47 pages • 1 hour read
The Best of Me
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Dawson Cole
Dawson Cole is one of the novel’s two protagonists. He is 42 and works on an oil rig in New Orleans. Dawson leads a solitary life and has few interactions outside of work. Nicholas Sparks uses indirect modes, such as actions, thoughts, and other characters’ perspectives, to characterize Dawson. This enables the narrative to reveal new information about Dawson from different characters’ points of view. It also establishes Dawson as a complex character, who must excavate many layers of his subconscious to arrive at his true feelings.
Dawson is the archetypal misunderstood rebel. From his reminiscences, it is clear that he is different from the other members of his criminally inclined family. As a teen, he stays out of his trouble and does well in school. However, the Cole family is known for their violent ways, and the town’s prejudice rubs off on Dawson when he is sent to prison. This suspicion, which is present through most of the story, is verified when Tanner researches Dawson’s background. He learns that Dawson did not deserve the harsh sentence—four years for involuntary manslaughter—the judge in Oriental gave him.
In the novel, Dawson is defined by the twin obsessions of love and guilt. Even 25 years after his breakup with Amanda, he has not dated anyone else. Similarly, though he finished his prison sentence 20 years ago, he continues to atone for killing Dr. Bonner by sending funds to his family. His determination to cling to the past is based on his negative self-concept: “Most people wouldn’t or couldn’t have lived their lives that way, but they didn’t know him. They didn’t know who he had been or what he had done, and he wanted to keep it that way” (6). His guilt over the past forms his entire identity; hence, towards the end of the novel when Marylin Bonner asks Dawson to let go of his guilt, he feels purposeless and is unable to imagine his future. His obsession with the past is symbolically reflected in the appearance of the old trailer that he lives in: The trailer “squatted on stacked cinder blocks, a temporary foundation that had somehow become permanent over time” (4). At the same time, the inside is meticulously clean. Dawson meticulously scrubs and repairs the trailer, symbolizing his tendency to keep the past alive.
In the love story, Dawson is the constant, stable presence, whereas Amanda is emotionally dynamic and volatile. This aspect is highlighted in the conversation between him and Amanda. He muses that he is a “solitary figure in a vast landscape” (69) while Amanda belongs to the crowd. Amanda points out that he lives his life “with an almost stoic acceptance of the way things are” (109), and, at another point in the story, Dawson opines that “change isn’t always for the best” (118), signifying his tendency to not act and accept life as it is. However, after meeting Amanda a second time, he takes the lead in initiating a romantic night at Vandemere and tries to persuade Amanda to stay with him. This change in behavior is conveyed through the description of the fear and anxiety that he feels, an aspect that is conspicuously absent in the previous sections of the novel. But as Amanda drives away from him, he regrets his desire to change his life: He “shouldn’t have come back home…there was nothing here for him…it was time to leave” (213). The possibility of saving Alan gives him a fresh sense of purpose, and he believes that saving him is his destiny. Through Dawson’s death, he achieves closure by atoning for his guilt as well as leaving a lasting mark in Amanda’s life.
Amanda Colliers
Amanda Colliers, 42, is Dawson’s romantic partner in the novel. Like Dawson, she is indirectly characterized through her thoughts, dialogues, and descriptions by other characters. According to Dawson, she is beautiful and passionate; Tuck describes her as a smart and kind woman, and her mother remembers that as a child, Amanda was disobedient and stubborn. Amanda’s character is marked by confusion and a tendency to let circumstances exert undue influence on her, leading to her making the wrong life choices. This is bluntly pointed out by her mother when she accuses Amanda of not taking responsibility for her actions and, later, when she advises Amanda to trust herself to make her own decisions. The confusion in Amanda’s mind is exemplified by the numerous dilemmas she faces in her life, ranging from ethical concerns about divorcing her husband to choosing to live the rest of her with Dawson, her true love. Her confusion is clear when she tells Dawson that she is helpless to stand up for herself: She feels as if she were listening to two radios “tuned to different stations, each one playing an alternate version” (197) of a song. She tells Dawson to not ask her to follow, because she does not trust herself “enough to say no” (199).
Amanda is marked by both loyalty and emotional contradictions. Though she was the one who initiated the romance with Dawson, she does not keep in touch with him when he is in prison due to her family’s disapproval. When they meet again, she relives her confusion about whether they should be together. When she is on the brink of deciding to stay with Dawson, she changes her mind at the last moment, even though “she could feel the truth as deeply as she’d ever felt anything” (216). Amanda’s emotional conflicts stem from her deeply loyal nature. No matter how dissatisfied she is with her marriage, she is unwilling to break her vows to have an affair, even if Dawson is her true love. She is a committed mother and is glad she can be there for Jared after the accident. In the end, Amanda is happy with her choices: She stays with her family, works on her marriage, and is loyal to Dawson’s memory, her love for him deepening with the passage of time.
Tuck Hostetler
Tuck’s character is pivotal for plot development. He is characterized through Dawson and Amanda’s memories and through the three letters that he writes to the couple. In Dawson’s reminiscences, Tuck is a widowed, reticent man, who shows affection indirectly through his acts of kindness. Amanda, who reconnects with Tuck in his twilight years, remembers him as a deeply romantic man, living in the memories of his deceased wife, Clara. There are strong parallels between Tuck and Dawson’s characters. Both are old-fashioned and inimical to change: Tuck has lived in the same house for 70 years and has never watched television; Dawson continues to drive the 1969 Fastback that he bought 25 years earlier. Similarly, both live in old, weathered dwellings and hold on to the memories of their true love, long after the women have gone from their lives. Both are men of few words, both have had their lives endangered at sea, and both have experienced powerful, surreal moments in the wake of these disasters.
Tuck is a parental figure to both Dawson and Amanda. Tuck understands and sympathizes with Amanda more than her mother, and he is the tough but caring father figure Dawson lacked when he was growing up. Tuck is also a romantic role model for Amanda and Dawson. The cottage and the garden of wildflowers that he built for his wife are everlasting symbols of his love for her. The letter in which he describes his relationship with Clara is akin to a manifesto of romance, inspiring Dawson and Amanda to imagine their own romantic possibilities. Though not physically present during the novel’s action, Tuck plots to restore the protagonists’ romance, like the classic cars he restores in his garage. He has an acute understanding of the nature of romance and the impact it can have on the people involved. In the end, it’s unclear whether Tuck succeeded for failed in his efforts to bring Amanda and Dawson together. At the very least, he created the perfect romantic moment for them to experience together at the cottage, and the rest was left to fate.
Unlock all 47 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features:
Related Titles
By Nicholas Sparks
