Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Patterson

Bridge to Terabithia

Summary of the Plot: Jess Aarons is an eleven-year-old boy living in a rural area of the South who loves to run. He dreams of being the fastest boy in the fifth grade when school starts up in the fall, feeling that this will for once give him a chance to stand in the spotlight among his five sisters, and might win him the attention of his preoccupied father. However, when the races come around at recess, a new girl, Leslie Burke, who just moved next door to Jess, boldly crosses to the boys' side of the playground and beats everyone. They build a secret fantasyland across the creek in the woods, called Terabithia, where they play all the time. Leslie also introduces Jess to the world of imagination and creativity, telling him the stories of such classics of literature as Moby Dick and Hamlet . All this also strengthens Jess's artistic talent and ability, as Leslie supports his ambition and, through the stories she tells, provides him with great subject matter.

Characters

Jesse Oliver Aarons, Jr. - The main character and protagonist of the novel. Jess is a fifth-grader living in a rural Southern area. He is lonely and lost in the middle of a family of four girls when Leslie Burke moves in next door. Leslie and Jess become best friends, and the novel centers on their friendship.

Leslie Burke- Leslie moves to Lark Creek at the beginning of her and Jess's fifth-grade year, and she stands out in shining contrast to the rest of the students. Her parents are highly educated, intellectual, affluent, and liberal, and they have exposed her to the wider world in a way that none of the students at Lark Creek have ever imagined. Leslie is full to the brim with imagination, creativity, mischief, and fun. A voracious reader with a keen sense of intellectual curiosity, she is the one who comes up with the idea of Terabithia.

Mrs. Aarons - Jess's mother. Mrs. Aarons is tired and careworn with the stresses of trying to support a family of seven on a poor family's income. She always seems to be hounding Jess to do chores or milk the cow, but her shortness of temper is merely a result of overwork. After Leslie's death, she shows herself to be a caring mother torn apart by her son's pain.

Mr. Aarons - Jess's father. Mr. Aarons is likewise harried by the concerns of being the sole breadwinner for a large family. He rarely has time for Jess, which is hard on the boy.

Ellie- Jess's oldest sister. Her age is never given directly, but we can guess that she's about fifteen or sixteen. Ellie is thoroughly spoiled, much like Brenda, the difference between them is that Ellie has mastered the art of sycophancy, and consequently leaves a much better taste in most people's mouths. Vain, conceited, and shallow, Ellie continually annoys Jess.

Brenda- Jess's second-oldest sister. We can surmise that she is around fourteen. Brenda is even more annoying than Ellie. She shares Ellie's vanity and shallowness, but she whines continually and has no sense of when to stop before pushing people too far. She harries Jess continually, and is primly content with her own little world of makeup, scanty clothing, and romantic interests. Even after Leslie's death, Brenda will not stop harassing Jess. She is wholly immature and self-absorbed

May Belle Aarons - Jess's little sister. May Belle is closer to him than any other member of their family. She is six and a bit lost, and she is without close friends or siblings close enough in age to play with. She often tries to push herself in with Jess and Leslie, which they do not like, but all the same Jess feels bad for her. At the end of the novel, it is she who allows Terabithia to live on, as she becomes its new queen.

Joyce Ann- Jess's youngest sister, at four years old. Joyce Ann is not developed very much as a character. She is often portrayed as whiny, but she is only four. Jess does not share the same bond with her that he does with May Belle, but he seems to feel a certain warmth toward her, as is evidenced by the end of the book, when he suggests that in time, Joyce Ann may join May Belle in Terabithia as a princess.

Miss Edmunds- The music teacher at the school. Jess is deeply in puppy love with her. She seems a creature from another world to him, a beautiful woman with a beautiful look and a smile for all the students, but especially Jess. She encourages his artistic talent, one of the two people in the world, including Leslie, Mr. Burke - Leslie's father. He is a political writer who is extremely gifted intellectually but rather scatterbrained. Leslie's growing friendship with Bill disturbs Jess until Leslie invites him to spend time with them as well.

