Bridge to Terabithia

Citation:

Paterson, Katherine. Bridge to Terabithia. Ill. Diamond, Donna. New York, NY: Harper Collins, 1977. Print.

128 Pages

Summary:

10 year old Jesse Aaron is surprised to see someone moving into the Perkin’s place next door. He soon becomes friends with the new tenant, Leslie Burke. Leslie’s vivid imagination helps create their own imaginary world named Terabithia; a secret world tucked in the woods beside a creek bed where the two friends would be king and queen. Their friendship grows strong and the bond created through Terabithia turns out to be much more meaningful than Jesse could ever imagine.

Critical Analysis:

Author Katherine Paterson has created a very special friendship in the novel Bridge to Terabithia. We see both characters Jesse and Leslie become reliant on one another and the absence of the other only emphasizes this more. The imaginary kingdom of Terabithia serves as a reminder of what was once a great friendship and Jesse clinging to this notion is heartbreaking in the beginning, but uplifting as he heals. Jesse passing along the title of queen to May Belle is encouraging; “…he put flowers in her hair and led her across the bridge- the great bridge to Terabithia- which might look to someone with no magic in him like a few planks across a nearly dry gully.” After such a tragic event, Jesse proves that finding the strength to persevere through such tragedy is possible and honoring a friendship is important. Death is a predominant theme in the novel and Patterson does a great job realistically portraying death and how it relates to the often harsh reality that life continues for the rest of us.

Overall, the novel is a very honest and touching story of friendship. The only weakness to be seen would probably be the lack of dialogue between Leslie and her parents. They didn’t play a large role in the story, but hearing more from them might have given us a better glimpse into Leslie’s world.