Message in a Bottle by Nicholas Sparks is a love story filled with anger, confusion, hope, and fear. The book begins when a Boston newspaper columnist and single mother, Theresa Osborne, finds a bottle that has washed up on shore. While looking at it more closely she realizes that there is a letter inside. It opens with, "My Dearest Catherine, I miss you my darling, as I always do, but today is particularly hard because the ocean has been singing to me, the song is that of our life together..." according to the character who signed the letter, Garrett, in Nicholas Sparks' book, Message in a Bottle. She shows her outgoing friend at the newspaper, Deanna, and they decide that a letter this beautiful should be published for everyone to read. Theresa recieves some calls and tips and eventually finds two more letters addressed to Catherine and signed by Garrett. She begins to wonder who these people are and wants to meet Garrett, the author of the letters. Theresa eventually tracks down someone named Garrett who fits the description based on the letters. He owns a scuba shop and is an avid salior, in a small town off the coast of North Carolina. As soon as she spots Garrett there is an instant spark between them. They go on a series of dates and have a whirlwind romance in the five days they spend together before she has to return to Boston. Before Theresa leaves, the couple decides they will try to continue to see each other. A few weeks later Theresa brings her tweleve-year-old son, Kevin, to meet Garrett. A few weeks after Theresa and Kevin leave North Carolina, Garrett comes to visit them and realizes he can't live without Theresa but he is still in love with his dead wife, Catherine. He could never live in a busy, loud town, but he doesn't feel right asking her to leave her job and uproot her son especially if he will always be in love with Catherine. The couple has an arguement about who should move and they end up breaking up. Later Garrett takes his dad's advice and decides he needs to get over Catherine because she would want him to be with someone else he loves. He goes out to sea to send her a final message and he is killed in a storm. Theresa recieves a message in a bottle he sent her before his trip out to sea. In this letter he explains a dream about Catherine in which he tells her how he is in love with Theresa but feels guilty about having to let Catherine go. In the dream Catherine tells Garrett, "Who do you think it was that brought the bottle to her?" (Sparks 362) As Thersa reads the letter she realizes that it was destiny for her and Garrett to be together but now it is too late. Overall the story deals with new love and making choices that could change someone's life forever.
1. Having a long-distance relationship is a problem for Theresa and Garrett as it is for many couples. How do you think couples should resolve the issue? How do you think Theresa and Garrett should have dealt with it?
2. There are a lot of dreams described in this book that lead the characters so realize something important. Have you ever had dreams that seem to mean something important in your own life?
3. At first Garrett doesn't think you can find true love more than once. Do you think this is true? Then he and Theresa are brought together by a message in a bottle. Do you think this is fate or coincidence?
10 comments:
1)As for as I've seen long distance relationships can either bring people closer than ever or tear them apart completely. If a couple is truly in love and wants to be together, they will make the distance work until they can be close again. If the distance is just causing stress and anger then maybe the couple should take a break or call it quits. For Theresa and Garrett, I think they should have talked after their fight to try and work things out. Garrett had issues he needed to deal with and he should have made Theresa aware so she could give him time to work it out but instead he went to sea and never came back.
2)I have never really had a dream that has been significant to something in my life, but I'm only eighteen so I hopefully have a lot longer to possibly have one.
3)I do not believe in true love but I do believe in love. I think love is very situational and can be found more than once. I do think Theresa finding the bottle was somewhat fate, Garret and her had great chemistry and they could find love in each other.
I agree with you when you say that long distance relationships can be good and bad. I also agree if the couple can't find a way to make it work then maybe they aren't meant to be together.
2) I think that our dreams are not random at all and do reflect our desires. We often keep things inside that we don't want to admit to others or even ourselves. I believe that sometimes our dreams make us aware of our inner struggles for the things that we want. Garrett was obviously struggling to let go of his wife, but he knew that he had very strong feelings for Theresa. His dream put everything into perspective for him, and he realized that he needed to move on and be happy. He knew that his wife would want him to be happy and not be alone just because she died. I believe that he just didn't want to come to terms with the situation or admit that.
1. For long distance relationships i have also seen them go 2 opposite ways. I have seen people grow closer, and I have seen couples completely unable to deal with it and it tears them apart. To resolve this issue, i think it depends on who they are and how they deal with distance. If a person is very "clingy" to their boyfriend/girlfriend, they might want to rethink moving out so far, and possibly find ways to talk to their other more often. However, if they believe the farther the distance the stronger the love, they may just have a closer emotional attachment to them, and are able to be close without physically being there.
Kelsey I agree with you. I think a lot of the times are dreams show us things that we might not be consciously thinking about and it is important to take into comsideration what they might mean.
1. Having a long-distance relationship is a problem a lot of couples deal with. Normally, couples are together but then go to different colleges. The only way long distance relationship work out is if you have a plan. After collge, one person could move in the the other and they stay together. In this case, I think Theresa and Garrett should have figured out a plan. They couldn't agree on who should move and that was their biggest mistake.
2. Yes, i've had dreams that seem to mean something important in my life.
3. I believe you can definitely find true love more than one. Given this, I think that you must be completely over your first love to love again. This is why Garrett didn't believe that he could ever find true love again, because he was still in love with his death wife. I think that it is fate that he and Theresa are brought together by a message in a bottle.
2) Dreaming is one of my favorite things to do. I can remember almost all of my dreams, and I've had quite a few that seem important in my life. My dreams have helped me realize and choose the right path. They've helped me come to terms with something or find the root of a problem. Honestly, without dreaming I might of made some mistakes in my life.
I have absolutely no faith in pro-longed Long distance relationships. I think that Theresa and Garrett should have had a little more understanding for each other in how hard it was for one another to drop everything and move. I think if they would have been civil instead of getting into an argument, a solution would have been found.
I haven't ever woken up from a dream with an answer or a guiding hand to lead me through a situation. I am not sure if people should put that much faith in their subconscious, but I have had dreams that were relevant to current life causing me to reevaluate a situation.
I think love can definitely be found more than once. Every relationship past and future in life is different, so it only makes sense that a different love can be found in each.
1) Long distance relationships are a struggle for many couples. It is difficult to be away from the person you love for long periods of time. It is also difficult to visit and see each other, because it is not always easy to drop everything and leave town. If two people are really in love, however, I think it is possible to make it work. There really is no easy solution to dealing with a long distance relationship, except for trusting the other person. If two people can truly trust each other, than I think they can make it work.
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