Hirsa Amin
September 29, 2010
Period 1*
English 3 The Gaurdian

The Guardian by Nicholas Sparks is a novel filled with drama and suprises at every bend of each chapter. I personally chose to read this book because I am a fan of Nicholas Sparks, and I have heard positive comments about this book. Overall the genre of this story is generally drama, although it does have moments of suspense throughout the end.

Life dramatically changes for Julie Barrenson, after her husband passes away at the mere age of 26. The upcoming Christmas day however, Julie is presented with the gift that her husband left behind for her in case of his death. A puppy named Singer is dropped on her doorstep, along with the promise that through him he would always be watching over her. During the next four years, Julie has a very distant and unimportant love life until she begins to date and fall in love with a man named Mike. However, their relationship becomes bittersweet as another man by the name of Richard, also in love with Julie, begins to stalk her and threaten the life of herself and her new boyfriend. Throughout these four years, Singer also had a strange intuition about every person that comes through Julie's life. His intuition about Richard, which had always been negative, ended up saving Julie and Mike's lives throughout the end of the novel.

The central conflict of this story is not only Julie and Mike vs Richard, but also on a deeper level Julie vs Julie. After the death of her husband, Julie was tainted towards the direction of dating, and it was very difficult for her to open up towards other people let alone men. As the entire story also portrays, the plot is directed towards Julie and Mike attempting to live a normal peaceful life while Richard is relentless of trying to make Julie fall in love with him, and takes it to shockingly terrifying extremes. Singer not only plays an enormous role in the story as a character himself, but he also represents a far larger purpose as a symbol. Singer represents the love that Julie's husband had for her, and his eternal promise to watch over her and guide her through the struggles in her life. A promise that is kept true, as Singer repeatively saves her from danger, and saves her life.

Nicholas Sparks is very descriptive not only about his characters, but also in describing his settings with vivid imagery. In reading his novel, the audience automatically gets the same mindset towards the characters due to how accurate and descriptive all his details are about them. He also uses quotes numerous times and sarcaasm from his characters to one another as well.

As a Nicholas Sparks fan, this book doesn't cease to impress. I am very satisfied with this novel overall and I would recommend it to mature readers. The book can be difficult to grasp at a young age, therefore older readers would gain the most enjoyment from it. Overall, I was not only in tears at some moving points in the story, but also on the edge of my seat looking forward to the next event. I would definitely reccomend The Guardian as an excellent book.