Spring Assessment

 A Blessing Like No Other

Authors Note: This book a very different take on the other books that I have analyzed by this author, so it was a very unique story for me to read. There was still a ton of symbolism included which I researched and included in my essay. Pay close attention to A-B transitions and the comma usage.

What I had was a photo, nothing more, but it was my lucky charm; I had promised myself I would this girl and thank her for saving my life. It was remarkable finding anything, in such a place as Iraq, a place where hope was all but lost. As the dust cleared on the battlefield, it caught my eye, a beautiful thing in a place so I abandoned and filled with dread and mourning, a simple photograph. Once I found the girl in the picture, the one who had protected all through the war, what I’d do next was a mystery even to myself. When I returned home I set off on a journey driven by compulsion almost, with a backpack on my shoulders and a loyal Great Dane named Zeus at my side, as I walked to find the woman who in a certain way I already loved. As you turn the pages you’ll find not just a classic love story, but then one goes much deeper than that beginning even before the two met completely overruling the whole “love at first sight” concept; adding in the use of symbolism we will be sure to come out with a magical book as Nicholas Sparks’ The Lucky One.

The one thing Sparks chose to begin this whole story was the idea of a deserted photograph bringing two people together; why would he choose such a different path to go with this when he could’ve gone the classic route we all know and love? The ultimate meaning of a photograph is completely unique to each viewer and often has little to do with the thoughts or intentions of the photographer. Beth, the women who sent the picture, had intended it to be a little piece of her that her brother could have while he fought. When the picture had been lost, Drake sent her a message frantic for another copy, but one never came to him and he never came back home to her. Perhaps, it had been piece of luck for him too, just as it had been for Logan, the one who finds the picture that protected him throughout the deathly situations he faced. As his friend Victor once said, “Say someone puts a roof on your house. The man works hard, and at the end, he is paid. Only then is it over. In this case, with the photograph, it is as if the roof has been put on, but the owner has not paid. Until payment is made, everything is out of balance.” (Pg 172)

Once we really get to know Logan and Beth who are brought together by an unusual scenario, the object that really brings them closer is the kennel. In the beginning, we open with an officer, Keith Clayton, better known as Beth’s ex-husband, who from the start gives off a bad impression. Someone once said, “If you’re dog doesn’t trust someone you probably shouldn’t either,” and that is proven as Zeus, an extraordinary trained dog, immediately expresses his distaste for the man. Logan believes there is certainly something off about him, only to have his suspicions confirmed later. Dogs also can symbolize courage, faithfulness, and guardship which is obviously something Beth, her son Ben, and her Nana all greatly exemplify throughout the book which could’ve been a factor of the author’s strange occupation choice for Logan to take. At the end of the day, we all realize dogs can bring people together and as Billings said, “A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.” Zeus does just that becoming attached to Ben and bringing Logan and Beth together on a certain extent.

As Logan and Beth grow very close after spending so much time with the dogs, their relationship is truly tested in a matter of life or death that just so happened to occur during the worst storm of the year. Keith, we all are painfully aware, is not the good guy in this story, he controls Beth’s every move and one wrong one he threatens by taking their child, whom he despises anyway, into full custody. Ben overhears this and runs into the storm to his beaten-down treehouse which already at the verge of collapsing in a burst of rage. Not until it’s almost too late do they realize that the treehouse will come down tonight taking their son’s life with it. Thunderstorms are defined as depression, gloom, and anger all are which are components of this frightening occurrence. Placing a storm on such a dramatic event as this one we notice that this is most likely the effect the author intended to bestow upon us.

In life we climb a ladder mostly of love and betrayal resulting in forgiveness, but mostly we go off of luck and hope; this is greatly defined in Nicholas Sparks’ The Lucky One, a book greatly demonstrating that perfect ladder. One of my favorite quotes would be by Pitticus Lore in I am Number Four, “When you have lost hope, you have lost everything. And when you think all is lost, when all is dire and bleak, there is always hope.” You can spend every day hoping something will come along or that opportunity will be handed to you, but to actually get up and go out there to achieve your goals, that something else entirely, courage. Hopefully someday each one of us will tire of waiting for everything to come to us, for that is not how fate works, sometimes that greatest things come out of the times when we put our foot down and go get them ourselves.