Walk to Remember
...and his hair was as white as those bunnies you see in pet stores around Easter” (3). He married a women twenty years younger than him when he was forty-three. His wife went through six miscarriages before she had their daughter. She died during labor, leaving fifty-five year old Hegbert a widower who had to raise a daughter on his own. 3. What is the annual program that the church puts on with the high school? The church and the high school put on a Christmas pageant at the Beaufort Playhouse. The play is called the Christmas Angel, and it was written by Hegbert Sullivan. The whole community comes to watch this miraculous story about faith. Hegbert preferred that senior at the high school perform the play because it is a learning experience for them. “The play sold out every year it was performed, and due to its popularity, Hegbert eventually had to move it from the church to the Beafort Playhouse, which had a lot more seating” (7). 4. What kind of relationship does Hegbert have with Landon’s family? Hegbert does not have a good relationship with Landon’s family. When Landon’s grandfather was alive, Hegbert didn’t get along with Landon’s grandfather because he worked for him and Landon’s grandfather was an evil man who ran a greedy business, and eventually “controlled a vast portion of the country’s economy…” (15). Hegbert quit working for Landon’s grandfather and became a minister. Landon’s father doesn’t like Hegbert’s preaching and holds bitter grudges against him. When Landon was a boy he’d antagonize Hegbert and shout “Hegbert is a jerk” whenever Hegbert walked down the street (4). “So we’d e hiding behind a tree and Hegbert would stand there waiting for us to give ourselves up, as if he thought we’d be that stupid” (5). 5. Who is Jamie, and what class does she have with Landon? Jamie Sullivan is Hegbert’s daughter. She doesn’t have any friends because she is seen as an outcast. She isn’t a normal teenager. She always carries her bible around with her wherever she goes. Jamie is always helping people or animals, and praying for them. She volunteers her time at the orphanage, and plays with the little kids. She dresses very plain and her hair is always up in a bum. “Coupled with her usual brown cardigan and plaid skirt, she always looked as though she were on her way to interview for a job at the library” (21). She is in Landon’s drama class. 6. What is it that Landon’s father wants Landon to do that causes a problem for Landon? Landon’s father wants Landon to run for student body president. Landon doesn’t want to, but arguing with his father is impossible. With the help of his best friend, Eric, Landon wins and becomes student body president. When you are student body president you have to help decorate for Homecoming, and you are required to attend. This is a problem for Landon because he doesn’t have a date. Landon has to ask Jamie Sullivan to the dance because there is no one else he can go with. “I had to ask Jamie to the dance, and I paced around the room thinking of the best way to ask her” (36). 7. What happened at the dance? Landon’s ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend showed up at the dance. His ex-girlfriend, Angela, had been drinking before she came, and she was all over Lew, her boyfriend. Lew spiked the punch and people were getting a little tipsy. “Well, good old Lew spiked the punch bowl, and a few more people started getting tipsy” (55). Angela became very drunk and threw up all over the girls bathroom. Jamie and Landon cleaned the bathroom and took Angela home. 8. Why is Jamie calling Landon? Jamie is calling Landon because she needs a favor. She asks him to come over so she can ask him to play the part of Tom Thornton in the play. Tom Thornton is the leading role in the play, next to the angel, who is going to be played by Jamie. She is asking him because he is pretty much the only one who can do it. About half of the senior boys are football players, and they are always practicing for the state title. The other half is mostly consisting of band members, who also have to practice after school. Of the dozen left, Landon is the only one who would really be good at the part and has time to fit rehearsals into his schedule. After contemplating for a while, Landon finally agrees to try out for the part. He receives the part. This means a lot to Jamie because she wants this years play to be very special for her father. “I’d really like this play to be special this year, not for me, but because of my father” (75). 9. Why are Landon’s friends teasing him? Landon’s friends are teasing him because he went to the homecoming with Jamie. His best friend, Eric, is teasing Landon by calling Jamie his girlfriend. Now that Landon is doing the play, he and Jamie see a lot more of each other. Jamie isn’t the type of girl that most guys like, so Landon’s friends like to tease him about liking her, even though he doesn’t, because they know it bugs him. “‘Landon, your girlfriend is here.’ ‘She’s not my girlfriend,’ I said. ‘I don’t have a girlfriend.’ ‘Your fiancée, then’” (84). 10. What does Jamie and Landon want to do in the future? Landon wants to go to the University of North Carolina after high school. After college, he is not sure what he wants to do. Jamie said she thinks he should be a minister. He thinks that is a crazy idea. All Jamie wants to do is to get married. “‘And when I do, I want my father to walk me sown the aisle and I want everyone I know to be there’” (99). Landon thinks that she is strange for only wanting to be married, and not wanting to go to college, move, or get a job. “‘That’s all.’ Though I wasn’t averse to the idea of marriage, it seemed kind of silly to hope for that as your life’s goal” (99). 11. What is significant about Jamie’s Bible? The Bible was Jamie’s mother’s. It was a gift given to her and Hegbert on their wedding day. Jamie’s mother claimed it, and she read it all the time. She took it everywhere she went. When she died in the hospital, Hegbert found it, and gave it to Jamie when she was older. “‘When my father found out that she had died, he carried the Bible and me out of the hospital at the same time’” (118). 