Book Report 2

Last Song

      The main character in the story is Veronica Miller, but everybody calls her Ronnie. Ronnie is a 17 year old girl with long brown hair and a purple streak. She has brown eyes and a petite, lean body. Most of the time, she is described wearing jeans and casual clothes. She is also a vegetarian because of her love for animals.

            In the beginning of the book The Last Song, the author, Nicholas Sparks, describes Ronnie as a talented musician.  Then he explains how she has played piano at Carnegie Hall and been invited to attend school at Juilliard. He also writes how she refuses to play or let anyone know of her talent. Ronnie is living with her mother and her brother Jonah in Manhattan, New York, but her mom decides it would be best for them to go live with their dad for the summer. Ronnie's dad is Steve, a musician who also plays piano. He currently lives in Wrightsville, North Carolina where he writes music and works in the church he grew up in.        

             In the book The Last Song, Ronnie's personality changes greatly. She goes from being an angry and self absorbed person to a loving, caring, and an admirable individual. In the beginning of the story, Ronnie is basically pissed at the world and everyone in it. She is mad because her parents divorced and her father moved away. Ronnie acts out and becomes a bit of a trouble maker. She is difficult for her mom to handle because she acts disrespectful towards her and she often lies about where she is.  She begins to skip school and her grades start dropping.  Ronnie begins to wear dark clothes and heavy makeup, and she starts hanging out with, as her mom describes, "the wrong crowd."

            When Ronnie's mom takes her to live with her dad, she doesn't want to talk to him or be near him. She doesn't want to listen to anything he has to say to her, and she doesn't like anything he tries to do for her.  She doesn't really want to spend time with either of her parents. Really, the only person she is somewhat nice to is her younger brother, Jonah.

            Ronnie's personality starts to change when she meets and begins to fall in love with a guy named Will Blakelee. Although at first their relationship has its ups and downs, Ronnie learns to care about someone other than herself. Will makes Ronnie happy and at ease with the world. Together Ronnie and Will even protect a sea turtle nest from raccoons so that the sea turtle babies can survive. As Ronnie's world begins to improve, she begins to forgive her father and is able to talk and reconnect with him.

             After Ronnie and her dad have made amends, Ronnie finds out that her dad has stomach and pancreatic cancer and will not live much longer. So Ronnie puts her relationship with Will and her personal struggles aside to spend most of her time with her dad and Jonah. Then she dedicates herself to taking care of her father, and in the process, is able to rebuild her bond with her mother. While Ronnie's time is spent caring for her dad, she encourages Jonah and Will to finish the stain glass window that her father and Jonah had been working on all summer. In her pain and in her healing process, Ronnie also finishes the song that her dad had been struggling to finish. This becomes the real turning point in Ronnie's character which leads to more life changing experiences.

            To find out what becomes of Ronnie, you have to read The Last Song.

             The Last Song is a heart wrenching story of how a young girl's life experiences with family relationships, peer relationships, and tragedy change how she views people.

            Because Ronnie is angry about the break up of her parents, in the beginning of the story, she tends to see people for how they appear on the outside and by her first impression of them. But what she experiences over the period of 3 short months changes how she sees them.

            At the beginning of the summer of her seventeenth year, Ronnie moves to a new home with her father and meets several new people her own age. The first person Ronnie meets is a girl named Galadriel, but most people know her as Blaze. When Blaze and Ronnie first met Blaze was wearing all black and had many body piercings. Her hair was raggedy and uncombed. Blaze had dark heavy make up which made her look gothic. Despite Blaze’s hardened look, Ronnie seemed to relate to her individualism, and as a result they became friends. Both Ronnie and Blaze seemed to be happy as loners. Ronnie soon learns Blaze isn’t a loner; she clings to her boyfriend Marcus. She will do anything to impress him and keep him interested in her. Blaze will even lie and steel for him. For example, one day while Blaze and Ronnie are shopping together, Blaze sneaks a bracelet into Ronnie’s purse to make it look like she shoplifts because Blaze believes that Marcuse likes Ronnie more. As a result, Blaze’s and Ronnie’s friendship falls apart. Later Blaze is severely burned and hospitalized. Marcus is not there for her and Ronnie feels bad. This tragic event and the fact that Ronnie felt bad for Blaze, causes Blaze to apologize and confess to the shoplifting incident. Ronnie Gains a new understanding for Blaze’s need for acceptance, love, and friendship.

            Through the relationship between Blaze and Ronnie, Ronnie is introduced to Marcus. Marcus first appears to be cool, talented, and confident. But, the more time Ronnie spends with Marcus she discovers he is unkind, manipulative, and controlling. Marcus turns out to be a bad influence on Blaze, and he has no conscious; he can trick people into doing anything for him.

            Not only is Ronnie introduced to Marcus, but she also meets a guy named Will. Ronnie first runs into Will at a beach volleyball game. Will is playing volleyball and Ronnie runs into him. She is angered by his careless action and thinks he is a cocky and self-centered jock. She is quick to judge him by his looks and the popular group he’s surrounded by. As the story goes on Ronnie learns Will as a caring, kind, and loveable human being. Will helps her take care of her brother, renews her relationship with her dad, and helps her let go of her anger.

            Ronnie’s perception of others is not only changed by her peers it is also influenced by her father. When Ronnie first comes to live with her father she is angry, resentful, and unwilling to get to know him. But her father is unfortunately dying because he is suffering with cancer. As they begin to renew their family relationship Ronnie learns that her father was diagnosed with cancer and with holding this information from her because he didn’t want her to just feel sorry for him. Ronnie then sees him for who he is, a loving and caring father who would do anything for his children.

            These are some of the example of how Ronnie’s interpretation of others was misguided.