green apples & destiny

How Nora Ephron’s 1993 romantic comedy suggests that destiny is as much about choices as it is about coincidences

Surprise! I’m posting my first essay a few days early. And there’s more to come, this Sunday.

Today’s close reading: A scene from the 1993 Nora Ephron film, Sleepless in Seattle, starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks

Here’s something I love about close reading: It helps you recognize the theme or pattern in a story and then track that theme through specific scenes and moments in the story—so you can see how every little detail contributes to the overall effect of it. One of my favorite examples of a little detail that adds so much to a story is when Annie peels a green apple in Sleepless in Seattle.

If you’ve seen the film, read on.

If you haven’t, (how?!) spoilers are obviously ahead.

The main story.

Sleepless in Seattle is a story about two people, with totally separate lives, who fall in love with the idea of each other, and then have a magical chance to actually fall in love with the reality of each other. The entire movie is a…