The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks

Ronnie's family has separated form one another for as long as she can remember. Her father deserted them when she was young, and she has avoided him ever since childhood. Her record held tight until he mother decided her and her brother, Jonah, would be spending the summer with her father in his quaint hometown. Ronnie, disgusted by the idea of even being left alone in the same house with her "traitor" of a father, travels to her father's home reluctantly."She wasn't just visiting her dad. Visiting implied a weekend or to, maybe even a week. She supposed she could live with a visit. But to until late August? Pretty much the entire summer? That was banishment, and for most of the nine hours it had taken them to drive down, she'd felt like a prisoner being transferred to a rural penitentiary (Pg. 7)." Ronnie, being the independent 17 year old girl she is, refuses to have contact with her father as much as she can. As Ronnie drives the long drive from the city of New York she recognizes one thing. She hasn't talked to her father since her parents divorced. Unwillingly starting now may be hard.

There are times in my life when I feel as though I don't want to have anything to do with my family. Whenever my family gets into a fight, or a disagreement, I feel as though I want to shut myself away and never talk to them again. But grudges aren't something I can hold fairly easily, so it's hard for me to do just what Ronnie has done to her relationship with her father. But something that might have supported her throughout the years of avoiding her father was the distance between them. I live with my whole family, so it's hard not to have any contact with them, but Ronnie is NINE hours away from her father, making it easier for her not to come into contact with him.

Steve, Ronnie's father, hasn't seen his daughter or son since who knows when, and as Ronnie makes her way towards his suburban home, he finds himself surprised at her appearance. "Behind her, Steve noticed Ronnie slowly making her way toward them. He was truck by how much she's changed since the last photo Kim had e-mailed. Gone was the all-American girl he remembered, and in her place was a young women with a purple streak in her long brown hair, black fingernail polish, and dark clothing. Despite the obvious signs of teenage rebellion, he thought again how much she resembled her mother (Pg. 20)." Although Ronnie has suppressed all contact possible with her father, her brother Jonah and Steve's "father-son" relationship is strong. Jonah, a premature 10 year old, is still too young to thoroughly understand what his father had done to their family.

Amidst the small family reunion, Jonah's thoughts trickle back to a small carnival going on in the middle of town. The large Ferris wheel towering over the town's homes caught his attention while driving up... '"Hey mom!" Jonah called out. He leaned forward. "What's over there? Is that a Ferris wheel?" Her mom craned her neck , trying to see around the minivan in the lane beside her. "I think it is, honey," she answered. "There must be a carnival in town." "Can we go? After we all have dinner in town (Pg. 14)?"' Although Jonah wishes nothing more than to spend time iwth his father, he still feels the slight need to ride the many carnival rides. So, Steve takes his family to the carnival, a place that Ronnie isn't the most excited to go.