Gus Character Analysis in The Notebook

Gus is an elderly black man who lives down the road from Noah. The two are friends as well as neighbors—the two men spend several nights a week together playing music, drinking, and talking on Noah’s porch. Gus is old and wise, and he rightly assesses Noah’s longing for the “ghost” of his first love, Allie. Gus urges Noah to see that he’ll never be able to forget such a great love, and to embrace rather than resent the fact that his love for Allie will stay with him forever.

Gus Quotes in The Notebook

The The Notebook quotes below are all either spoken by Gus or refer to Gus. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

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"So that's the ghost you been running from." When asked what he meant, Gus said, "You know, the ghost, the memory. I been watchin' you, workin' day and night, slavin' so hard you barely have time to catch your breath. People do that for three reasons. Either they crazy, or stupid, or tryin' to forget. And with you, I knew you was tryin' to forget. I just didn't know what. […] This girl you been tellin' me about was your first love. And no matter what you do, she'll stay with you forever."

Related Characters: Gus (speaker), Noah Calhoun, Allie Nelson

Related Symbols: Noah’s House

Page Number and Citation: 14-16

Explanation and Analysis: