A WALK TO REMEMBER
A Walk to remember was a great novel which told
about the power of love in Beaufort, North California. Jamie Sullivan who
struggled with her sickness, Leukemia, was falling in love with Landon Carter,
a broken-home child. At the first time, they did not have any feeling at all.
Their love story began when the first time they performed as the main character
in school play that was written by Hegbert, Jamie’s father. After the school
play, they began to be falling in love each other. The problem had risen when
Landon finally knew that Jamie had leukemia, an illness which could not be cure
by all of the doctors at the time. They started to spend their whole day
together. At the end, Landon got married with Jamie even though her sickness
was very awful.
This essay will explore about the
characterization of Jamie Sullivan by using deconstructive approach. This
approach was stated by a philosopher from Aljazair, Jacques Derrida, in
1960s. Deconstruction is the way to bring contradictions that hide behind our
concepts that we believe (Pontus, 2007). From the definition before, it could
be concluded that deconstructive is a way to read a text and trying to find the
meaning beyond of the literal meaning of the text, in this case, especially
Jamie Sullivan’s characterizations. Jamie was a main woman character who fought with her sickness in this
story. Because she was the young woman, so that there would be an
interpretation from the readers that she needed more love and also caused pity
or sympathy in order to survive in her life. In addition, she did so many
things that could not be found on other young people in that story such as
carrying bible, used the same clothes at school and also prefer to go to the
orphanage instead of had a party with friends. By these reason, the
deconstructive approach had been chosen for finding some other interpretations
in Jamie.
Jamie
was a very kindness woman. She always came to the orphans and gave them some
gifts in every Christmas. Many people would be very happy to receive the gift.
However, this kindness would cause people to be depended on others. They would
hopefully expect the gift instead of tried to find the source of fund by
themselves. In conclusion, the kindness of Jamie would only teach them to be
not independent and spoiled to others. So this is a bad habit that should not
be implemented to the orphans.
Jamie
always gave attention to Landon till they became in love. She often said that
she would pray for Landon (page 16). This was one of the ways she captivated
Landon’s heart. She should not do it because of her death would possibly come
sooner. If only she did not do that thing, there would be no tears of Landon at
the end of her life.
Jamie was a woman who ignored appearance instead
of spirituality. She wore the same clothes in almost everyday at school. She
spent most of her time to read bible or went to the orphanage. It seemed like
she considered that the world was a cruel place. So that she used that bible as
her safeguard and the orphanage as her safety place to hide. Talk about
spirituality, she was not a really faithful woman. The proof could be seen from
many things that she had done with Landon such as kissing, and hugging. Conversely, kissing and
hugging should not be done before got married.
One of the interesting points from Jamie was her
desire to be married in the same church where her mother did. She did some
strategy for reaching that desire and put her aim at Landon. Firstly, she tried
to find Landon’s phone number without asking directly to Landon. Secondly, she
phoned Landon and asked him to come to her house. It could be seen from the
dialog. “Well . . . I just wanted to know if you wouldn’t mind coming by a
little later this afternoon.” (page 28). Actually there were some refusing from
Landon, However she did compulsion to Landon until he agreed to come in the
afternoon. Thirdly, after arrived in her house, she asked Landon to be the main
character in the school play. It could be seen from the dialog, “I’d like to
ask you if you wouldn’t mind playing Tom Thornton in the school play,” she said
(page 29). From this request, Landon had refused many times by suggesting his
other friends like Eddie Jones, Jeff Banger and Darren Woods to replace him,
however there are many reason that she had risen for convincing Landon to be
the main character in the school play. The last way that she did to have
Landon’s sympathetic could be seen from the last dialog in chapter 4. She was
crying while explained her father’s misadventure to Landon. One point that
convincingly proofing about her strategy to captivate Landon’s love could be
found in her confession, “When I told you that I prayed for you,” she finally
said to Landon, “what did you think I was talking about?” (page 86). These
could be the proof that she had already had a big plan that Landon would be her
boyfriend.
In conclusion, it can be said that Jamie Sullivan
had more hidden facts in this story. Most of her life which beyond of the text
could only be found if deconstruction approach was used in order for finding
those all, so that was the way this approach had been chosen.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
SPARKS, N. (1999) A
Walk To Remember. New York: Warner Books Inc.
Wijen
Pontus (2007) Dekonstruksi
Derrida, Upaya Untuk Memecah-mecah Konsep [WWW] Wordpress. Available
from: http://yesalover.wordpress.com/2007/03/16/dekonstruksi-derrida-upaya-untuk-memecah-mecah-konsep/
[Accessed 29/05/2012]
Ririe
Rengganis (2010) Pendekatan dekonstruksi
[WWW] Sastranesia. Available from: http://sastranesia.wordpress.com/2010/10/16/pendekatan-dekonstruksi/
[Accessed 29/05/2012]
