Okay, so I had this really weird thought process the other day, and I gotta share how it went down.
I was just kinda minding my own business, maybe flipping through channels or scrolling online, I don’t even remember exactly what triggered it. But suddenly, this question popped into my head: what does Nicholas Sparks, the writer guy, you know, the one behind all those movies that make you cry, actually have in common with Rapunzel? Yeah, the princess with the crazy long hair locked in a tower.
Seemed totally random at first. Like, apples and oranges, right? One writes these contemporary romance novels, often set in like, North Carolina coastal towns. The other is a super old fairy tale character.
But I started mulling it over. I pictured scenes from his movies, like The Notebook, A Walk to Remember… all that stuff. Then I thought about the Rapunzel story – not just the Disney version, but the original Brothers Grimm one too.
Digging In
And then, I started seeing some threads, believe it or not. It wasn’t straightforward, more like chasing down connections in my brain.
- Feeling Trapped: This was the first big thing I latched onto. Rapunzel is literally, physically trapped in a tower by Mother Gothel. Can’t get more trapped than that. Now think about Sparks’ characters. How many of them are trapped? Not always by stone walls, but by their past, by grief, by family expectations, by living in a small town they can’t escape, or even by illness. It’s a different kind of tower, but the feeling’s often there.
- Love Against the Odds: This is a huge one for both. Rapunzel and her prince fall in love despite the witch, the tower, the secrecy. It’s forbidden, it’s difficult. Sparks’ entire brand is built on this! His couples always face massive obstacles – social class differences, war, disapproving parents, sickness, tragic accidents, people losing their memories… you name it, he’s probably written about love trying to beat it.
- The Big Separation: Both love pulling lovers apart. Rapunzel gets cast out, the prince gets blinded, they wander around separated for ages before finding each other again. Sparks loves doing this too! Characters get separated by war, by misunderstandings, by time, by someone moving away, someone dying… The longing and the pain of separation is a key ingredient. Remember all those letters in The Notebook? Classic separation fuel.
- Someone Needs Rescuing: The prince climbs the hair to rescue Rapunzel (or at least visit her). In Sparks’ stories, characters often ‘rescue’ each other. Maybe not from a literal tower, but they rescue each other from loneliness, from cynicism, from a life without love, or from giving up. Love is often shown as a kind of salvation.
- Idealized Romance: Let’s be honest, both deal in pretty epic, sometimes overly dramatic, destined-to-be kind of love. It’s intense, all-consuming stuff. Not exactly your everyday, mundane relationship struggles.
So, What’s the Point?
I guess after going through all that in my head, I realized it wasn’t about them being identical. Of course not. One’s a fairy tale, the other writes contemporary romance (often with sad endings, unlike Rapunzel’s happy one). But the core themes? The feeling of confinement, the power of love to overcome insane obstacles, the painful separations, the idea of being rescued by love… those elements felt surprisingly similar when I really thought about it.
It’s just a weird connection I made, connecting the dots between a guy writing about beach towns and tearful goodbyes, and a girl letting down her hair from a tower. Probably means nothing, but it was a fun rabbit hole to go down for a bit. Just sharing what I stumbled upon in my own head.
