A Walk to Remember (80-160)

Summary


Landon begins practicing for the role of Tom Thornton in the play. However, he is yet to master his lines and he has all but three weeks to do so. He then starts to spend more and more time with Jamie which leads to his frustration because his friends bully him when they catch him with her. One day when Eric sees Landon with Jamie, he starts making comments about her being his girlfriend and being overall a sarcastic idiot. Eric then suggests in a sarcastic tone that they should perform in front of the orphans at the orphanage. Jamie doesn't catch the sarcasm and rather sees it as a brilliant idea.

The next day, she goes to Landon's house so they can go to the orphanage to ask the director about their plan. When Jamie walks into Landon's house, she is amazed at the huge size of it and the beauty within it. Landon doesn't really see anything special with his house but acknowledges that it is one of the biggest houses in town. In the car, they discuss what they aspire to be in life. Landon says he's not sure yet but he wants to go to University of North Carolina then pick it up from there. Jamie then says her goal is to be a wife and have lots of people in the town attend her wedding. Seeing that the is an honours student, Landon is surprised that she doesn't have bigger plans for herself. She and Landon then go to the orphanage to discuss their plans but the director of the orphanage doesn't agree with them performing because of the plot of the play. He doesn't think that the plot of the play would make the orphans very happy. Jamie then realizes her mistake and becomes a bit saddened. The two of them then decide to just go visit the orphans. When they do, the orphans all surround Jamie because of their appreciation for her.

As the anticipation for the play increases, Landon starts to feel more stressed because he has to study for his exams before Christmas and fill out his college application. At the same time, his friends continue to poke fun at him for hanging out with Jamie. His anger then builds up and it causes him to yell at Jamie, an innocent girl. He then says he doesn't know why he agreed to do the play with her and it annoys the heck out of him that he has to walk a mile out of his way just to walk her home then walk the opposite side of town to his own house. The rest of the way, he does walk her home without talking to her but he walked about five feet in front of her. When they reached to his house, she gave thanked him for walking her home. At that point, Landon sees her as unusual because he doesn't know anyone else who would have thanked him after he blasts off at them.

At the day of the play, Jamie looks completely different. Her hair is down instead of in a bun and she is wearing a dress which almost makes her look, beautiful. During the rehearsals, Landon hasn't been able to deliver the line, "You are beautiful" believably because of the plain way Jamie always looks. However, during the play and seeing the way that she talked and acted, he delivered the line and said it with meaning. After the play, everyone was happy and even Eric tells Landon that he really has grown up. Afterwards, everyone is shocked at how Jamie transformed in terms of looks and personality.

The next day in school, everything goes back to normal in terms of Jamie's personality and people's hostility towards her. At school, she asks Landon to help her with something because she put up cans at stores to raise money for a charity. She asks him to collect all the cans and count the money people donated. At the end of the day, Landon counts up $55 but feels that it's too small after all the hard work Jamie has done. He then puts in $200 of his own money and when Jamie sees that people "donated" over $200, she is ecstatic. Jamie then gives Landon the gift of her Bible that she always carries around. The Bible was her late mother's. Seeing her happy puts a smile on his face and he then realizes that he has falling in love with Jamie. Then he has his first kiss with Jamie and he realizes that Jamie Sullivan has made him a better person. Thus his life changes forever...

Quote


"Being in love with a girl like Jamie Sullivan was without a doubt the strangest thing I'd ever been through. Not only was she a girl that I'd never thought about before this year-even though we'd grown up together-but there was something different in the whole way my feelings for her hand unfolded. This wasn't like being with Angela, whom I'd kissed the first I was ever alone with her. I still hadn't kissed Jamie. I hadn't even hugged her or taken her to Cecil's Diner or even to a movie. I hadn't done any of the things I normally did with girls, yet somehow I'd fallen in love." (Sparks 166)

Reaction


At this point in time, the readers see and even  feel a new Landon. This Landon does not care about the jokes his friends make about him or the materialistic things he use to care about. This Landon realizes why he just impetuously do things that would make Jamie happy even if it's a difficult task. With this quote, I realized that this is a turning point in the life of Landon Carter. He's not the same guy he was a few days ago. He falls in love with Jamie for her inner personality which eliminates the outward appearance and that is something that makes him grow up. One time when I was chatting with a Jehovah's Witness woman who is about 24-years-old and she told me that when people get older/more mature, they start caring more about the inner personality. She also said that appearance can only serve one so far. This quote reminded me of that encounter I had with the Jehovah's Witness woman. Basically, the superficial things like kissing/hugging a person before you love them is not important. Jamie clearly means a lot to him and he doesn't need to treat her like he treats the other girl to know that she's the one for him.