Besmonte, Marce Janelle B.
BSE-English 3B North
LITERARY ANALYSIS OF NICHOLAS SPARKS’ SAFE HAVEN
Safe Haven is a novel written by the New York Times' best-selling author Nicholas
Sparks. It was written and published in the year 2010. The book revolves around a
woman's journey as she escapes from the hands of her abusive husband. It shows
the woman's struggles and challenges as she went into an unfamiliar place to
seek refuge while her traumatic past was haunting her.
The story starts as Katie, the main character, is shown serving the customers at
Ivan's, a local diner in the port of North Carolina, where she decided to start anew.
It shows how she already got along with the people. She often goes to the
convenience store that widower Alex owns. She buys her goods there and even
spends time talking with Kristen, Alex's son. Katie had already adjusted to her new
environment. The people welcome and treat her nicely, yet she still does not let
her guard down. She is interacting with other people, but she's still aloof and
distant, typical behavior of a person who is experiencing psychological trauma.
According to the American Psychological Association, trauma is "an emotional
response to a terrible event like an accident, natural disasters, abuse, and such.
Katie suffered from domestic violence, and she was silenced by fear. She is afraid
to let that event happen again and worried that another person might hurt her
again the way her husband treated her. Katie or Erin is a victim of domestic
violence. Her husband is an alcoholic and is abusive. Whenever he gets mad and
drunk, he does not miss a chance to lay a hand on Katie. He would always hurt
her, but when he gets sober, he will not remember everything he did to Katie. He
will apologize, bring Katie gifts or bring her to fancy restaurants and act as if
nothing happened. And Katie, despite being hurt physically and emotionally, she
couldn't ask for help. She couldn't go to the police to report and seek refuge
because the person hurting her was a policeman himself. The person who should
be responsible for making people safe is the one who causes trouble to the fragile
human.
This awful scenario is happening in real life. Domestic violence is still prevalent.
There are still women who suffer from it and could not afford to escape because
of fear. There are still women who endure the awful treatment they receive from
their spouses and are afraid of asking for help or running their situation because
they might be afraid of the criticisms. They're scared that they'll lose the one who
supports their living, that they rather endure than suffer from hunger, or that they
are afraid because their spouses are members of the police or influential people.
I also noticed that in the story, Katie is wise and is independent. She can live alone,
and she does not need her husband's support to provide her with all of her needs.
As a reader, this made me realize that fear is a significant factor in why people
endure their suffering, why they never fight back and try to end their troubles. If
we are afraid, we are easy to be silenced. So I admired Erin/Katie when she
decided to fight back against her husband and decided to just run away instead
of continuing to endure the horrible things her husband does to her.
As the story goes on, Katie meets people that helped her move on and overcome
her traumatic past. There were Alex, the kind widower who owned the only
convenience shop in the area, his kids Kristen and Josh, who later on got close to
her, and there is also Jo, a woman same as her age who introduced herself as
Katie's new neighbor. She and Katie got along well in just a short time. After Katie's
work, they hang out together and take a sip of coffee while talking about life and
their interests. She became Katie's confidant in a place new to her. Through Jo,
Katie can freely express herself, and she also advises her what to do when Katie
is having difficulties in assessing situations. She is also the one who supports Katie
and Alex's love affair. She helped Katie move on bit by bit from her past.
Katie's life in North Carolina went on smoothly as time went on. Her relationship
with Alex grew more profound, and they became lovers. And while I was reading
those parts, it made me realize that we can find love and happiness amidst the
troubles and problems we encounter in life. That happiness is a choice. If we
choose to be happy and let go of the past, we will be free and will get better.
But just as everything seem to go smoothly, Erin/Katie's husband gets on the
picture again. Kevin finds his way to know Erin's whereabouts. He found Katie and
Alex in each other's arms. He went mad, be decided to burn them. He started
pouring gas around the store of Alex and burned it. Katie/Erin then confronted
Kevin as they were fighting. He is holding a gun while he attacks Katie and Katie
struggle to fight back and get the gun from Kevin, but as they fight each other,
Kevin accidentally shoots himself and dies because of blood loss.
