The+Wedding

Krista Muska, Alecia Christiano, Ariel Kerrigan, Noelle Kilgore

= = =__ Week 1: __=

__**Discission Question:**__
Describe the main characters in your text. What makes them interesting? What is their story or background? Why are you drawn to them? Conversely, are there any characters that you just cannot stand? Why not?

The main characters in the text are the mother, the father, and their 3 kids. The father spends all of his time working and his children have different relationships with him. He was raised in a town house in Washington D.C and was an only child to government lawyers.The oldest daughter, Anna, doesn’t talk to him that much. She feels like she can be silent with him and that makes her feel comfortable. The son, Joseph, and the father have a little in common. Joseph is a vegetarian and he had a little resistance towards the father like Anna did. He wanted to form an impression on the father but the father wasn’t around enough for this to happen. The youngest daughter, Leslie, liked to visit the father and she had the best relationship with him. She played around with him and made him gifts. She was very kind and was also very easy to love for both the father and for her grandparents. She caused the father the least amount of worry and when she comes around he drops everything and plays with her. Jane isn’t afraid to share her emotions. She is very strong and is grounded and knows the difference between right and wrong. Jane can always make decisions very quickly and she doesn’t care about what other people thing of her and was raised in a small town with 2 siblings and 2 parents. We don’t like the father because he is not putting enough effort into his family, which should be the most important thing to him and our favorite character is Leslie because she seems like a really sweet and fun person to be around.

Krista Muska

__**Questions:**__ **Alecia Christiano**

 * 1) ====== What does the story say is the blessing and the curse of marriage? And why do you think this is? ======

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The story says that stress is the blessing and the curse of marriage. That stress is good because you always have an outlet that is always there for everyday strains but it is the curse because the outlet that you are using is somebody you deeply care about. ======

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We think that it is going to be different because we don’t think that it is going to be a love story like the notebook was. We think that the wife might leave the husband because they have had ups and downs their entire marriage. ======

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5. Do you think that true love like that which may occur in this book and the love that The Notebook is surrounded by is hard to find or do you think that everybody will find this kind of love in their lifetime? ======

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We think that everybody has somebody to love somebody in the world but we think that books like the ones that Nicholas Sparks writes exaggerate what love actually is because not many people will find love like that in their life although we all would like to. ======

=__Meeting Review:__=

This week we discussed the first part of the book. The first part of the book was mainly introducing us to the characters. It described the family’s relationships and the children’s relationship with their parents and the characteristics that each of them have. We learned that the father is more committed to his job then to his family and he doesn’t get along very well with all of his children. We also discussed the reasons that we thought he forgot the wedding anniversary and how we would feel if once we were married our husband forgot our anniversary. During this meeting we discussed a lot about how we like the book and what we thought was going to happen with the marriage in the future. We all hope that everything will work out and get better but we don’t think that it will work out that way even though it is a love story. We are all very anxious to keep reading on and see how the story starts to unfold. Noelle Kilgore

__Quotes:__
__1.)__ " Is it possible, I wonder, for a man to truly change? or do character and habit form the immovable boundaries of our lives?" 2.) " Its heart breaking to think your wife may not love you." 3.) "I couldn't deny that we were drifting apart." 4.) "My wife is still beautiful." 5.) "I come here because this place is special to me."

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= Week 2 =

Quotes: Alecia Christano
1. Love I’ve come to understand is more than 3 words mumbled before bedtime.

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3. It was after she finished that we both began to notice a new awkwardness in the marriage, an awkwardness that had to do not with an empty nest, but with the type of couple wed become, yet neither of us spoke about it.======

5. I was dying on the inside, aching for all that wed lost and as I stared at our wedding photograph I hated myself for allowing it to happen.
__Meeting Review:__

This week, we read the second fifth of our book. To begin this meeting, we ate cereal, talked about the book, and then answered questions anyone had. Noelle had to make the questions, Alecia did the quotes, Ariel did the topic question, and I did the Summary. We discussed the quotes and why the protagonist wanted to save the marriage, and everything that was going on. After eating and discussing the book, we answered the topic question. It wasn't that hard to do because the language was basically for young adult, and it is easy to understand. Everyone is keeping up with reading for the most part, give or take a chapter or two, but we all understand it all.

