第三名
姓  名 郭晴歡 學  校 國立臺灣師範大學附屬高級中學 年  級 一 年 1442 班

 

 

Bridge to Terabithia

Racing by the thumping beat of everyday life, might we consider whether we have lost spiritually? Oftentimes, as we are trapped in the perennial flow of life’s struggles, have such vigorous currents crushed our bridges to the innate quarters of our minds? Such are the quarters in which we are inclined, jovially, to learn, enquire, and discover. Thus, in reconnecting us to the passionate and the innate, Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson does such an impeccable job—it is engaging, relatable, and ultimately tragic.

To build our bridges, let us venture the depths of Terabithia with two young children. Leslie Burke, the girl, bright, liberal, and imaginative, revitalizes the life of Jess Aarons, her male companion, who is restrained of his talents. Moving into the countryside with her parents of intellectuals, Leslie’s alien style and apparel, such as her exceedingly short hair, aroused early distaste among Jess and his classmates. However, that was swiftly downplayed by Leslie’s outrunning Jess’s entire 5th grade, swiftly injecting an air of distinct freshness. Thus, it could be by outrunning the other children that Leslie was, metaphorically, “ahead” of others.

Indeed, delving into the “founding” of Terabithia, we can marvel at Leslie’s sincere affection to learning, shining through her interactions with Jess. Terabithia, after all, embodies the concept of children’s “hideout,” where the most intimate could be shared and the weirdest could be imagined. Although Jess, of a working class family, is burdened by ample domestic responsibilities, he still endorses himself in the imaginative and the unorthodox, as in materializing such ideas as “haunted hippos” into drawings, or in striking a friendship with the school’s rather radical Ms. Edmunds. And when the two choose a place in the woods upon a creek bed as “their place,” they could finally immerse themselves in the waltz of thoughts and ideas, as legitimate as being kings and queens! They “went into sacred groves to inquire spirits on the curing of evil curses” and erected their own “Prince Terrien,” surely ruling the kingdom with divine authority. Acquainting Jess into such fantastical manners, Leslie speaks of Hamlet, of Narnia, and of Moby Dick, merrily touching on the works that most of their age would dread of. She also persuades Jess to conjure up plans to embarrass their school bully, in her words, “to stop people like that, otherwise they turn into tyrants and dictators.” Furthermore, Leslie stretches her passions through Terabithia to the outlying world. Who else would display such flair in homework writing, or show such interest in Sunday prayers, as if they were more appealing than movies!

Such glittering illustrations of Leslie set the tone for a flow of chapters, only for the story to take a dramatic turn, as reckless, as inconceivable as it can offer.

For Leslie to truly exert her sparkling influence on Jess, such transformation took the passing of her life. An accident in which Leslie was fatally drowned yields sheer sadness to her companion, as if a sheer blankness deprived him of everything. Lamentations of losing his close friend forever were quickly outdone by the tragedy of realizing that he would have no more inquisitive discussions, no more Leslie’s odd exercising of flair, and no more spiritual nourishment. As shown in the book, “she had made him leave his old self behind and come into her world, and then before he was really at home in it, but too late to go back, she had left him stranded there—like an astronaut walking about on the moon. Alone.”

Thus far, Bridge to Terabithia shoots a clear reflection to our actions, our lives. Slipping back to the real world, might we ponder if we have actually stumbled out of, or never embarked on such a path of showing genuine interest in knowledge. Indeed, so often are our passion replaced by pragmatism, our curiosity extinguished, and our enthusiastic, driven minds are oppressed by rigid systems. Therefore, upon receiving such spiritual nourishment Leslie has provided, could Jess generate them himself, in looking deep down his heart, and bridging the innate quarters? Luckily, Jess builds the bridge, the bridge upon which Leslie was drowned— the bridge to Terabithia! Or perhaps, he builds the bridge to his innate passions and desires, calling us to do so, too!