Compare and contrast Naomi and James.

I think that James is the ultimate "bad boy"! Everyone had one at school...so cute and so alluring! I think that once she got to know him and found he had so many issues, he was no longer all that appealing. I think also that his issues pulled her in too deep and it frightened her. But to compare them both..they were both broken and alone while Naomi had amnesia. Once she had her memory back, she realized she wasn't alone anymore.

Just a guess.

I didn't get this impression. I don't think Naomi new the difference between the "bad boy" image and the "not bad boy" (I totally couldn't think of the opposite of bad boy-ha ha) image. I think she woke up and he was there. She had a clean slate in terms of relationships. I also believe that she did care deeply about him and she "left" him because it's what he needed. They drifted apart because she was slowly coming to realize who she was and where she was headed before the accident. I think all that happened before he even broke up with her. I think that James and Naomi needed each other to put their lives in order. He needed to believe that he was worth something and she needed him to realize that not everything is so cut and dry, good or bad. (like her sister and her dad's new girlfriend).

Compare James and Naomi. Hmmm. They both have divorced parents. Naomi has a medical disability and James has a mental illness. James was a bad boy and I think Naomi was touching "badness" when figuring out who she was. I believe Naomi accepted who she was when James couldn't accept who he was. That is why I think he broke up with her.

When James sent the postcard to Naomi and said forget about me......Did anyone else have that Tristin Ludlow moment from Legends of the Fall with his.....Marry another letter.

James may have been the "bad boy" but he was good for Naomi (at first) in ways that Ace wasn't. James helped Naomi see that her life didn't have to keep going on the same track it had been on. When Naomi was with Ace after getting to know James, she realized Ace wasn't such a great boyfriend. James wasn't perfect either, but in his own way, he helped her grow.

After reading everyone's responses, the movie that came to mind was "Peggy Sue Got Married" (anyone remember that one?). Anyway, Peggy was able to go back and sort of see what things would have been like if she had made different choices. She hooked up with the "bad boy" of her school but ultimately realized that he was not the one for her. I think that Naomi sort of parallels Peggy Sue in that she got the chance to do something "different" in her life. Yes, James would probably not have been the best thing for her in the long run but he was what she needed at the time; her relationship with James eventually helped her to discover that Will was the one that she really needed to be with. Okay, maybe I am getting a little off topic but for me, until she got her memory back, James was the right one for her at that time in her life.

I think that an important difference between James and Naomi is that (as mentioned by by vampiregirl9) she had a mental disability and he had a mental illness. Naomi lumps them both togeather in one group "broken" but it's like she is seeing the symptoms and not the cause or the ramifications. Her temporary disability leads her to be a stronger more grounded and reflective person, she gained insight and personal growth and maturity from it. Whereas we don't really get to know if james was ever really able to overcome his demons or if it made him stronger. But either way they were never on the same playing field, not even in the same statium. Naomi saw herself as broken and she was able to explore this more deeply with someone who understood it, someone who didn't know the old Naomi just new blank slate Naomi. A Namoi that was seen as a bit of a weirdo like james was, only Naomi had the conciousness of mind to take that time to explore what this meant about herself and who she was, is, and wants to be. Whereas James did not have the mental clearity because of his illness to do this-he simply drowned in the darness. Also Naomi spent a lot of time worrying about James, his mental state and who he was handling life situations-but I can't think of a time when he did this for her. You can call Naomi selfless or codependant (or even just a teenager without the ability to understand that inabiling people to be not be selfsufficiant doesn't really help them) and it would really no encompass her state of mind or thought process throughout that relationship.....Well don't I just ramble too much

Oh, I felt so sad for James. I don't think he was a bad boy, but a boy to whom bad things happened. Obviously, the death of his brother triggered his illness.

They became attracted to each other because Naomi and James both shared a detachment from society. In their mental states, regardless of how such states occurred, they were able to form a bond which they alone shared.
Unlike James' illness, which would always be a "systemic" (is that the word I'm looking for?), Naomi's turned out to be a temporary illness, like her bond to James himself. Once she was no longer incapacitated by her amnesia, she no longer belonged to the circled they shared.

I agree with InnamorataDiTwilight. I really felt sorry for James and was a little sad when his and Naomi's relationship ended. I do realize that it is better that things turned out that way, but I was that teenaged girl who would have tried to stay with him because I thought he "needed" me or that I could help in some way. I saw Naomi going in this direction and was grateful James sort of demanded they end things.

I really liked the thought that if they had met at another time, their relationship could've progressed.

I loved how different James was from Ace!

She seemed to have left the shallow teenager she was (a diary filled with caloric intake entries, jock boyfriend, tennis team, lack of acceptance for remarried mom, about to be remarried dad) for a young adult version of herself (interested in more intellectual pursuits, moodier, more complex boyfriends, compromising with remarried parents and their new spouses). It's almost as if she didn't lose those four years, she instead gained a lot more insight that caused her to jump into the next stage of her life.