34 marry. There are also reasons that make Savannah marries Tim. The writer finds
out three major conditions that Savannah faces related to her life.
1. Loneliness
The first condition of Savannah is presented from the beginning when Savannah and John have just met. Being a friendly girl, makes John gets closer
with Savannah. They often go together. One of Savannah’s behaviors when Savannah invites John to eat together with her friends describes Savannah as a
kind-hearted girl. All of those events make Savannah and John love each other. Finally they make a relationship. A few days before John go back to the army;
Savannah says to John that she will not fall in love with no one else. She paused, as if trying to organize her chaotic thoughts. “I didn’t want to
fall in love with anyone,” she said. “I wasn’t ready for that. I’ve been through that once, and afterwards I was a mess. I
know it’s different, but you’ll be leaving in just a few days and all this will be over . . . and I’ll be
a mess again.” p. 138. From the quotation above, it is described that Savannah is afraid of her life after
John goes back to the army. She feels that she is not ready for the relationship because she has ever fallen in love. Then, her life became a mess when she broke
up with her ex-boyfriend. She is afraid that situation will happen again in her life. Although she thinks that her relationship is different from her past relationship,
but the situation is the same as Savannah’s and John’s condition. John will leave
Savannah because of his duty in the army and her life will be a mess. Savannah and John have conversations before John goes back to the army.
At the beginning of the conversations, she has told her fear to John. In their long
35 distance relationship, Savannah knows that during their relationship she can
communicate each other by phone and letter. However, it is not the same when John is next
to Savannah. Savannah tells John that she cannot see John’s expressions and cannot get in touch with John; for examples she cannot sit across,
talk, and share their secrets. She also will not feel John’s arm around her, as stated in the quotation below.
“I know we can write and talk on the phone now and then, and we could see each other when you come home on leave. But it won’t be the same. I
won’t be able to see your silly expressions. We won’t be able to lie on the beach together and stare at the stars.
We won’t be able to sit across from each other and talk and share secrets. And I won’t feel your arm around
me, like I do now.” p. 138. From the quotation below, it can be seen that John tells Savannah that he
will marry Savannah after he comes back from the army. Then, to convince his promise to Savannah, John promises to come back to her. As a loving girl, she is
going to hold John’s promise to marry her. She loves John very much. “I’m going to marry you one day, you know.”
“Is that a promise?” “If you want it to be.”
“Well, then you have to promise that you’ll come back for me when you get out of the army. I can’t marry you if you’re not around.” p. 162.
At that time, Savannah also knows that their relationship will be hard. However, she realizes that life moves fast and as the time goes by they will meet
again. It is shown when she tells John as below: “That’s because I already cried about it, remember? Besides, it’s not like
I’ll never see you again. That’s what I finally realized. Yeah, it’ll be hard, but life moves fast
– we’ll see each other again. I know that.” p. 164. John goes back to the army. Here, Savannah faces a condition that she has
a long distance relationship with John. They communicate each other by letters
36 and phone when they begin to drift apart. Her loving toward John can be seen in
her letter. She says that she will love John forever as stated in this quotation. “I love you, not just for now, but for always, and I dream of the day that you’ll take
me in your arms again.” p. 178. Then as time goes by, John leaves the army and goes home immediately to meet Savannah.
In their meeting, Savannah tells John about her feeling during this relationship. Again, in this part Savannah feels broken hearted when John leaves
her. That feeling makes Savannah has no desire to do anything, such as works on the houses. She is frustrated because she cannot achieve what she wants. The
absence of John in Savannah’s life makes Savannah feels like that. The way how Savannah cries every day and her
expectation of John’s presence are the proofs that she really needs John around her.
There are struggles over the time in their long distance relationship. Savannah should hold the desire of yearn and want to get close with him all the
times. Savannah’s yearning is proven by the way she looks for someone else whose appearance resembles John, but in fact the man is not John. Inside her
heart, she wishes that the man she sees is John. In this case, Savannah can understand about John’s condition in the army, in other hand Savannah cannot
understand about her feeling during this relationship. Refer to the explanation above, the way Savannah describes her feeling
proves that Savannah really experiences a hard situation when John is not around her until she tells John how this situation almost kill her. She feels lonely.
