Journey from Immaturity to Maturity in Nicholas Sparks's The Last Song

Abstract

This research is a critical analysis of Nicholas Sparks's The Last Song, where the seventeen-year old Ronnie Miller, the protagonist, is trying to achieve maturation from ignorance. Applying Fritz Martini’s concepts on Bildungsroman genre that focuses on the coming of age and rites of passage of an adolescent or adult and is recognized for how it educates its readers about personal growth and self consciousness, this research explores the protagonist’s journey from immaturity to maturity, both physically and psychologically. This is the story of the adolescent Ronnie who feels alienated after her parents' divorce. Her mother decides that she and her brother Jonah spend the summer with her father. She goes to North Carolina from New York to spend summer. Ronnie lives in North Carolina with her father. At that time, she runs off to the carnival down at the beach, where she watches a volleyball game in the crowd. She encounters with different types of friends like Blaze, Marcus, Scott and Will. She falls in love with Will, who is the good looking beach volleyball player. She faces her father's death from cancer. Then she forgives herself with her father. She eventually succeeds in asserting the self as sign of maturity.