12. Why is Landon upset with Jamie? Landon is upset with Jamie because he is hates it how she is always calm, sweet, and perfect. She is always asking him to walk her home, and it’s out of his way. He can never say no to her because she is so nice; he doesn’t want to hurt her feelings. She acts like they are great friends, and this bothers him because his friends always give him a hard time and say that he likes her. He can’t handle being so frustrated so he yells at her. “‘I don’t want to walk you home, I don’t want my friends to keep talking about me, and I don’t want to spend time with you’” (125). 13. How does the play go? The play is perfect. Jamie looks so beautiful that nobody recognizes her, and everyone nails their lines. The playhouse is cram packed. The audience loved the play so much that people are constantly coming up to Jamie and Landon to congratulate them on their excellent performance. Miss Garber is very proud of the cast members. “To say the play was a smashing success was to put it mildly” (136). 14. What does Jamie ask Landon to do to re-pay her for his outburst? What did he lie about? When Landon apologized for yelling at Jamie, he said he’d make it up to her. She doesn’t forget this, so Jamie calls Landon and asks him to collect all the jars that she laid out over town to raise money for the orphanage. He agrees to collect the jars, and when he finishes, he sees that there was only $55. 73. He feels so bad for her because the jars were laid out for a year, and it took her six weeks to walk all over town and deliver all of them. He decided to contribute some of his money. The new total came to $247. “I know I was lying, but I didn’t care. For once, I t was the right thing to do” (146). 15. Where does Jamie and Landon spend Christmas Eve? What do they give each other? Jamie and Landon spend Christmas Eve at the orphanage. Jamie took the money she raised to buy the children Christmas gifts. They read stories, sing, and eat cookies. When most of the children went to sleep Landon and Jamie sat by the lighted tree listening to Christmas music. “The tree lights cast an ethereal glow as ‘Silent Night’ played softly on a phonograph that had been set up in the corner” (152). Landon’s gift to Jamie is a brown sweater like the ones she usually wears, and Jamie gives Landon her Bible. “Jamie had given me her Bible” (153). 16. How does Landon’s feelings towards Jamie change? Landon no longer thinks of Jamie as that weird, goody-goody, church girl. becomes good friends with her and starts to spend all his time with her. She inspires him to be a better person. He falls in love with her kind spirit. On Christmas Eve he realizes how much she means to him. “She smiled at me and I smiled at her and all I could do was wonder how I’d ever fallen in love with a girl like Jamie Sullivan” (154). 17. What happens when Landon tells Jamie he loves her? When Landon tells Jamie he loves her, she puts her head down and starts to cry. She leans into him while he puts his arms around her. He doesn’t understand why she is so upset, and she can’t stop crying to tell him. Finally, she starts to speak. “‘You can’t be in love with me, Landon,’” (190). This makes Landon even more confused and scared. She pulled herself together and told him she was dying. “She had leukemia; she’d known it since last summer” (191). 18. What change takes place in the community? The whole community took in a state of morning when Hegbert made the announcement to the congregation that Jamie is dying. Nobody would look her in the eyes. Eric, Landon’s best friend, and Margaret visit Jamie and tell her how much they really like her. Nobody could believe that sweet, gentle Jamie Sullivan was going to die; they thought of all people, she was the least person who deserved to die. Everyone was crying and sobbing the morning Hegbert made the announcement . “Everyone stared in silent disbelief at the words they’d just heard, as if they were waiting for a punch line to some horrible joke that none of them could believe had been told” (193). 19. How is Jamie’s health? Jamie is slowly getting worse and worse. Everyday she is weaker than the previous day, and every day she sleeps a little more than the day before. Her visits to the hospital are becoming regular, but she refused to stay there over night. She is getting so bad that the doctor suggests that she live at the hospital where the nurses can always looking on her. Landon’s father offered to pay for in-home nurses for Jamie. “All I know is that Jamie was soon surrounded by expensive equipment, was supplied with all the medicine she needed, and was watched by two full-time nurses while a doctor peeked in on her several times a day” (222). 20. What does Landon finally do? Landon has been wondering what he can do for Jamie for a very long time. He is reading the Bible when it becomes clear to him what he needs to do. He asks Hegbert for permission to marry Jamie. The day of their wedding day, the whole church is filled with the community. Hegbert walks Jamie down the aisle, she can barely walk by herself. Landon feels that it is the right thing to do. “It was, I remember, the most wonderful moment of my life” (240). III. Setting A. The setting of this novel takes place in Beaufort, North Carolina, which is located on the coast near Morehead City. The year is 1958. The specific areas in town where the characters mostly are, are at school related functions or at home. The main characters are all over town, but the greatest amount of action is when the characters are at school related functions and at home. The following quote is a description of the small southern town the characters live in. “It was the kind of place where the humidity rose so high in the summer that walking