The Notebook

The Notebook

Kristi Rousos

Psychology 101

March 18, 2006

Ms Grimes Class

The Notebook is a movie in which the main character Allie has Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is marked by forgetting and repeating things, getting lost and confused, difficulties recognizing persons and objects. Symptoms usually appear after age sixty. Alzheimer’s disease is not a normal part of aging and the cause is yet unknown. Alzheimer’s disease is the fourth leading cause of death among adults and at present there is no known cure. The story begins in a nursing home where Allie and Noah (Allie’s husband) stay. Allie needs to be there for care, but Noah doesn’t. He stays to help care for her. He reads to her from a notebook about their life together. He hopes this will help her remember him, because her disease has progressed so that she doesn’t remember him or her children. Allie believes that Noah’s name is Duke; he tells her that because of the confusion which Alzheimer’s disease causes she believes that this is a story about another couple. Noah reads that he fell in love with Allie at first site, but her parents say he is not good enough for her. Her family leaves town, and she starts college and he goes off to war. He writes to her every day for a year, but her parents keep the letters. She gets engaged, he works on a plantation house and fixes it up the way Allie wanted it. He hopes she will come back to him. She sees his picture in the paper with the house and decides to go see him before she gets married. They find the are still in love. Allie is torn between here fiancй and Noah. Allie decides to stay with Noah. While Noah is reading the story, she says she thinks she’s heard this story before. Noah talks to the doctor and says he reads to her sometimes and sometimes she remembers. The doctor tells him not to get his hopes us, and seems skeptical that she remembers anything at all. Families of Alzheimer’s desperately want to believe that they the victim will get their memory back, when in reality there is no cure. When the children arrive at the nursing home, Allie doesn’t recognize any of them. This is what happens when Alzheimer’s disease progresses. The children please with Noah to leave. They tell him that they miss him and that she will not know if he is gone. Noah refuses because his deep love for Allie keeps him there. One day after Noah reads to Allie, they come back to the room. There is