The Last Song

Steve, Ronnie and Jonah’s father, serves as the novel’s deuteragonist and mentor figure. He is a round and largely static character; while his circumstances change dramatically, his core traits of patience, selflessness, and love remain constant, providing the moral anchor for the narrative. A former concert pianist and Juilliard instructor, Steve’s defining characteristic is his profound, quiet patience, particularly in his interactions with Ronnie. He endures her initial hostility and anger with unwavering calm, never retaliating or forcing a confrontation. His response to her emotional outbursts is consistently gentle and forgiving. After she smashes a framed photograph and screams her hatred for him, his only reply is, “Good night, sweetheart…I love you” (60). This patient love eventually erodes Ronnie’s defensive walls. His decision to build a plywood partition to hide the piano from her sight is another significant act of selfless love, demonstrating that he values her emotional comfort over his own connection to music, the very medium that once defined their bond.

Steve’s identity is deeply intertwined with art, which he uses as a means of emotional expression and a way to create a lasting legacy. Having abandoned a professional music career, he channels his creativity into crafting a large stained-glass window for the local church that was destroyed by fire. This project, symbolizing faith and redemption, becomes a silent testament to his love for his community and his desire to leave behind something beautiful in the face of his own mortality. His return to composing music, culminating in the unfinished song that Ronnie completes, is his final and most personal artistic act. It is through this shared creation that he and Ronnie achieve their ultimate reconciliation, bridging years of silence and misunderstanding. This reinforces the theme of Art as a Medium for Emotional Expression and Connection, as music succeeds where words have consistently failed. His character is also deeply reflective, often shown contemplating his past failures, his relationship with his own emotionally distant father, and his search for a tangible sense of God’s presence, adding significant psychological depth to his character.

A central element of Steve’s character is his tendency toward secrecy, a trait born from a desire to protect his children. He conceals his terminal cancer diagnosis in order to provide Ronnie and Jonah with one last normal summer, a decision that drives much of the plot’s underlying tension. Furthermore, he allows Ronnie to believe that he was responsible for the divorce, willingly shouldering her resentment for years to preserve her relationship with her mother. While these secrets are motivated by love, they also serve as barriers to genuine intimacy and understanding, directly supporting the theme of The Corrosive Nature of Secrets and the Liberation of Truth. It is only when these truths are revealed that the Miller family can fully heal and reconcile. Steve’s quiet endurance, his artistic spirit, and his ultimate sacrifice define him as a tragic but deeply noble character whose primary motivation is the unwavering love he holds for his children.

Will is a deuteragonist and the primary love interest for Ronnie, functioning as a key catalyst for her emotional growth. As a round and dynamic character, he undergoes his own moral development while helping Ronnie navigate hers. Initially presented as a popular, athletic local, Will quickly reveals himself to be principled and surprisingly deep. Unlike the stereotypical jocks in his social circle, he possesses a strong sense of responsibility, demonstrated through his part-time job at his family’s auto shop and his volunteer work at the local aquarium. His attraction to Ronnie stems from her authenticity; he is drawn to the kindness he glimpses beneath her rebellious exterior, particularly when she protects a small child during a fight at the carnival. He perceives a genuineness in her that is absent in his ex-girlfriend, Ashley, and the other members of his affluent world. This ability to see beyond surface appearances establishes him as a character of substance.

Will’s primary internal conflict revolves around a secret he keeps regarding the church fire, making him a parallel figure to Steve and underscoring the theme of The Corrosive Nature of Secrets and the Liberation of Truth. He believes that his best friend, Scott, accidentally started the blaze but remains silent out of a complicated sense of loyalty, stemming from a past tragic event when Scott saved his life. This secret weighs heavily on him, making him vulnerable to blackmail by Marcus and causing him significant guilt, especially as he witnesses Steve’s dedication to rebuilding the church. Will’s journey is one of redefining his understanding of loyalty and friendship. His love for Ronnie and his admiration for her father’s integrity ultimately compel him to seek a path toward truth and justice, forcing him to confront the moral cost of his silence. His decision to anonymously fund the rest of the church’s reconstruction is a pivotal moment, representing his attempt to atone for his complicity and take responsibility in a way that Scott refuses to.

