Message In A Bottle

In 1996, before Message in a Bottle, Nicholas Sparks wrote The Notebook, which dealt with “everlasting, unconditional love” (“Message in a Bottle.” Nicholas Sparks). His first romance was hugely popular, which made it difficult to decide whether to stick with the same themes or try something new. The Notebook was inspired by his wife’s grandparents’ real-life love story, and he sought to capture the quality of their relationship in that story. Though he opted to go in a different direction thematically with his sophomore novel, he turned to family again for inspiration.

Sparks says he drew inspiration for his second novel from his father’s experiences after the death of his mother. In a completely unpredictable accident, Sparks’s mother fell from a horse, hit her head, and died shortly after. She and Sparks’s father married young and had been married for 27 years when she died, so his father struggled with how to live without her. “A lot of people wear black to a funeral,” Sparks says, “My father wore black every day for four years” (“Message in a Bottle”). His father became a virtual recluse, even avoiding friends and family, only leaving the house to go to work. This is similar to Garrett Blake’s experience in Message in a Bottle in that Garrett and Catherine knew each other as children and always had feelings for one another. After she dies, he doesn’t really know how to carry on with living. He maintains his boat and his scuba shop, but he doesn’t try to meet anyone new, and he certainly seems to withdraw from everyone except his father.

Eventually, Sparks’s father began to live again, spending several years reconnecting with family and friends and eventually beginning to date; then, seven years after his wife’s death, he got engaged. This is similar to Garrett’s experience, as he invites Theresa to go sailing with him, surprising himself with his desire to spend time with her. As they spend more time together, he feels happier and enjoys himself more than he thought possible after losing Catherine. Jeb’s character may be modeled on Sparks himself, as Sparks says of his father, “Kids worry about their parents the same way parents worry about their kids, and I was glad that he’d finally found someone” (“Message in a Bottle”). Likewise, Jeb is surprised and relieved when he learns about Theresa and his son’s interest in her.

Ultimately, the love story’s tragic ending, where Garrett dies just after deciding to let Catherine go and make a life with Theresa, is also based on Sparks’s father. Just two days after he told his son about his intention to marry again, Sparks’s father fell asleep while driving and died in a crash. However, Sparks doesn’t see the novel’s end as a tragedy “because of the lessons that [he] learned from what [his] father went through; namely, that no matter how hard and terrible life can be at times, it’s possible to move on” (“Message in a Bottle”). Garrett eventually moved past his grief, which shows that Theresa will also be able to do so. Thus, for Sparks, the novel’s lesson parallels life’s: Love after grief is possible.