A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks

A Walk to Remember by New York Times bestselling author, Nicholas Sparks, isn’t just your normal love story. The story takes place in Beaufort, North Carolina, a small town where everyone knows everyone. Neighbors are friendly and there’s no danger to worry about. Landon Carter is a senior in high school who hangs out with the populars and is your average bad boy. Jamie Sullivan is a sweet and friendly girl that everyone in Beaufort knows and loves. She’s the reverend’s daughter and carries her late mother’s Bible wherever she goes. She has a smile on all the time and is nice to every person she sees. She’s a senior at the same school as Landon. No one would ever imagine that these two very different people would be together. Between the book and the movie, there were many differences.
The major difference was the year that each story took place in and this drastically impacted the movie. The book took place in the 1950s and the movie took place in the 1990s. Nicholas Sparks wrote on a personal website that these changes had to have been made because if the movie were to be in the 50s, it wouldn’t have interested teens. Although that’s a reasonable explanation, the movie still takes away some of the important events from the book. For example, in the 50s, people would walk more than driving. Landon would walk Jamie home every night after drama rehearsals ever since the drama teacher, Miss Garber asked him to. Because walking home together became a daily routine, they became closer and slowly created a connection. Another change due to the difference in years is that Landon isn’t as bad and a trouble maker as he is in the movie. Sparks also mentioned in his website that this change was because teenage boys acted different in the 50s compared to the 90s. In the book, Jamie would volunteer at an orphanage in her free time but in the movie, she would tutor junior students. This is another change because of the year difference. There weren’t much orphanages in the 90s like there were in the 50s.
There were some minor differences between the book and the movie that were written differently but everything still had the same outcome. The first difference is about Landon’s parents. In the book, his parents were married although his father, a politician, was away in Washington a lot for work. This caused tension between Landon and his father. In the movie, Landon’s parents were divorced because his father abandoned them and started a new family. Because of this, Landon dislikes his dad very much. This leads to the next event. In the book, Landon runs for student body president for his school because his dad pressured him into doing it. He won the election and there was pressure to find a date for the upcoming dance. Most of the girls already had dates so the only one left to ask was Jamie. Luckily for him, she said yes. Shortly after, Jamie politely asked Landon to participate in the play and he said yes. In the movie, Landon did not run for student body president and there was no dance. Instead, Landon and his group of friends pulled a prank that caused someone to get badly injured. Landon was the one who got caught so as his punishment, he was obligated to do community service which included the play. This is how Landon and Jamie began to spend time together. The plays were very different in both stories. The play in the book was a Christmas story written by Jamie’s father based on his life story and Jamie played an angel. The play in the movie was a spring play and Jamie played a singer. This change was probably because the main actress, Mandy Moore, was a singer in real life. Even though the concept of the play is very different, the play was the moment that Landon knew that he had feelings for Jamie. He had never seen her looking so beautiful.
For me, it’s difficult to choose whether the book or movie was better. I like the book slightly more than the movie because of the way the events played out. In the book, Nicholas Sparks slowly built up their relationship through a series of events but in the movie, they fell in love almost instantly all in one scene.
A Walk to Remember is a profound love story. Landon & Jamie’s relationship seems perfectly normal and happy then everything suddenly takes a turn. This will test their faith and change their lives forever. As you finish the book, you will understand the meaning of the title, A Walk to Remember. If you’re into romance and love stories, this is the perfect book and movie for you!