Discussion Topic
The political and historical context of The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks
Summary:
The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks is set against the backdrop of the Iraq War. The story highlights the experiences of a U.S. Marine, Logan Thibault, who finds a photograph of a woman during his tour in Iraq, which he believes brings him good luck. The novel explores themes of fate, love, and the impact of war on soldiers' lives.
What is the historical context of The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks?
The historical context for The Lucky One is the Iraq War, especially soldiers returning home.
The book is about the effects of the Iraq war on a soldier and the ones he loves.
The main character is Logan Thibault, who has been in the Marines.
When he is in Iraq, he finds a picture of a woman and falls in love with her. The picture is supposed to bring him good luck. Back in the states, he finds the woman in the picture, hoping she will fall in love with him. She eventually does, after he explains the picture.
Returning to the US is not easy for Thibault.
The structure of the Marines was based on threes. …. He served three tours in Iraq. Checking his watch, he noted that he’d been in Hampton for three hours, and straight ahead, right where they should have been, were three evergreen trees...
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clustered together. (p. 51)
The book deals with the loneliness and isolation soldiers felt when returning from Iraq. Like Vietnam, it was an unpopular war. When Thibault returns, he feels so disconnected from civilian life that he obsesses over the picture and has to track down the woman in it.
What is the political context of The Lucky One?
I think that one of the most profound elements of Sparks' work is that it suggests that within the political context of the war in Iraq, there is little in way of structure. The fact that Logan can believe that the picture represents luck only highlights how random the life of the U.S. Soldier in Iraq is and was. Logan has little else to explain how he was able to be so fortunate in surviving when so many did not. He escapes the brutal element of skirmishes, of roadside bombs, and of the embodiment of guerrilla warfare. He is able to do this because he believes in the picture, or is led to believe in its lucky qualities. Luck and a sense of chance are all that dominate the condition in Iraq. The political context of war's random nature is highlighted by the fact that Victor suggests the picture is lucky. Logan does not repudiate such logic with an affirmation of United States policy or through spiritual or religious identity. Logan has little idea of why things are working out for him in a setting where so little else works out for so many. This is a statement of the political context that soldiers in Iraq faced. It is for this reason that Logan is able to believe in the picture's qualities, something that would be openly disputed had there been some type of overarching plan or sense of order to the construction of war. Logan's embrace of something so random speaks to the political context of war, in this case the war in Iraq, in how there is little configuration or structure. There is only chance and a sense of luck that permeates the soldier's chances of living.