Introduction
The tale of Jack Finney’s The Love Letter was written in 1959 and became an excellent basis for a touching film that will not leave anyone indifferent. The book describes the love story of a young man Johnny and an adult woman Helen. This short romance means that Johnny found a mysterious love letter to Helen and wrote her in response, which rekindled her feelings. The work reveals the fear of a man and a woman of different ages, but as it turns out, this fear is groundless since love is a more substantial feeling. Although the story’s theme is quite severe and mature, the work can be called sentimental because of many exciting and touching moments.
Time and Love
This novel is written on behalf of Helen and Johnny; their narrative alternates and allows readers to observe how their novel develops. The book is complex and multi-layered as it reveals various problems facing people. Many difficulties are associated with the obstacles of love, which face the most important aspect of every person’s life, that is, with time. The author emphasizes that there may be a difference in time or age between the characters: “…it was impossible to think of the girl who had written this letter as a very old lady, or maybe long since dead.” (Finney, 1959). It follows from this that the author wanted to draw readers’ attention to the fact that time can become a natural barrier to love.
Love is one of the strongest feelings of a person, but it cannot always be higher than time. Undoubtedly, people can carry their love for each other through their entire life, that is, through a reasonably significant period. In addition, there are many lovers and loving couples in which the age difference of the partners is quite substantial. Unfortunately, there are also opposite situations in which people of different ages are so diverse that they cannot be together, although they love each other. For some couples, the idea that they could be happy together if one of them were born at another time is destructive, as they give up and no longer strive to be together. In this case, it cannot be argued that love is higher than time.
Magical Realism
This study is written with some elements of magical realism. This means that it contains parts of the natural world and fiction, making the work more fascinating. The author points to time and its diversity throughout the work: “There was one final way for Helen Worley to communicate with me over the years, and it took me a long time…” (Finney, 1959). Even though a certain period is described in reality, the story still has particular magical elements.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Jack Finney’s The Love Letter shows a real love story that is beyond the control of the barriers of time and the difficulties that it can create. The story is sentimental, touching and leaves only positive impressions. This work can be recommended for reading as it will not leave anyone indifferent. This is because the result contains the author’s point of view regarding the issue of love and time and may cause a desire to think about this issue from the side of their thoughts. The novel will leave certain impressions and allow readers to make their point of view about love and time.
Reference
Finney, J. (1959). The Love Letter. Richters Time.