QUICK SUMMARY: The Notebook is a romantic drama that absorbs the reader. The Notebook mostly focuses on the main characters Allie and Noah, and is a "epic love" story that begins with a older man reading to another older woman in an elderly home. He reads to her about a young couple who fall in love and tells the story of how they lost and found one another during WWII and because of their very different social status. We eventually learn that the elderly woman is Allie and the Elderly man reading is Noah, he reads her the story of their love because although her memory has faded, his words give her the chance to relive her amazing youth and the unforgettable love they shared.
THE AGE DIFFERENCES: In the book Allie is 15 and Noah is 17 which most people looked at as more of a high school crush that was a little to intimiate for their age especially how young they portrayed her. In the movie the couple appeared to be closer in age if not the same age, and I assume they didn't want her to play the role exactly the same as the book since many people may not have felt comfortable with the intimitate scenes that the movie brings to live and goes more in depth with. I believe her being a little more older and him being his same age in the movie made the whole "First Real Love" concept much more relatable for people.
CHARACTER DIFFERENCES: In the book Allie and Noah were both more gentle and kind to one another, Noah is described as being more shy and never has anything bad to say of Allie while Allie is a little more open and compassionate (P23, 64, and 89) but in the movie they were described as being a couple that was attached at the hip and bickered continuously but still loved one another no matter what, Noah had bad things to say to Allie in the movie so it just seemed more realistic and less fantasy like, no relationship is perfect and that is much more relatable.
DRAMATIZATION: Throughout the book it was pretty calm, there was no major scenes of arguing between the two and it was unrealistically perfect. Then in the film I assumed to make the movie itself more relatable and realistic, also so nobody would get bored watching the movie, The director added a scene where we see Noah and Allie get into an argument after Allie’s parents clearly stated loudly that Noah wasn't good enough for their daughter. This made Noah and would've made anybody, male or female, incredibly upset and caused him to leave thus us later finding out that that lead to them breaking up. However, in the book there isn’t an argument between Allie and Noah, it is much calmer. In the movie it is stated that they argued over everything “but the one thing they had in common was, they were crazy for each other”. which in essence is how a real healthy relationship between young adults is.
DELETED SCENES: In the movie Noah takes Allie on a boat so she can see the swans when a thunderstorm hits. When they docked the boat she demanded to know why he never wrote to her but he quickly explained he'd written to everyday for a year which eventually lead to them kissing passionately during the storm (Because people do that now). This scene is one of the most memorable in both book and movie, along with the beach scene where Allie wants to be a bird and Noah says “If you’re a bird then I’m a bird”. The kiss in the rain scene never happens in the book but has become one of the most important scene in the movie. Even though this scene is very different to the book it allows the viewer to see how madly in love they have always been for each other even when they were apart, their love never changed.
MINOR CHANGES: In the book and movie their were a few minor changes that would've never been noticed unless you were looking for them much like I am but the ones that I found never effected the plot as much as you'd think they would've. In the book Noah says Noah bought house with money he inherited from his old boss at a scrap metal company.(P87) but in the movie he remodeled the house along with his dad the way Allie told him she dreamed of it being and his father helped him be able to afford the house. The book had more details about the progression of Allies disease and how she wrote the book but in the movie they only stated what she had and that he wrote the book for them. Lastly Allie was friendly when Noah asked her out instead of resisting in the book (P67) but in the movie she resisted and was rude to him because she didn't want to go with him.
