In the Parallel Lives of Wilhelmina Freeman and Veronica Miller

I am comparing and contrasting the books War Comes to Willy Freeman and The Last Song. They both are about girls and their struggles. I love these books a lot!

                First of all there are not too many similarities but one that was that really stuck out to me was the loss of innocence. When Ronnie Miller was a younger girl her parents got divorced and her Dad moved down South to North Carolina. Ever since she has hated him but she doesn’t yet know the tragic fate that lies ahead for him (The Last Song).  In the book War Comes to Willy Freeman Willy thinks she is just helping her father bring her horse to the Battle of Fort Griswold and then come home. But no that’s when her life drastically changes and there is no looking back now.

                Innocence was lost early for both ladies. For Wilhelmina it was lost at age 12 and around age 14 for Ronnie. They were in my opinion to young for these atrocious things to happen too. From when Ronnie’s Dad moved to from when Willy’s Dad got murdered right before her eyes in the battle. Then there lives drastically changed. Ronnie never wanted to talk to her dad, and didn’t till she was forced to go down from New York to stay with him for the summer. While the battle was going on Willy’s mother got captured by the British and was taken hostage. Neither of the girls conversed to that certain one of their parents for over two years. Then they were gone write before their eyes.

                That’s right; Ronnie’s dad dies. Once she finally realizes how dumb she’s been acting these past couple of years and regrets it all. Some of her father’s last words to her were, “Life, we realize, was much like a song. In the beginning there is a mystery, in the end there is confirmation, but it’s the middle where all the emotion resides to make the whole thing worthwhile.” Pg.445.  The day Willy Freeman finally gets to see her mother again she is on her death bead seconds away from dying. Sadly to say there were no miracles and she does.

                Yes the main characters in each story are girls with loss but, there were many more difference.  It’s completely different time periods the one comes from War Comes to Willy Freeman is set in the Revolutionary War; The Last Song is set in the 2000’s. So much in time has evolved since then. The Revolutionary War has long ended and a whole new war has started. Even though war has nothing to do with The Last Song. One stories main theme is freedom and the other one is loss.

                In conclusion the stories are different but there are also some small similarities. There will always be a couple things that can relate to each situation. Both situations mad the girls grow up as people into women. A quote spoken from Willy Freeman, “A whole part of my life was over now. I was grown up; and it was all going to be new.”