Bridge to Terabithia

Paterson, K.  (1987).  Bridge to Terabithia.  New York: Harper Trophy by Harper & Row Publishers, Inc.

I have listed this book with my Challenged Book List.  (Death)

Exposition:  Jesse Aarons lives with his family of 4 sisters and his parents on a small farm outside of town with no neighbors nearby until the Burke family moves in the house down the road.  Leslie Burke is a girl and at their first meeting Jesse doesn’t seem to like her.

Conflict:  Leslie wins the race that Jesse was determined to win.  He tries to hate her but she wins him over by sheer determination. The pair is picked on by the older, bigger kids and try to stick together. After school one day, they cross a dry creek bed on a rope to investigate what was on the other side.  It becomes their new kingdom, “Terabithia” where Jesse and Leslie become the rulers.  Almost everything in the kingdom is formed in Leslie’s mind.  Every day after school they swing into their own little world where they are in charge and they can leave the outside world and all their troubles behind.

Rising Action: The story begins to build when many days of rain fills the creek to overflowing.  Leslie is not afraid to go across on the rope but Jesse is terrified.  He decides not to go one Saturday morning and when his teacher, Miss Edmonds, calls to ask if he can go to the Smithsonian Museum.  He asks his sleeping mother if he can go and she agrees.  He has a wonderful time seeing the exhibits and returns home to find that his family has been frantically searching for him all day.  

Climax:  Leslie went to “Terabithia” without him and fell into the creek and drowned.

Falling Action:  Jesse can’t comprehend that she is gone and doesn’t believe it either.  His parents go to visit the Burke family with all of their relatives there and he crumbles, yelling and screaming at them that she isn’t dead.  He feels so bad that he left her behind when he could have asked her to go along. 

Resolution: Leslie’s family decides to move away because of her death.  They do not blame Jesse for anything that happened to Leslie but Jesse feels he must apologize to them for not being there for her. They are grateful for his friendship to her because she didn’t make friends easily.  He then allows his sister, May Belle, to go to “Terabithia” with him.

Literary Elements:

• Symbolism - Terabithia is a place of refuge for Jesse and Leslie
• Tone - When in Terabithia is joyful the real world is scary
• Allusion - Likens Terabithia to Narnia
• Imagery - the bridge was actually a rope

Bridge to Terabithia is a John Newbery Medal winner and has also been on the most challenged book list.