Mrs. Burke - Leslie's mother. Judy writes novels and seems to spend most of her time closed in her room with her typewriter going. Not that she neglects Leslie, but she just seems busier than Mr. Burke. All in all, Leslie's parents lavish on her the love and attention that is not demonstrated clearly in Jess's house.

Janice Avery- A seventh-grader who is the school bully. Janice terrorizes May Belle, as well as the rest of the younger kids, until Jess and Leslie find a way of getting back at her. However, Janice is not an ultimate demon; she has her own problems that lend her an aspect of sympathy. Her father abuses her, and when her friends blab her secrets to the entire school, her tough-girl persona snaps.

QUOTES:

"Jess drew the way some people drank whiskey. The peace would start at the top of his muddled brain and seep down through his tired and tensed-up body. Lord, he loved to draw. Animals, mostly. Not regular animals like Miss Bessie and the chickens, but crazy animals with problems—for some reason he liked to put his beasts into impossible fixes… He would like to show his drawings to his dad, but he didn't dare. When he was in first grade, he told his father than he wanted to be an artist when he grew up. He'd thought he would be pleased. He wasn't. 'What are they teaching in that damn school?' he had asked. 'Bunch of old ladies turning my son into some kind of a—' He had stopped on the word, but Jess had gotten the message. It was one you didn't forget, even after four years."

"It was Leslie who had taken him from the cow pasture into Terabithia and turned him into a king. He had thought that was it. Wasn't king the best you could be? Now it occurred to him that perhaps Terabithia was like a castle where you came to be knighted. After you stayed for a while and grew strong you had to move on. For hadn't Leslie, even in Terabithia, tried to push back the walls of his mind and make him see beyond to the shining world—huge and terrible and beautiful and very fragile? (Handle with care—everything—even the predators.) "Now it was time for him to move out. She wasn't there, so he must go for both of them. It was up to him to pay back to the world in beauty and caring what Leslie had loaned him in vision and strength. "As for the terrors ahead—for he did not fool himself that they were all behind him—well, you just have to stand up to your fear and not let it squeeze you white. Right, Leslie? "Right."

THEMES: Friendship

Jess and Leslie's friendship is the central theme of Bridge to Terabithia. Their friendship is delightful on a simple level, their childish exploits fraught with amusement and joy. The reason that Jess and Leslie's friendship is so magical is because it allows them to rejoice in childhood and to escape the rest of the pressures that bear down on them so heavily in the rest of their lives.

Terabithia: Terabithia is a symbol of idealized childhood, of a perfect world in which children can rule supreme without the heavy responsibilities of adulthood. No bad thing can touch the rulers of Terabithia. The place provides a much-needed refuge for Leslie and Jess. However, Terabithia is not an absolute sanctuary, as is proven upon Leslie's death. She drowns in the creek, the border between the perfect world of Terabithia and the harder world of reality.

The rope over the creek and the bridge to Terabithia:When they originated the idea of Terabithia, Leslie decreed that the rope swinging over the creek would be a magic rope, the only entrance to the magical land. When the rope snaps, it seems to be a symbol stating that the magic is at an end. The breaking of the rope seems to cement the fate of Terabithia, which really died with the death of its queen.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Katherine Paterson (born October 31, 1932) is an American author of children's novels. She wrote Bridge to Terabithia and has received several of the major international awards for children's literature. She was born Katherine Womeldorf in Qingjiang, China, to Christian missionaries. Katherine was always the newcomer and never fit in very well, She was lonely during this time and turned to writing to deal with her loneliness. After being persuaded, Paterson took an adult education course in creative writing during which her first novel was published. Her first children's novel, The Sign of the Chrysanthemum, was published in 1976. A Japanese fairy tale, it is based on Paterson's studies in Japan. Bridge to Terabithia, her most widely recognized book, was published in 1977. Terabithia was highly controversial due to some of the difficult themes. Bridge to Terabithia is among the most popular books she has written.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherine_Paterson

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