Message+in+a+Bottle+-+Connections

//Message in a Bottle// reminds me of the song “The Only Exception” by Paramore. At one point in the song, the lyrics say “Maybe I know somewhere deep in my soul that love never lasts. And we’ve got to find other ways to make it alone, keep a straight face. And I’ve always lived like this keeping a comfortable distance. And up until now I had sworn to myself that I’m content with loneliness. Because none of it was ever worth the risk. But darling, you are the only exception.” This applies to Garrett in the story because even though he loves Theresa, he still has feelings for Catherine. Ever since she’s passed away, he’s kept to himself because he thought that he would never find another woman like her, and it wasn’t worth the hurt of looking until he found Theresa.

The beginning of this novel reminds me of trips to the beach that I’ve been on before because Theresa finds the first bottle while jogging near the ocean. My most recent vacation to the ocean was Virginia Beach two years ago. We got up early the one morning to go out on the beach and watch the sunrise, and I can understand why Theresa would want to go out early in the morning to run.

//Message in a Bottle// reminds me of a couple of Sparks’ other books such as //The Notebook// and //Dear John//. The two main characters fall in love and are forced apart by some force outside their control in all three of these books. But in the end, the two main characters are still in love with each other, even though in this case, they did not end up together. This leads me to believe that Sparks’ has a pretty similar plot outline for the majority of his romances.

This novel reminds me of the movie “Titanic” in the way the ocean is connected to the story. Catherine has died in child birth, and Garrett connects her to the ocean. He writes her letters which he throws into the ocean, which wash up on shore for Theresa to find. She meets him, they fall in love on the boat, and then the ocean takes him from her. This is the same way that Rose and Jack fall in love before he’s taken from her.

The setting of this book reminds me of the river at my grandparent’s camp. They talk about the beach a lot, and how they go swimming. This makes me think of camp with the Allegheny River to swim in and the beach to lay out on. I also like to run on the beach sometimes in the morning, and some strange things have washed up on our beach. We’ve found everything from bottles to barrels to blocks of wood. This just enforces the idea that the ocean, and other bodies of water such as the river, can move things great distances, and you have no idea where those things actually came from before they wash up at your feet.