By: Alisha Zaveri and Pratistha Katila.
Thesis Statement
Most of Nicholas Sparks’s stories take place in North
Carolina, the place where he finally settled and wrote
his first novel. His stories are also about love and loss,
a frequent topic shown in his life.
Nicholas Sparks Picture
Nicholas Sparks’ Childhood/Family
Nicholas Charles Sparks was born in Omaha,
Nebraska, on December 31, 1965. As a child, he lived in
Minnesota, Los Angeles, and Grand Island, Nebraska,
and then settled in Fair Oaks, California, at the age of
eight. His father was a professor, his mother a
homemaker and optometrist’s assistant. He graduated
valedictorian and then got a full track scholarship to
Notre Dame. He broke the track record for Notre
Dame. (A record that is still there today.) In the
process, he got injured. While recovering, he wrote his
first book.
Nicholas Sparks….
He married his wife, Catherine, in 1989. While living
in Sacramento, he wrote his second novel that same
year, though again, it wasn’t published. He worked a
variety of jobs over the next three years. In 1990, he
worked on a book with Billy Mills and the sales of the
book topped 50,000 copies during the first year.
Nicholas Sparks Books
He moved from Sacramento, California to North
Carolina. In 1994, at the age of 28, he wrote The
Notebook over a period of six months. With that
followed Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember,
The Rescue, A Bend in the Road, Nights in Rodanthe,
The Guardian, The Wedding , True Believer, At First
Sight, Dear John, The Choice, The Lucky One, The Last
Song, Safe Haven, and Three Weeks With My Brother.
His newest book, The Best of Me, will be released in
October 2011. The books we read were Dear John and
The Last Song.
His Books Made Into Movies
 The film version of Message in a Bottle was released in
1999,
 A Walk to Remember was released in January 2002,
 The Notebook, was released in June, 2004.
 Nights in Rodanthe was released in September 2008.
 Dear John, was released in 2010.
 The Last Song, was also released in 2010.
 The Lucky One has a release date of spring 2012.
His Life Shown in His Books
His life was shown in his books frequently. He wrote
Message in a Bottle because of his mother’s own death in a
horseback riding accident. The Notebook was written about
his wife’s grandparents’ love story. A Walk to Remember
was based on the premature death of his own younger
sister. Most of his stories also took place in North Carolina,
where he lived. Something I found strange was that a lot of
the character’s names in his stories were the names of his
wife and children. He wrote stories about characters with
his wife and children’s names falling in love with other
people, such as in Message in a Bottle. The girl’s name was
Catherine, the name of his own wife. That’s really weird!
Imagery in Dear John
Here are some examples of imagery in Dear John.
Page 28, “In time, the color of the ocean began changing
from iron gray to orange, then yellow. In the breakers
beyond the pier, I could see pelicans riding the backs
of porpoises as they skimmed through the waves.”
Page 34: “I felt something click, like a key turning in a
lock. Up close, she was even more beautiful than I’d
first realized, but it had less to do with the way she
looked than the way she was. It wasn’t just her slightly
gap-toothed smile, it was the easy way she swiped at a
loose strand of hair, the easy way she held herself.”
Imagery in The Last Song
Here are some examples of imagery in The Last Song.
Page 24: “The festival was temporarily located in the parking
lot at the head of the pier, and it mostly resembled a small
county fair. The rickety rides were part of a traveling
carnival, and the parking lot was lined with overpriced game
booths and greasy food concessions. The whole place was
kind of…gross.”
Page 108, “And so, of course, did the blinding sun. Judging
by the fact that she’d been waking up with the farmers since
she’d arrived, she figured today was no different. It probably
wasn’t even seven yet. The sun was hanging low over the
ocean, and a few people were walking their jogs or jogging
near the water’s edge. No doubt they’d slept in beds.”
Nicholas Sparks Quotes.
 “I learned what is obvious to a child. That life is simply a
collection of little lives, each lived at a time. That each
day should be spent finding beauty in flowers and poetry
and talking to animals. That a day spent with dreaming
and sunsets and refreshing breezes cannot be bettered.”
 “You hope for success, you dream about it, but you
never expect it.”
 “My wife, my family, my friends-they've all taught me
things about love and what that emotion really means.
In a nutshell, loving someone is about giving, not
receiving.”