Savannah is also afraid if she will be mess when John is not around her. To
37 overcome Savannah’s bad feeling when John is not around her, Savannah makes
some activities to avoid her heart from turning into a mess. All of that is stated in Savannah’s statement to John below:
“I wasn’t kidding about that. Last summer meant so much to me. More that you can ever imagine, and when you left, I was wreck. I barely
worked on the houses. I know I sent you letters that made you think all
was well and good, but it wasn’t. I cried every night, and every day I’d sit at the house and keep imagining and hoping and wishing that you’d come
strolling up the beach. Every time I saw someone with a crew cut’ I’d feel m
y heart start beating faster, even though I knew it wasn’t you. But that was the thing. I wanted it to be you. Every time. I know that what you do
is important, and I understand that you’re posted overseas, but I don’t think I understood how hard it was go
ing to be once you weren’t around. It seemed like it was almost killing me, and it took a long time to even begin
to feel normal again. And on this trip, as much as I wanted to see you, as much I love you, there’s this part of me that’s terrified that I’m going to go
to pieces again when our trip is up.” pp. 207-208. “So I tried to keep us busy, you know? To keep my heart from being
broken again.” p. 208. The time when John goes back again to the army comes. They are apart in
the airport. Savannah says John that she will be fine and stronger this time. John also tries to convince Savannah that it is going to be okay. Considering all
activities happen in Savannah life, she will feel how fast time goes by. John goes only six months. On the pl
ane, John thinks about Savannah. From John’s thought below, it is shown that love is not enough for a relationship. There must be time
when they can be together. John can feel what Savannah’s feeling about this relationship. John realizes that they have a power of love when they are together,
but when they are apart their relationship becomes weak. In this case, the writer can also see how the presence of the lover is very important for them to make a
happy and balance relationship.
38 I suddenly understood th
at even love and caring weren’t always enough. They were the concrete bricks of our relationship, but unstable without the
mortar of time spent together, time without the threat of imminent separation hanging over us.
When we were together, we had the power to keep it spinning, and the result was beauty and magic and an almost childlike sense of wonder;
when we separated, the spinning began inevitably to slow. We became wobbly and unstable, and I knew I had to find a way to keep us from
toppling over. p. 213.
After several times, John feels that Savannah’s letters begin to change. Where once her letter comes weekly, it starts arriving every ten days, and then as
the days begin longer, it comes only every other week. John also starts to realize that the
tone of Savannah’s letters has changed. There are no long passages in which she describes the way she imagines their life together.
In John’s leaving from the army, John is supposed to visit Savannah, but John has to visit his father because his father is sick in hospital. Savannah
accompanies John in the hospital. Here, John’s relationship with his father is closer than before, but John’s relationship with Savannah is farther. John spends
more times in the hospital, so that Savannah’s and John’s relationship becomes bad. They often fight, because Savannah feels that John has lack of time to spend
with her. In quotation of John’s thought below, John has opinion that the thing which they need is just time to be together where they can cure their belonging
during the long distance relationship. “Still, what we needed was time together. Time alone. If our relationship
was a battery, my time overseas was continually draining it, and we both needed time to recharge.” p. 219.
After the separation of John and Savannah, for several times later, John is
going back to the army and Savannah sends John a letter. In her letter, she says
39 that she has to end their relationship. In this quotation below, it is clear that
Savannah really suffers in the relationship. The time when they are apart is too much and they are far to each other. Those make this relationship does not go in a
good way. Savannah tells again of what she feels during this relationship, which has explained before.
When I walk, it’s almost as if I can feel your hand in mine. Those things are still real to me, but where they once brought comfort, now they leave
me with an ache. I understand your reason for staying in the army, and I respected your decision. I still do, but we both know our relationship
changed after that. We changed, and in your heart, I think you realized it, too. Maybe the time apart was too much, maybe it was just our different
worlds. I don’t know. Every time we fought I hated myself for it. Somehow, even though we still loved each other, we lost that magical
bond that kept us together. pp. 228-229.
Savannah’s hard feeling is also proven by Tim’s statement. Tim says John about Savannah’s condition when John and Savannah has long distance
relationship. Tim tells John that Savannah is very frustrated about their relationship. She really missed John, but John is not around Savannah. The
quotation below is the dialogue between Tim and John. “That whole first year you were gone, she missed you so much. It was like
her heart was breaking a l ittle bit every single day. You we’re all she could
think about. And then she found out you weren’t coming home.” p. 323. Later, the same thing happens when Savannah always feels hard about her
long distance relationship. Savannah is a type of dependent girl. Therefore, she needs someone beside her. When she misses John very much, John is not beside
her. She can only imagine and remember all the things that they have been through together. Here, Savannah feels alone. Again, Savannah has a hard time
when she misses John very much but John is to be apart. She feels that the
40 condition when she has long distance relationship with John is very hard. Another
proof that Savannah feels hard of the relationship is shown in this quotation. “How much I missed you and how hard it was to be apart. And it was
hard. I thought you’d be home by then.” “He’d always remind me that you’d be back on leave before I knew it, and
I can’t tell you how much I wanted to see you again.” p. 280. By the time, Savannah cannot handle her hard feeling during her long
distance relationship with John as stated above. Then, she decides to end her relationship through her letter to John.
2. Savannah Needs Someone to be Loved
