The Description of Noah

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CHAPTER II DISCUSSION

This chapter is divided into two parts, based on the questions in the problem formulation. The first part is going to discuss the description of Noah in the novel. The second part concerns with the meaning of love as experienced by Noah.

A. The Description of Noah

Using the second principle that is analyzing someone’s character as seen by other characters, it is found out that Noah is described as a man who looks mature than he really is. He has a well-built body and he gets it from his hard working. It is seen through Allie’s character when she is thinking about Noah. He always looked older than he really was, she remembered thinking. His appearance was that of someone slightly weathered, almost like a farmer coming home after hours in the field. He had the callused hands and broad shoulders that came to those who worked hard for a living, and the first faint lines were beginning to form around the dark eyes that seemed to read her every thought p. 33. As said by Allie, Noah is handsome, tall, and strong. He has light brown hair and calming voice. Allie likes his voice very much. His voice is one of the things she remembers the most about Noah. He was tall and strong, with light brown hair, and handsome in his own way, but it was his voice that she remembered most of all p. 33. 7 Noah has dark and soft eyes that Allie admires very much. His eyes sometimes amaze Allie and make her nervous. When she is talking to Noah, she often gets nervous every time she looks at Noah’s eyes. But God, those eyes. Those soft, dark eyes. She turned away and took a deep breath, wondering how to say it, and when she finally started, her voice was quiet p. 39. His eyes are what people call the windows of someone’s heart. Noah cannot hide anything from Allie since his eyes always show what Noah feels. “I know. You could never hide anything. Your eyes always gave you away. You had the most wonderful eyes I’d ever seen” p. 116. From the direct comment, it can be found out that Noah is a loving person. He loves his late father very much and always prays for him. His father means so much for him. Noah gets values of life from him. And every night without fail he took a moment to remember him, then said a prayer for the man who’d taught him everything that mattered p. 28. Noah also loves the nature. He enjoys the nature as the part of his life. He likes getting close to the nature. Nature can always give him the peace and warmth. He enjoys the sound of nature more than other things. The evening passed, staying warm, nice. Noah listened to the crickets and the rustling leaves, thinking that the sound of nature was more real and aroused more emotion than things like cars and planes. Natural things gave back more than they took, and their sounds always brought him back to the way man was supposed to be p, 9. 8 There’s something special, almost mystical, about spending dawn on the water, he thought to himself, and he did it almost every day now p. 86. He likes camping and exploring the nature. He regards the nature as his friends and he always enjoys being close with the nature. Camping and exploring became his passion, and he spent hours in the forest, sitting beneath blackjack oak trees, whistling quietly, and playing his guitar for beavers and geese and wild blue herons. p. 23 Noah loves the animal as well. He likes seeing and getting close to the animals. He regards them as his friends. He enjoys his meal at the creek so he can get close to the animals in the creek. He ate at the creek because the mullets were jumping. He liked to watch them jump three or four times and glide through the air before vanishing into the brackish water. For some reasons he had always been pleased by the fact that their instinct hadn’t changed for thousands, maybe ten of thousands, of years p. 21. Noah has a dog named Clementine. Clementine is hit by car and a vet calls him if he wants to keep her. Seeing Clem, Noah cannot let Clem be killed in order to end her suffering. Noah takes care Clemenentine and she becomes a good friend of Noah. It shows how Noah loves the animal as well. “Hit by car a few months back. Doc Harrison, the vet, called me to see if I wanted her because her owner didn’t want her anymore. After I saw what had happened, I guess I just couldn’t let her be put down” p. 40. Noah is a kind-hearted and helpful person. He likes helping his neighbours and friends. He has a neighbour named Martha Shaw. She is a widow living in an 9 old house with her children. Noah helps her repair her house when winter is coming. His neighbor, Martha Shaw, was there to thank him, bringing three loaves of homemade bread and some biscuits in appreciation for what he’d done. Her husband had been killed in the war, leaving her with three children and a tired shack of a house to raise them in. Winter was coming, and he’d spent a few days at her place last week repairing her roof, replacing broken windows and sealing the others, and fixing her woodstove p. 29. Noah also helps Gus’ family. Gus’ family does not have a car so they get difficulty when they want to go shopping. Noah always gives them a ride when he is going shopping. Once she’d left, he got in his battered Dodge truck and went to see Gus. He always stopped there when he was going to the store because Gus’s family didn’t have a car. One of the daughters hopped up and rode with him, and they did their shopping at Capers General Store p. 29. In the nursing home, when Noah is not with Allie, he often comes to others’ room to see his friends. He talks to them and shares his story with them. He understands that most of the people there feel lonely. He comes to accompany them. They feel happy when Noah comes to see them. Men or women, they smile at me when I enter and speak in whispers as they turn off their sets. “I’m so glad you’ve come, they say, and then they ask about my wife p. 151. He also accompanies them when they remember about mortality. They sometimes feel afraid when something reminds them about their own mortality. Noah reads poetry to calm them. So I sit with them and read to lessen their fears p. 152. 10 One of the things that Allie loves from Noah is his kindness. In her letter, Allie tells him about it. His kindness makes him like an angel to Allie. She believes that everyone can see how kind Noah is. You have something inside you, Noah, something beautiful and strong. Kindness, that’s what I see when I look at you now, that’s what everyone sees. Kindness. You are the most forgiving and peaceful man I know. God is with you, He must be, for you are the closest thing to an angel that I’ve ever met p. 200. From his past life, it can be seen that Noah is a hard-worker. He used to work for Goldman. His father teaches him to work hard and to demand the pay role only from something that he has already done. His years in the lumberyard had toughened him to this type of labor, and he worked hard. Not only did it help him keep his mind off Allie during the day, but it was something he felt he had to do. His daddy had always said: “Give a day’s work for a day’s pay. Anything less is stealing” p. 25. His hard work pleases his boss, Goldman. Noah quits working when the war begins. He decides to join the war. While he is in the boot camp, he gets a letter from Goldman. The letter tells how Goldman thanks him for his work. Goldman also gives a certificate showing that he will get a small percentage of the scrap yard if it is sold. Goldman feels so lucky to have a worker like Noah. Therefore, he is willing to give Noah that percentage. While there, he received a letter from Goldman thanking him for his work, together with a copy of certificate entitling him to a small percentage of the scrap yard if it ever sold. “I couldn’t have done it with you, “ the letter said. “You are the finest young man who ever worked for me, even if you aren’t Jewish” p. 27. 11 From the explanations above, it can be concluded that Noah is well built, tall, and strong. He has beautiful and soft eyes and calming voice. He is a loving person. He loves not only people but also the nature and animals. He is kind- hearted as well. He helps his friends and neighbours to solve their problems. Moreover, he is a hard worker.

B. The Meaning of Love as Experienced by Noah