After the death of Kevin, Alex and Katie visited the remains of the burned store.
Katie feels terrible about it, but Alex comforts her and tells her that it's okay and
that they could rebuild it and start again. On this part, I admired the optimism and
understanding the character of Alex is showing. Instead of blaming Katie for being
the reason why their properties and memorabilias of his late wife were burned, he
just assured her that everything would be alright and that they could start again
and rebuild everything. A kind of man I would want myself to have in the future.
After visiting the store, Katie then got on her way to her house but she thought of
Jo and she decided to go to her house first. As she approaches Jo's house, she
starts to get puzzled. She knows that Jo lives here, but why does that house look
like it had been empty for years.
As she goes to Jo's house, specks of dust and grimes can be seen covering the
whole house. There were cobwebs along with the window, broken shards of glass
on the floor, and pile of garbage could be seen everywhere. Katie then starts to
crease her forehead. Where is the chime Jo hung on the door? Where is the entry
mat? Where are the curtains? Where is Jo? Did she really existed? Katie then starts
to reassess everything when she and Jo are together. When they went to a bar,
she ordered two drinks for them, but Jo's glass was untouched. She also
remembered that Jo is like her. They share the same interest, the same style, and
the same thoughts. That is when she realized that Jo never really existed, that she
was just a figment of her mind that she unconsciously created as she was moving
on from her traumatic past. She thought that she had made a mirror of herself to
help her decide and express herself.
As Katie sat on her chair, she got the letter that Alex gave him and opened it. It
was the letter that Alex's late wife Carly had written before she died. The chapter
27 of the novel shows Alex as he reads the letter that Carly had written him. On
one of the letters, Carly stated that along with those letters that she had written
for Alex, she also had included a note for the woman whom he will love in the
future. As Katie reads the letter, she slowly unfolds the most fantastic plot twist that
I have ever read from a novel.
The letter tells the message of Carly for Katie. She tells her to take care of her family
and love Alex the way he loves her. She tells Katie that she knows that she is
already the one for Alex will only give the letter to someone he loves, someone
who helped him heal and let him learn to love again. There is also a photo
enclosed with the letter, which greatly shocked Katie to the bones. The woman in
the picture, Carly, Alex's late wife, turns out to be Jo!
In the latter part of the letter, Carly stated that she is also called Jo. This means
that Katie wasn't hallucinating. Jo is real. She isn't just a figment of her imagination.
She existed, she accompanied her, and she helped her find her way into Alex's
life.
All along, Carly/Jo's ghost was still there. Carly/Jo not only guided her family, but
she also supported Katie as she overcame her traumas. This is the best part. I was
so thrilled when I read this revelation. This made me love the character of Carly or
Jo but at the same time made me sad because she is so loving and caring. Still,
she can no longer be with the family she loves, and her children might never be
able to remember how she cared for them when she was still alive. They'll just
remember the idea of her, that she existed because her children were still too
young when she died.
Nicholas Sparks' Safe Haven is his best novel for me. It had the best plot twist that
I would never have imagined as I was reading it. It also made me question the
reality just as how Katie felt. This novel also talked about finding hope and
standing up after experiencing unpleasant or traumatic events in life. It taught me
that there will always be a time when we can rise from it after every struggle, after
every problem. It shows how strong women are even if they encounter difficulties
in life, they still find their way on how to cope up and rise again. Women do not
let themselves suffer and remain weak, we also know how to stand for ourselves.
The novel also emphasizes that we are the person who will be responsible for our
fate. If we continue to be afraid of something that hurts us, if we continue to be
silent and never fight back, we can never find our way to be free. Our freedom
and happiness depend on us, just like how Katie bravely escaped from her
suffering. I have also learned from this novel that our pasts does not define what
we can achieve in the future. Our terrible past is not a reason for us to stop moving
and achieving better things in our life.
The story also made me realize how powerful love can be. It can heal traumas, it
can give hope for people, and it can mend broken hearts. This story indeed made
me realize many things, and it taught me valuable life lessons that I will treasure.