Safe Haven: Theme/ Summary

I recently finished my novel, Safe Haven. It was an all-together very great and well-written book, and it has a great theme and meaning behind it. However, before I provide my analysis of the theme in the story, I believe it is important to give a brief but complete plot summary first. This novel starts off with the very mysterious and reserved character, Katie, starting up her new life in Southport, North Carolina. She spends most of her time working at her job at a local restaurant, mostly because she needs the money but also to give her something to keep her busy because she doesn't know anyone in Southport. As the story progresses, Katie is slowly forced to creep out of the shell she has built for herself. She makes friends in her next-door neighbor, Jo, and the young girl whose father owns the convenience store, Kristen. Following Kristen, Katie becomes good friends with her father, Alex. Alex and Jo gradually become people that Katie comes to trust, and eventually ends up revealing her past to them, in bits and pieces. Katie reveals the fact that she ran away from her abusive husband, Kevin Tierney and that she has stolen her current identity from people that she trusts. She also reveals that she is in danger. As Katie and Alex's relationship becomes more serious, a number of things begin to jeopardize it, but it remains strong through it all. Katie and Alex both learn many valuable lessons throughout the course of this novel, and you will have to read the novel for yourself to find out just how strong this relationship is.

There are multiple themes present throughout this novel, and two of the largest ones I have noticed are as follows:

• One should never take the people they love the most for granted, because they can be yanked away from you in a second.
• One should always keep going no matter how hard things get, because you never know what happiness is waiting for you just up ahead.

The first theme is very present in many places in the novel, it seems to occur in different ways very often. Some of the major times in which I noticed it throughout the story include first when Josh falls off the deck when he is fishing towards the beginning of the novel. We don't really know Alex all that well and he is trying his best to be a good father, but we see that in one second his son comes very close to being taken from him. Another place in the novel where we see this theme is when Alex loses his wife, and he often thinks about all the time he wishes he could have had with her. Also, when Katie runs away from Kevin, we see how much Kevin regrets hitting her and wishes that he had been a better husband because now his wife is gone forever. I saw this theme twice more in some major spots. One is at the end when Kevin attacks Katie and Alex, and lights Alex's house on fire. Katie and Alex both come extremely close to losing each other, and have regrets about not telling each other how they felt before. After this happens, Alex gives Katie the letter from his wife, and this is another place where I see the theme present. Katie discovers while reading Carly's letter that her next door neighbor Jo, was only a figment of her imagination, and since she has figured this out, that she will never see Jo again and immediately begins to miss her and all the times she spent with her.

The second theme I believe to be present in less places throughout the novel, but is equally as important. We see this theme with both Katie and Alex throughout the entire novel. Katie was coming from a rough place, with a violent husband that abused her and threatened her life. She found a way to pull herself up and move on, and although she was tentative about having other relationships at first, she reluctantly accepted and it turned out to be perfect for her. She kept going and pulled herself out of a bad place into a good one. A similar thing happened with Alex. Alex was getting over losing his wife, and he wasn't really ready to move on yet. But when he pulled himself up and kept going, he met Katie and it turned out to be a great thing. This story reflects two people's extreme courage and shows how this can bring them together.