The Best of Me

“Would she even recognize the woman who now looked back at her in the mirror?”

The line is a part of Amanda’s inner monologue regarding her life choices. She wonders whether her life would have been different if she had married Dawson. The line emphasizes the novel’s theme that one can be one’s true self only in the presence of one’s true love. Likewise, not choosing true love can lead to an unfulfilling life. This line occurs before Amanda meets Dawson; by highlighting the confusions in Amanda’s mind, Nicholas Sparks sets the stage for the emotional turmoil that Amanda will experience on reconnecting with Dawson.

“Like Clara’s, Dawson’s ghost was everywhere.”

At Tuck’s place, both Amanda and Tuck intensely feel the presence of their respective lovers. For Tuck, Clara is a comforting presence, whom he wished into existence by the power of his love. But for Amanda, Tuck’s garage resurrects disquieting memories of Dawson, and she feels haunted by feelings of loss and confusion when she returns to that space.

“The past can be escaped only by embracing something better, and he figured that was what she’d done.”

After reaching Oriental, Dawson speculates that Amanda must have moved on in life. This belief is inaccurate since in the previous chapter, Amanda is shown to be unhappy with the choices she’s made. The line also reveals Dawson’s inability to forgive himself for his past, pointing to larger ideas about guilt and redemption in the novel.

“The recognition scared her, even as she admitted that Dawson had awakened something inside her that she hadn’t felt in a long, long time.”

This is one of the early instances of Amanda’s tendency to be afraid of her feelings for Dawson and what they might mean to her life. It is of immense significance in the climax of the story, when she chooses her marriage and family over Dawson despite her strong desire to be with him.

“A pair of deer carcasses, gutted and skinned, was strung up on sagging branches, and flies were buzzing and crawling over the flesh while the innards pooled in the dirt below.”

The rotting carcasses and flies in this description evoke disgust and set the mood for the immoral violence of Ted’s actions later in the story. The description also characterizes Ted, who sees himself as a hunter stalking Dawson to get his revenge.

“Something had changed between them in the last few hours—a fragile rebirth of the past, perhaps—that both thrilled and terrified her.”

In Tuck’s garage, Amanda and Dawson fall into their old ways of being with each other. Dawson repairs the car while Amanda watches him. They talk of their days of courtship and romance, and by the end of the day, both of them realize they are still in love with each other. This is a significant moment in their relationship, in which they bridge the distance caused by decades of separation. Amanda’s ambivalence regarding her feelings for Dawson paves the way for drama and suspense in the novel.

“But Dawson’s daddy had intervened, saying the girl was off-limits, and back then Ted used to think that Tommy Cole knew what he was doing.”

This is a small but significant detail about Tommy Cole, Dawson’s father. It reveals that Tommy prevented Ted from harming Amanda when she was Dawson’s girlfriend and hints that Ted eventually murdered Tommy for protecting Dawson. Because the protagonists are unaware of Tommy’s protection of Amanda, the information gives Tommy some form of redemption, as he is otherwise portrayed as an uncaring, abusive father to Dawson.

“They probably didn’t understand how it happened, but they seemed to understand that they were in a cage and couldn’t get out. It wasn’t the life that they were meant to live, or even wanted to live, but there was nothing they could do to change it.”

Amanda tells the story of the otters to her mother to express how she feels in her current life: She is as lifeless as the otters who live away from their natural habitat and feels powerless to change her circumstances. The lines highlight the larger idea that a life separated from one’s true love is unfulfilling.

“Dawson, like Tuck, was one of those rare people who could love only once, and if anything, separation had only made his feelings grow stronger.”

This is a key moment in Dawson’s characterization in which a direct parallel is drawn between him and Tuck. Both are steadfast in their love and remain loyal long after the departure of their loved ones. Dawson’s approach contrasts with Amanda’s, as she chooses to marry someone else and move on.

“Thousands of them, a meadow of fireworks stretching nearly to the steps of the cottage, a sea of red and orange and purple and blue and yellow nearly waist deep, rippling in the gentle breeze.”

Tuck’s cottage is spectacular with its garden of wildflowers. It is the ultimate symbol of his love for his wife, Clara, and represents the beautiful future that Amanda and Dawson can possibly have. Sparks imbues the scene with rich descriptions of color and a metaphor of the sea to heighten the sense of romance.

“Just boomed it out at the top of my lungs, like I didn’t have a care in the world, because I knew that somehow Clara could hear me, and she’d understand that there was no reason to worry.”

This excerpt from Tuck’s letter to Amanda and Dawson illustrates Tuck’s faith in the power of love and cements his stature as a romantic role model. By sharing the most powerful moments of his relationship with his wife, he hopes to inspire the younger couple to write their own love story.

“I’m a Cole, remember? They come, we fight, they come again. It’s what we do.”

