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.