Memory, Pain, and Mortality Theme Analysis

The frame story of The Notebook is set a nursing home, where the older versions of Noah and Allie are living out their final days together in the midst of great suffering. Allie has been struggling with Alzheimer’s for four years and, on most days, has no idea who she is or who Noah is to her. Noah, meanwhile, lives in constant pain due to rheumatoid arthritis and several battles with cancer. As both characters confront their imminent mortality, Nicholas Sparks demonstrates how vital memory is in the final stages of life, or in any stage of life accompanied by great suffering. As he shows Allie struggling to hold onto her memory—and Noah’s efforts to cling to the past and their stories for the both of them—Sparks argues that memory is a shield and a balm in the face of pain and mortality.

Noah and Allie are, in the frame story and present timeline of The Notebook, an elderly couple confined to a nursing home. Allie and Noah have shared “a lifetime of memories”—yet Allie, deep in the throes of Alzheimer’s disease, cannot remember who Noah is or what he means to her. By shifting from the 1946 narrative in Noah’s titular notebook to the present day in the novel’s final section, Sparks shows how past memories help the elderly Noah and Allie shield themselves from pain, fear, and uncertainty as they approach death. “We are in the final minutes in the day of our lives,” the older Noah says of his and Allie’s current circumstances, “and the clock is ticking. Loudly.” The “clock” of mortality is constant and deafening in Noah’s ears. The only thing that comforts him are the memories of the love he and Allie shared, the art and writing they created, and the children they raised together. He is devastated, however, by the fact that Allie cannot share in these memories with him due to her Alzheimer’s. Though Noah can help shield himself from the fear of mortality by retreating into memories of happier times, the woman he loves cannot. This creates within Noah the need to help Allie access her memories, even in the face of her debilitating disease—he knows that the only way to help her feel less alone and less afraid is to trigger within her the knowledge that she has lived a full, beautiful life and created a legacy to be proud of.

By exploring the unique challenges Allie faces in her old age as she struggles with Alzheimer’s, Sparks hammers home the ways in which memories can help one face down mortality—and how the absence of comforting memories can exacerbate one’s fears toward the end of life. On most days, Allie has no idea who Noah is—or who she herself is. Noah reads to her from the notebook containing the story of their lives nearly every day, hoping for one of the rare moments when Allie’s memories are triggered and she remembers who they are to one another. Noah does this for himself because he misses Allie terribly—but it soon becomes clear that he also takes on the burden of recalling their story of their lives for both of them. “Help me remember who I am,” Allie begs Noah one afternoon when he finishes reading to her. “Or at least, who I was. I feel so lost.” Allie’s plea indicates how lost she feels without her memories. Even in her disoriented state, she knows that something is missing. Noah is the only one who can restore to her the memories of happier times—memories which will help ease her pain, confusion, and sense of loss.  There are rare days when Noah, after reading the notebook to Allie, finds himself rewarded when Allie breaks through the haze of her dementia and suddenly remembers who Noah is and all they’ve shared together. In these moments, Noah feels “young again,” no longer “deformed” or in pain—he is “the luckiest man alive” for the short time Allie is able to remember him. This shows that Noah’s uncertain project of stirring up Allie’s memories benefits them both. When they are able to rejoice in the memories of their lives together, they both feel comforted—and, for just a little while, they are able to feel insulated from the ravages of time and disease and the steady creep of mortality.

Toward the end of life, when memories are all one has, recollections of days gone are a shield against the encroachment of death and the constant reminders of life’s fleeting nature. Noah and Allie find relief in remembering the life they built together and the legacies they will leave behind. Even as their bodies and minds deteriorate, their fight to remember their shared past together gives them purpose and hope.