Evolution of Style in Nicholas Sparks' Novels (PDF)

Master's Thesis from the year 2017 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 10, , course: Literature, language: English, abstract: This study focuses on the style of the author Nicholas Sparks in his two novels: "The Notebook" and "The best of me". These two novels appeared at two important phases of his development as an author: the first one at the outset of his career and the other one at a time when he was already an acclaimed author. The main objectives are to analyze his style and to study its evolution over fifteen years by comparing his two masterpieces. In the end I summarize the main features of his style and draw conclusions about the development of his artistic creativity in general and his style in particular.

Nowadays most of people read novels especially romantic novels but they read only the story as a preface without knowing the point of view, style, literary devices or tone etc. While reading a novel or a book, we must connect ourselves to the story or character or maybe to emotions in order to have that feeling. This study will concentrate in two novels of Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook and The best of me. Nicholas Sparks was born in Omaha, Nebraska on December 31, 1965, son of Patrick Michael (1942-1996) and Jill Emma Marie Sparks (1942-1989). During his childhood he moved around a lot with his family and lived in multiple locations like, Minnesota, Los Angeles, and Grand Island, Nebraska, finally settling in Fair Oaks, California at the age of eight. His father was a professor, his mother was a homemaker, then an optometrist's assistant. He lived in Fair Oaks until he finished high school, he graduated valedictorian in 1984, and received a full scholarship to the University of Notre Dame. Nicholas Sparks as a freshman was part of a relay team and broke the Notre Dame school record in 1985, a record which still stands, but he was injured and spent the summer recovering. During that summer, he wrote his first novel, but it was never published.