Intertextuality

Spoilers for A Bend in the Road

Intertextuality is the ongoing interaction between poems or stories. It links characters, situations, or themes from past works of literature into present day literature, and, in result, there are no completely original pieces of literature.

A Bend in the Road, by Nicholas Sparks, is a love story that involves great tragedy. It has many similarities to the Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet.

In A Bend in the Road, the main character, Miles, experiences tragedy when his wife dies in a hit-and-run car accident. He doesn't feel like he will ever love anyone again. Then, when he meets Sarah, he immediately notices the connection he has with her. He can't stop thinking about her; he is enthralled by her. It is almost like love at first sight. In Romeo and Juliet, when Romeo sees Juliet he is entranced by her presence. They fall in love when they first meet each other, but their families keep them apart from the very beginning. While Miles and Sarah did fall in love at first sight, they didn't have a family problem that was keeping them from being with each other, at least they didn't think they did. Just when Miles and Sarah's relationship starts to get really serious, more evidence about the hit-and-run accident surfaces. When the driver of the car is revealed to be Sarah's brother, Sarah and Miles are torn apart.

The theme of both of these pieces of literature is "love conquers all." Even though Romeo and Juliet both die in the end, their love still prevails over the rivalry in their families. Miles and Sarah are both still living in the end of A Bend in the Road, but for a while they are separated by this tragedy that stands between them. In the end, love and forgiveness prevail and Miles and Sarah reunite.

The intertextuality in both of these books helped me when I was reading. Even though I read A Bend in the Road after I read Romeo and Juliet, I still appreciated the modern day example because it helped me understand Romeo and Juliet better.

A Quest

Thomas C. Foster, in How to Read Literature Like a Professor, reveals that every trip is a quest. If this is true, then quests are everywhere in literature and movies. One of my personal favorite movies, The Wedding Date, involves a quest.

Quester(s): Kat Ellis and Nick Mercer. Kat is a single woman in her mid-thirties who is uncomfortable with her relationship status. While she is desperately looking for a professional escort in the newspaper she finds Nick. He agrees to be her date on this eventful quest.

A Place to Go: They go to England for her younger sister's wedding.

A Reason to Go: Kat has to go because it is her sister's wedding. Nick goes along with Kat because Kat's ex-fiance is the best man at the wedding, and she wants to appear happy and in love, when, in reality, she is still hung up on her ex-fiance.

Challenges and Trials: Leading up to the wedding Kat has to deal with her dysfunctional family and her ex-fiance. A piece of information is revealed that sends Kat into a depression, and almost shatters the relationship between the bride and groom, the day before the wedding.

The Real Reason to Go: Like in any romantic comedy, Kat and Nick's plan to make the best man jealous backfires and in the end Kat and Nick fall in love. This simple quest turned into an incredible journey that helped two soul mates find each other.