__The wedding by Nicholas Sparks is a wonderful book. The language flows very smoothly, and has some nice big words in there that may possibly stump you. This book isn't for children or like young teenagers. I think that this book is meant more for adults and older teenagers. I also think that this book is not for younger people is because of the problems in it. Older teenagers and adults would understand this since it deals with problems between a husband and a wife.__
 * Discussion:**

=**Week 3:**__=

**Discussion Question: Alecia Christiano**
In our group we discussed the overriding emotion of this book which is sadness right now or love possibly because the book revolves around the love of a couple. In this book the parents marriage is starting to fall apart and as the children start to go to collage and move out to start lives of their own the family is slowly starting to fall apart. Wilson is not confident with the person that he is and keeps wondering what Jane saw in him and why she loves him. Jane is helping Anna to plan her wedding by the things that she regrets about her wedding. This is so sad because instead of thinking about all the good parts of her wedding which should have been one of the best days of her life she was think about all the regrets instead. As Wilson thinks back about all the good times that they had together and about all their firsts that they shared together. This is really sad because their relationship went from something so good to something very damaged and he doesn’t know if or when they will be able to fix it. There is also a lot of love in this story because Wilson always talks about how much he loves his wife Jane. He says that his feelings for her haven’t changed from the moment he laid eyes on her even though he now realizes that he was at times taking their relationship and love for each other for granted.

Review: Sadly this week, Krista has been out for two days. We think she left the country. We discussed the books mood and tone. Also we discussed the problems normal married people face everyday and what true love really is. This was a very good week for us we got a lot accomplished.

=Week 4::=

Discussion:: everyone. On your group's wiki page, discuss the themes and images that your book contains. What are some of the images that are used? What do they seem to represent? Why do you think the author uses these images to convey his or her meaning? -- The theme in this book is love. It is about conquering the separation and self need to become selfless and join together as one all over again. The author shows this very well and has the protagonist go through a self journey of finding himself, finding out why he loves his wife, and to become the father his family needs. The author uses this because it is a struggle for everyone to become selfless and to have someone rely on them for things that they need while putting yourself last. Everyone, it seems, needs to go through this voyage at least once in their life, especially when they marry someone. The husband and wife are supposed to rely on each other, and help each other out during times that are tough. It is a couple's journey to become the best that they can be, even though they might want to ring each other's necks sometimes.

Quotes:: Krista Muska 1. What are we, after all, without our memories... without our dreams? 2. You have to understand that back then, a lot of people our age wanted to change the world. Even though it's a noble idea, I knew I wanted something more traditional. I wanted a family like my parents had and I wanted ot concentrate on my little corner of the world. I wanted someone who wanted to marry a wife and a mother, and someone who would respect my choice. 3. What I'm trying to say is that you are there, in everything I am ... In everything I've ever done ... and looking back, I know I should have told you how much you've always meant to me. 4. Sometimes when you're dreaming, I'll move closer to you in the hope that somehow this will allow me to enter your dreams. 5. My first thoughts after waking are - and always have been - of you.

Questions: Alecia Christiano 1. Why did Anna start going for walks in the morning? At first is was to loose weight be then she realized that she started to enjoy the quiet time that she had alone and kept walking in the mornings after the weight was off. 2. Why was Jane debating on whether or not to stay over nights at Anna's? She didn't know if she should because Noah was in the hospital and it was more important that she go help him then stay and help Anna pick out her dress. 3. What happened in the driveway that Jane couldn't believe happened? Jane couldn't believe that when she was getting ready to leave to go visit Noah, Wilson told her to have a good time and then when he kissed her he whispered, "You're beautiful". 4. What are some of the things Jane smells and sees when she enters the hospital? When Jane enters the hospital she smells the antiseptic air and sees multi-colored tiles and an entertaining room that is very empty except for a couple watching TV and two men playing checkers in the corner. 5. What did Jane find in the top drawer of Noah's dresser? She says that in his top drawer is the hand-scripted notebook which Noah remembered his love affair with Allie, his leather bound diaries whose pages were turning yellow and hundreds of letters written to Allie over the years along with the last letter that Allie had ever written to Noah.

Week 5::
Questions: Krista Muska 1. How did you feel about the ending Nicholas Sparks chose for this story?

2. How is this book similar to your family life?

3. How would you feel if your parents were like the parents in the book? If they had the problems that they had? Would you notice the problems?

4. Would you suggest this book to people? Why?

5. Would you have tried as hard as the husband if your spouse was pushing you away?

__Discussion: Alecia Christiano__
After reading this book we all agreed that it was a fantastic story that kept us wanting to read more. We liked how the things in it seemed like reality and not a made up dream like a lot of love stories seem to be. It was about the struggles that families face and love which are both real issues that many families in America face daily. We had a very easy time relating to this story and we think that it would be a great book for our peers to read because most of them would be able to relate to the situations they face. We topic of love was discussed better in the book __The Notebook__ which was another book that was written my Nicholas Sparks. This book was the next part of The Notebook and was about the children that Alli and Noah had. We don’t think that this book should be considered for the schools curriculum because we don’t think that the boys in the school would really like to read it. It was a really good book for girls to read so it could maybe be an option for the summer reading.