Ultimately, Will serves as a steady, supportive presence in Ronnie’s life, providing the acceptance and understanding that allows her to lower her emotional defenses. He is patient with her moods and consistently sees the good in her, even when she cannot see it in herself. He challenges her without being confrontational, encouraging her to face her problems rather than run from them. Their relationship is built on mutual respect and a shared sense of being outsiders in their own ways; he feels constrained by his family’s expectations, while she feels alienated by her family’s past. Will’s unwavering belief in Ronnie’s innocence in the shoplifting case provides her with crucial emotional support, and his love gives her the stability she needs to finally confront her pain and forgive her father. His own growth from being burdened by a friend’s secret to acting on his conscience makes him a complex and integral part of the narrative.

Blaze, whose real name is Galadriel, is a significant minor character who acts as both a foil to Ronnie and a catalyst for major plot developments. As a dynamic character, she undergoes her own arc of redemption. When Ronnie first meets her, Blaze appears to be a kindred spirit, another teenage rebel dressed in black and alienated from her family. She represents a potential path for Ronnie, one of deeper self-destruction and dangerous associations. However, it quickly becomes clear that Blaze’s rebellion is rooted in a more desperate and vulnerable place. She is manipulated and controlled by her abusive boyfriend, Marcus, and has been kicked out of her home by her mother.

Blaze’s character is central to the theme of The Corrosive Nature of Secrets and the Liberation of Truth. Driven by jealousy and fear of Marcus, she frames Ronnie for shoplifting, an act of betrayal that creates one of the novel’s primary external conflicts. This action pushes Ronnie to a low point but also forces her to rely on her father and Will, ultimately strengthening those relationships. Later, after being severely burned in an accident caused by Marcus’s carelessness, Blaze finds the courage to confess her crime to the authorities. In this pivotal moment, she not only exonerates Ronnie but also reveals that Marcus, not Scott, was the true arsonist behind the church fire. Her decision to tell the truth, despite the personal risk, leads to her own liberation from Marcus’s control and initiates her reconciliation with her mother, demonstrating her capacity for moral growth and redemption.

Marcus is the novel’s primary antagonist. He is a static character who embodies malice and chaos, serving as the main source of external conflict for Ronnie and Will. His defining characteristic is his pyromania, which extends beyond a mere fascination with fire to a symbolic representation of his destructive and manipulative nature. He uses fireballs in his street performance to intimidate others and assert dominance, and his most significant act in the story is setting the fire that destroys the church. This connects him directly to the recurring motif of fire as a destructive force.

Marcus’s motivations are rooted in a desire for power and control over others. He is physically and emotionally abusive toward his girlfriend, Blaze, isolating her from her family and manipulating her into participating in his criminal activities. His interactions with other characters are almost exclusively antagonistic; he attempts to provoke Will into a fight, threatens Ronnie when she rejects him, and uses his knowledge of the church fire to blackmail Will. The narrative provides no redemptive qualities for Marcus, casting him as a troubled figure whose actions reveal the moral strength and integrity of the characters who oppose him. He functions less as a complex personality and more as a force of corruption that tests the story’s protagonists.

Jonah is Ronnie’s 10-year-old brother and is a flat, static character who provides innocence, emotional clarity, and comic relief. His perspective is untainted by the teenage angst and adult resentments that define the other characters. He is openly excited to spend the summer with his father, and his simple, unwavering love for Steve serves as a stark contrast to Ronnie’s initial hostility, highlighting the depth of her anger. Precocious and talkative, Jonah often acts as an unintentional truth teller, asking blunt questions that cut through the secrets and tensions within the family.

Despite his minor role, Jonah is crucial to the emotional landscape of the novel. His close bond with Steve, particularly their shared project of building the stained-glass window, offers a portrait of the father-child relationship that Ronnie has rejected. Jonah’s devastation upon learning of his father’s illness provides one of the story’s most poignant moments, articulating a pure, uncomplicated grief. Jonah represents the childhood innocence that Ronnie has lost and is trying to reclaim, and his presence consistently reminds the other characters of the simple, unconditional love that lies at the heart of their family.