.

9. Confirming communication amongst noah , allie , and noah’s father: Frank calhoun is a true gentleman who values his family and works hard for what he has. When frank learns of noah’s new relationship with allie , he immediately invites allie inside for ‘breakfast for dinner’, and they even end up all dancing later that night. This shows that he is confident that noah and allie are sincere, and supports their feelings. Even though one might assume allie would be judging of noah and his situation compared to hers, frank calhoun shows nothing but love to allie and noah in their endeavors together .

10. Empathy in noah and martha shaw’s relationship: Although noah and martha shared a sincere relationship in allie’s time away, noah knew all along that their relationship wasn’t meant to last. Martha was in love with noah , whilst allie was still on his mind, which wasn’t fair for her to endure—especially upon meeting allie face to face after noah and her rekindled. Even though martha has every right to be mad at noah for using her in a way, she treats both of them with respect and even befriends allie . She truly understood their relationship, and all that noah was going through in allie’s absence. Empathy was essential for all character’s in this situation, as they were all involved in their own personal relationships with different people, but overcame it with nothing but respect and understanding in the end for one another.

11. my communication style compared to noah and allie’s I really enjoyed reviewing this film and analyzing the scenes in which held interpersonal communication significance. I relate closely to the relationship that noah and allie hold, especially their unique way of valuing nonverbal communication. They make sure the other person feels wanted and secure just by their actions towards each other, which is applicable to my current relationship. I value actions over words, and believe that the key to a lasting relationship is through the efforts of the unspoken. Not only do I relate to noah and allie’s communication style, but I think it’s entirely accurate and applicable to many relationships today. Although one of a kind, their relationship is real and raw. They fight for each other and don’t hold anything back. Sometimes they say too much and sometimes they say too little, but at the end of the day their relationship can remind us all that words only go so far. Actions define true intentions and are telling of your understanding of the other person interpersonally.