The Lucky One

The Lucky One
Nicholas Sparks, the author of The Lucky One, uses many literary devices and elements throughout the book to help the reader better understand his theme. The main theme is fate or luck. One simple decision or action can seemingly change your fate or luck. Some literary elements and devices that helped shape the theme were the point of view, conflict, symbols, and foreshadowing.
The book is written in a third-person omniscient voice. That is, each chapter is written from a specific characters point of view. You only hear the thoughts from that single character. For example, a chapter labeled Thibault would have only his thoughts included. Other characters in that chapter would be as seen by his perspective. This literary device allowed the reader to really get to know each character and feel a connection to them (sometimes positive and sometimes negative). You could almost tell which character voice you were reading about without even looking at the chapter title. Knowing the backstory of the characters helps you to better understand their luck.
Conflict is present throughout the book. Logan, the protagonist and main character, experiences man vs. man conflict as well as man vs. self. When he returns from Iraq he isn’t sure what he wants to do with his life. He had found a photo of a woman during his last tour in Iraq that he believes brings him luck. He can’t stop thinking about the woman in the photo and decides he is going to leave Colorado and head to North Carolina to find her. When he arrives, he encounters her ex-husband, a deputy named Keith Clayton, and has a series of man vs. man conflicts with him. The conflict begins with the first meeting and continues to their very last meeting! When he meets Elizabeth Green, the woman in the picture, he finds himself very attracted to her and they soon begin an affair. However, he keeps the picture a secret and doesn’t tell her how he found himself in North Carolina. He struggles with his decision to keep it a secret. He is falling in love with Elizabeth and feels she should know the truth. The secret almost backfires against him when Deputy Clayton finds out about it and tells Elizabeth the whole story and warns her to watch out for him.
As most Nicholas Sparks stories are, The Lucky One is a love story. You get to know the stories behind Logan and Elizabeth and you hope they will find their happily ever after with each other. Zeus, Logan’s dog, accompanies him on his journey to find Elizabeth. Zeus is a symbol of lifelong companionship and unconditional love. Both are things that Logan is looking for and we hope he will find with Elizabeth.
The title itself foreshadows what is to come in the book. Both Logan and Elizabeth end up being lucky. Logan makes a series of decisions that change his destiny. First, he finds the picture, he decides to keep it, he considers it a lucky charm, he leaves his life in Colorado and goes looking for the woman in the picture, he finds her, he doesn’t tell her about the picture or why he’s there, and in the end, all of these decisions help him become the lucky one. Elizabeth realizes that he’s not a stalker and he really loves her. Keith also dies and is no longer an issue they have to deal with. Elizabeth is lucky too. She was previously unlucky in love but she finds real love with Logan.
Some people don’t believe in luck or fate. After reading this book, no matter what you call it, I believe there are decisions we make that impact our destiny. And, sometimes there is some luck involved too! In Logan’s case, he found a picture that led him to find his true love. What if he never picked up the picture? I guess it was fate. He was destined to find his true love.