After coming to Oriental, Dawson is convinced that, despite his best efforts, he is unable to escape his family’s identity. The surname “Cole” is a force that pulls him into a life of violence and revenge against his will. Dawson’s use of the pronoun “we” is significant as it connotes a certain level of identification with the rest of the Coles.

“‘Exactly,’ her mom said. ‘Don’t take my advice. Or anyone’s advice. Trust yourself. For good or for bad, happy or unhappy, it’s your life, and what you do with it has always been entirely up to you.’”

This is a turning point in the relationship between Amanda and her mother. Amanda realizes she has not been very accurate in considering her mother an unsympathetic and controlling woman. Here, Evelyn does not want to control Amanda, she wants Amanda to control herself and her life choices. This instance also foreshadows the support that Evelyn shows Amanda when Jared is critically injured and hospitalized.

“‘I love you,’ she whispered into the silent room, feeling her future being swept away like so many grains of sand, a future that already felt almost like a dream.”

The “silent room” exemplifies the absence of Dawson and the emptiness Amanda feels as a result. The images of waves washing away sand and the dream-like nature of Amanda’s future with Dawson point to the ephemerality of their romance. This complements the sense that for Amanda, a life with Dawson is difficult to actualize.

“The afternoon had grown warm, too warm for the mullets to jump, and the creek had taken on the lifeless quality of glass.”

The creek and its surroundings form a backdrop for Amanda and Dawson’s reminiscences and conversations. As high school lovers, they watched the mullets jump out of water on moonlit nights, and these were memorable moments in their romance. The present lifelessness of the creek symbolizes the futility of Dawson’s romantic preoccupation with Amanda.

“But even then, her responsibilities continued to press down on her, and ever so slowly, she removed her foot from the brake.”

This is a moment of heightened drama in the novel. The metaphor of pressure describes the weight Amanda’s thoughts when she thinks about her real life as opposed to her romance with Dawson. In the end, her responsibilities make her turn the car away from Dawson to drive home to her husband and her children. The visual image of her slowly releasing the brake increases the suspense of her choice. Amanda’s indecision, which is a major factor in the novel, is finally resolved when she makes the choice to move forward with her married life and leave Dawson behind.

“What was his purpose now that the compass points of his life were gone?”

With no hope of Amanda returning to him and Marilyn Bonner asking him to get over his guilt about the accident, Dawson is left with no past to cling to and, therefore no direction for his life. His present is empty as he has no fulfilling commitments, and his future seems to hold no promise. This line foreshadows the fact that Dawson does not have a future without Amanda, and he is only able to fulfill his dream of being with her through the heart transplant that allows him to symbolically remain part of Amanda’s life.

“Real fear, the kind that left no room to think or feel anything else.”

On hearing about Jared and Frank’s accident, Amanda’s earlier feeling of regret for leaving Dawson is replaced by concern for her family. This emotional urgency brings Amanda back to the reality of her life, and it keeps readers in suspense about Dawson’s fate till the end of the Epilogue.

“Instead, they simply stared at each other across the rig, and despite the distance Dawson thought he felt the beginnings of recognition.”

Dawson’s dream shows that he recognizes that the ghost is Dr. Bonner in stages: first, in his subconscious mind. This partial recognition allows the process of Dawson’s realization of the ghost’s identity to be extended for maximum suspense and plot value.

“The clock on the wall seemed to be keeping time in slow motion.”

This passage describes how Amanda feels waiting in the hospital to hear news of her son’s condition. This is an example of the narrative technique of manipulating time to reflect a character’s emotional experience. The slow movement of time contrasts the whirlwind of thoughts and emotions Amanda experiences as she is waiting to hear about Jared, sustaining the drama and suspense of this segment of the narrative.

“Running through the meadow grass, they were now closing in on the squat, ugly building.”

The building is Tidewater—the bar where the stories of Candy, Abee, and Alan converge. By revealing this detail, Sparks ties Dawson’s destiny to rescuing Alan and introduces a new element into the story. The ugliness of the building mirrors the ugliness and brutality of the actions that take place in it.

“My son is on life support and his time is running out because I never had the courage to leave you…”

This is a high point in the portrayal of Amanda’s troubled relationship with her husband, Frank. Jared’s accident triggers the expression of Amanda’s pent-up resentment towards her alcoholic husband. It is a culmination of all the worries and anxieties that Amanda has expressed in previous sections of the novel, and it paves way for a denouement in which the couple settles for a mutually tolerant and functional marriage.

“Amanda stared at her hands, still laced around the coffee cup, surrounded and supported by her mother’s tiny manicured ones.”

As opposed to the earlier animosity between Amanda and her mother, this moment points to a new dynamic in their relationship. Earlier, Amanda used to consume coffee to strengthen herself against her mother’s verbal assaults. Now, the coffee that her mother makes for her becomes a symbol of nourishment and support. This idea is emphasized by the images of Evelyn’s smaller hands supporting Amanda’s. The detail that Evelyn’s hands are manicured enhances her characterization as refined, but in this case, that refinement does not express itself as prejudice as it did in the past.