Love in the Air

“Well, sometimes love seems easy. Like ... it's easy to love rain ... and hawks. And it's easy to love wild plums ... and the moon. But with people, seems like love's a hard thing to know. It gets all mixed up. I mean, you can love one person in one way and another person in another way. But how do you know you love the right one in every way?"

Book2Media

     The novel was such a success that movie producers decided to make a film of the movie in 2000 with leading actress Natalie Portman and supporting actress Lexie Coop. By now I'm ducking down in my seat to keep out of the line of fire of the plot. This movie is so heavy on incident, contrivance, coincidence, improbability, sudden reversals and dizzying flash-forwards (sometimes years at a time) that it seems a wonder the characters don't crash into each other in the confusion. Melodramatic elements are slapped on top of one another like a hurry-up plaster-boarding job. The happy ending is so laboriously obvious that it's a little amazing, really, how Portman manages to find sweetness in it, for Novalee and for us.

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi669122841/

1977. In some novels and plays certain parallel or recurring events prove to be significant. In an essay, describe the major similarities and differences in a sequence of parallel or recurring events in a novel or play and discuss the significance of such events. Do not merely summarize the plot.

Novalee Nation is seventeen, seven months pregnant, 37 pounds overweight and superstitious of the number seven. Novalee and her boyfriend, Willy Jack Pickens, were on their way to start a new life in California. Novalee has dreams of a house without wheels and a real family, both of which she has never had before. She wants to document their journey with pictures for the baby by taking a photograph as they crossed over every state line. Willy Jack is getting impatient with Novalee having to go to the bathroom all the time. He also thinks her dreams and pictures are a silly waste of time. After she makes Willy Jack stop for another bathroom break, he abandons Novalee at a Wal-Mart in Sequoyah Oklahoma. She is stranded with only $7.77 in her pocket and her Polaroid camera. 
     Before the shock of being dumped has had time to sink in, Novalee meets a few of the town's "colorful" locals. She meets religious Thelma "Sister" Husband, the "Official Welcome Wagon" of Sequoya. At first, Sister Husband mistakes Novalee for someone else. She offers her own weird brand of wisdom along with a welcome basket and an open invitation to "come out anytime." Novalee takes Sister's picture for her baby's memory book. 
     Next, Novalee meets Moses Whitecotton, a black photographer who tells her to be sure to give her baby a strong name. Novalee takes his picture as well. He will later teach her all he knows about photography. Next, a young Native American boy named Benny Goodluck gives Novalee a buckeye tree for good luck. She takes his picture too. A youthful Benny will also play a part in Novalee's rising photographic career. Later, Novalee will help a 17-year-old Benny get through a special "rite of passage." 
     She makes the best of a bad situation and "moves in" to the Wal-Mart for the next two months. During this time, she keeps a written account of what she "owes" Wal-Mart. Of all the books that I have read there is such a parallel with the sequence of evens. From the girl being left behind to a wonderful lady who decides to help the sweet girl out. 
    The parallel between what would happen in real life and what events take place in the novel are non-exictant today, but about eighteen years ago where this novel takes place it very well may have. 

The Theme of "Coming Of Age"

     Coming of age is a major theme in the novel Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts. Coming of age involves the spiritual, emotional, moral, mental, and overall character growth of an individual based on real-life experiences of various kinds. Coming of age in the novel specifically deals with Novalee, who makes the transition from a teenager to a young woman.

Scrapbooking

o Novalee Nation keeps a scrapbook as she grows up. She puts 

pictures and photos from magazines of houses, colors, and decor 

that she would like to use for her own house one day. For example, 

she wants to put a Mickey Mouse lamp in the baby's bedroom. When 

Willy Jack ditches Novalee, he takes along her scrapbook, which is also

 metaphorical for Novalee's dreams of a better life, a stable family, and a secure home.

The Beginning of History

"Home is where your history begins."

o These words are uttered by Sister Husband as she speaks to Novalee

when they meet for the first time. Sister is explaining that the history

of a life begins at home. Novalee, however, does not yet have a home

to begin her life's story. Yet in time, she will come to find that home is

not necessarily four walls and a roof, but where one is loved, accepted,

and needed

The Love of a Child

"Feel right there.” Her voice was soft, no more than a whisper. “That’s where

the heart is."

o Here, Novalee attempts to get her boyfriend, Willy Jack, to feel the

heartbeat of their baby, but Willy Jack pulls away and says he can't

feel anything. This lie will eat away at him for the next seven years.

When things go badly, he will hear Novalee's voice uttering these

words again and again and again.

Author/Publication Blurb

     Letts was born as Billie Gipson in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She married Dennis Letts, a professor and

actor, in 1958. He served as his wife's editor for her own novels. Dennis Letts died of cancer

in Tulsa on February 22, 2008, aged 73. Billie Letts is a member of the Sigma Sigma Sigma

sorority. Billie Letts is an American novelist and educator. She was a professor at Southeastern

Oklahoma State University. She won a few awards as an author like the Walker Percy Award,

Oklahoma Author Award, and Oprah’s Book Club. She wrote Made in the U.S.A, Shoot the

Moon, The Honk and Holler Opening Soon, and Where The Heart Is.

The book was published August 17, 1995. 

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