out to get the mail make a person feel as if he needed a shower…” (1). B. The setting affects the main character psychologically. Being in a small southern town affected Landon psychologically because most everyone knew each other, and if one didn’t know someone else, they’d treat them as if they did. The following quote expresses the friendliness of Beaufort. “People waved from their cars whenever they saw someone on the street whether they knew him or not …” (1). Because most everyone knew each other, this set the attitude Landon had towards people. He knew everyone’s background and generally, the kind of person they were. Growing up in a small town environment made Landon a kind, friendly, open, people- person. IV. Character A. The main character of the story is Landon who is a young teenage boy. Landon lives in a small southern town in North Carolina. He is very laid- back, mellow, and friendly. Although he did not know it until now, the purpose of Landon’s senior year was to give Jamie Sullivan, another character, the love and kindness she had given to everyone else. In doing that, he was motivated by her kindness and his sincere spirit. He is the main character because through his experience he grew, changed, and learned lessons about life that he would have never learned on his own. The following quote is an example of his character. “‘I think you’re good with people, and they’d respect what you have to say’” (98). B. The underlying motivation of Landon is to give Jamie Sullivan the love she gives everyone else and to make her dream come true. “She was absolutely joyous as she looked up at me” (145). “I know I was lying, but I didn’t care. For once, it was the right thing to do” (146). In giving her the love and kindness nobody but her father had given her, it doesn’t seem to change her much, but it changes Landon’s out-look on the world. His kindness towards Jamie was motivated by her actions. Landon’s secondary motivation is to make Jamie’s dream come true by asking her to marry him. He was reading a verse in his Bible and it became clear to him what he had to do. “God had finally answered me, and I suddenly knew what I had to do” (227). Landon’s underlying motivation is to prove his love because of the seriousness of Jamie’s. “All I cared about was doing something that my heart had told me was the right thing to do” (234). C. The changes that Landon undergoes are significant because they influence his out-look on life. The novel begins with easy-going, laid-back Landon starting his senior year with an attitude of having carefree fun with his friends and hopefully some girls. During the course of the novel he becomes Student Body President and his path crosses with Jamie Sullivan’s. Her kind actions had a lasting impact on Landon. Some how her actions brought Landon and His father close together, her unconditional faith inspired him to have faith, she taught him forgiveness, and she showed him true love. “Jamie had brought my father and me together again; somehow she’d also managed to heal some of the wounds between our tow families” (235). Landon is aware of his changes and is proud to have learned lo much during that year. “When I was seventeen, my life changed forever”(ix). D. The means by which Landon is introduced to the reader are as follows: what he thinks, says, does, how he reacts to others, and how others react to him. Through-out the novel, Landon is fully developed. At the beginning of the novel, the reader is introduced to Landon’s personality by his attitude as he describes others. “But it wasn’t Carey who answered, it was Jamie, and for the first time in my life I saw what she’d look like if she were an ordinary person” (39). As the novel progresses and Landon becomes involved with Jamie, his character is developed through how he reacts to her. “She smiled at me and I smiled at her and all I could do was wonder how I’d ever fallen in love with a girl like Jamie Sullivan” (154). As the novel continues, he is further developed into a character who learns and changes. V. Point of View A. The point of view of this novel is 1st person. This means by which the novel is told by a narrator, who happens to be the main character. “We were both gazing up at the lights on the tree, and I wondered what Jamie was thinking” (150). I believe the author chose to write in this way to emphasize Landon’s inner character, so the reader would have an easier time depicting his changes. B. The main conflicts in this novel are man versus self and man versus man. The first conflict is between Landon and himself. As Landon begins his senior year, he is a pretty stable person. His characteristics, mannerisms, and demeanor are evident. When Landon becomes better friends with Jamie, his personality starts to change. He becomes gentle and friendly towards people and ideas he never would have before. He doesn’t know why, but he starts struggling to find “the right thing to do.” “I know I was lying, but I didn’t care. For once, it was the right thing to do” (146). At times Landon becomes frustrated and he wants to go back to his old self. “by then Jamie’s story had left me completely, and I could practically hear my friends laughing about me, all the way from Celsil’s Diner. See what happens when you’re a nice guy?” (121). The conflict is resolved when he proves that he is in love with Jamie. He doesn’t know what to do with himself until then. He quits questioning himself, feeling stressed, worried, and embarrassed. He realizes and connects his changes to falling in love with Jamie. He asks her to marry him, and he is finally happy with himself. “All I cared about was dong something that my heart had told me was the right thing to do” (234). The second conflict of man versus man occurs when Jamie and Landon start becoming friends. Jamie’s generousness and thoughtfulness had an influence on Landon’s personality. He began to return her kindness with kindness, and eventually his views on life ...