Professor Stiles/Whitson
ENG 100/222
4 March 2008
World of Imaginations
Literature is cumulative since most ideas and stories created by people through
human history have been handed down in many ways. Mostly, literature comes as
books,
and amongst them, novels reflect people's lives in various ways. As the core of the
literature, numerous works of fiction have been accumulated for a long time, and
ceaselessly, books will be published as long as we live. However, only a few can
impress
readers and remain as masterpieces. In spite of serious controversy of death in the plot
for
children's literature, Bridge to Terabithia, written by Katherine Paterson in 1977, makes
readers deeply immersed in the world of imagination and friendship, Terabithia. This
heart-warming book is given life in a film by the director Gabor Csupo, who is well
known as the producer of the famous TV animation series The Simpsons. As a critic
Justin Chang says, "Gabor Csupo shows admirable restraint in slowly easing viewers
into
Jess and Leslie's world." He offers bit of incarnation of imagination to this delicate thirtyyear-old Newbery medal winning novel and makes a dazzling adaptation with some
modification. As a critic Matthew Leyland noted, "though the settings of Katherine
Paterson's novels have been updated from the 70s to now, the film has kept a firm hold
on that timeless quality."
The book is about friendship, the ultimate theme of most children's literature. Jesse,
the hero of the story, is not living a glorious life. His family is poor and he sometimes
feels "so lonely among all these females" (Paterson 15). He thinks he may be "a
foundling" (Paterson 58). He has nothing to be proud of. Although he tries to be
acknowledged by something, he can achieve nothing. He practices running all summer
to
be the fastest boy so that "even his dad would be proud" (Paterson 4). However, the day
he is supposed to be the fastest boy in the fifth grade, he is beaten by a transfer student,
a
girl named Leslie. His talent of drawing is ignored grimly even by his father although
"he'd thought his dad would be pleased" (Paterson 12). Only Jesse's beloved music
teacher, Miss Edmund, recognize his talent, but it is not enough to change his life.
However, Jesse's life completely changes after he becomes friends with Leslie,
"the very best" (Paterson 2). Leslie makes him "got up every morning with something to
look forward to" for the first time in his life (Paterson 46). She then becomes "more than
his friend. She was his other, more exciting self" (Paterson 46). As they build their secret
country, Terabithia, it is divulged that they are complementary to each others. "The
power
of Leslie's word" stirs inside of Jesse (Paterson 33). She fully expands his imagination,
and since "he could make stuff," their cooperation makes the world of intimate
friendship,
Terabithia. Moreover, the book's intriguing point is made out of reality. Because the
author informs readers only what they think rather than make incarnate what they
actually imagine, their imaginations are kept secretly, so we couldn't see what will be in
the kingdom of Terabithia. Jesse and Leslie have a secret that only two of them know,
and it shows the depth of their friendship in a very delicate way. In their world, he
becomes the king, and "he'd like to be a ruler of something. Even something that wasn't
real" (Paterson 39). Moreover, simultaneously, his friend offers him a way of escape
from the real world. He needs "Leslie to make the magic" (Paterson 65). With her,
"everything seemed possible" to him Paterson (Paterson 40). However, the depth of
their friendship is more vividly revealed after the tragedy of Leslie's death.
Unlike many other children's' novels, Bridge to Terabithia has an impactive
turning point in the plot, the death of the best friend. Because of that, the book ranked at
number nine on the American Library Association list of the 100 Most Frequently
Challenged Books of 1990-2000 as "Paterson's books are frequently censored" (Stahl
856). However, as J.D. Stahl indicates in his book Crosscurrents of Children's Literature,
"People who seek to censor certain books have frequently not read the books in
question"
(854). The death of an important person in the plot has the power to stir up a child's
Imagination
about life's realities. Personally, when Jesse has a "perfect day of his life [that] was
worth
anything he had to pay," it reminds me of a Korean realistic short fiction called "A Lucky
Day" (Paterson 101). There is a rickshaw man who is living during a poor period of
postwar. He has no passenger for several days, so his family starves. Before he gets off
to
work one rainy day, his sick wife keeps saying she want to have meat soup, but he gets
mad at her and leaves. What he does to his wife oppresses him all day, so he tries to go
back to home. However, he can't because that is his lucky day. Passengers keep
coming,
and he pulls his rickshaw in pleased but anxious mood in the rain. When the lucky day is
over, he earns a lot of money, and he goes back with meat soup for his wife, happily
drunken. However, when he arrives with cold meat soup, his wife is already dead, and
his
little baby is crying beside his dead mother. This story emphasizes the tragedy by
maximizing the rise and fall of one's emotion, just as Paterson does in her novel.
The movie version of Bridge to Terabithia was released in 2007, directed by Gabor
Csupo. Most interestingly, the plot of the movie is "adapted by her [the author's] son
David, for whom the story was originally written" (Murphy). As James Berardinelli noted,
"there is manipulation, but it is artfully done." As the movie is "set in the States, but made
in New Zealand," the background evokes the book's vivid sentences very lively (French).
Faithfully, real world of the story is well cinematized until Jesse and Leslie approach "the
prescribed entrance" (Paterson 60). However, the world of Terabithia, which "the
complexion of the real world brightens," is fueled by computer graphic and given life
unlike the book (Berardinelli). Efficiently, special effects impress audience for the reason
that as Chang noticed, "prosaic flights of fancy inevitably speak less to the power of the
imagination than to the power of CGI."
There is a big difference between the book and the movie. As Jeannette
Catsoulis says, "while the book wisely left most of the details to the reader's imagination,
the film presents its version of Terabithia as the flashy main attraction." However, the
film's "most affecting moment unfold in the bright light of everyday reality, rather than
in the dull, overly familiar CGI-enhanced Terabithia scenes" (Knight). Tim Knight
quoted the author's interview in his review saying that "Paterson has expressed her
reservations
about the film's special effects-laden trailer, which may mislead viewers into expecting
another epic fantasy adventure." Actually, the story "is very much about isolation and
friendship. It examines the pain suffered by those children who have a hard time fitting
in" (Murphy). Therefore, Terabithia is a kind of representative place where "Jess and
Leslie retreat to ... find relief from the problems they face at home and school" (Murphy).
Although the movie has alluring sweet pictures of Jesse and Leslie's secret refuge, it
blocks possibility of expansion of each viewer's imagination for their own magic world.
Along with the modifications of the features of Terabithia, There are some changes
in characters of the story. However, unfortunately, they are "poorly staged, with cut-rate
CGI creatures that look like refugees from a late-'90s PC game" as Adam Nayman
severely criticizes. Jesse becomes some kind of moron who can barely resist school
bullies,
and Leslie turns into a girl somewhat without control. Her writing about scuba diving
becomes lie in the movie and makes Leslie a liar rather than writer. Leslie, who is
actually genuinely admirable girl in the book, is performed by charming actress Anna
Sophia Robb, but the movie degrades the fascination of Leslie, so when this beloved
novel comes to life, Leslie seems not the "way to Terabithia and all the worlds beyond"
anymore (Paterson 46). Despite of strenuous efforts, as critic Peter Bradshaw says,
"neither the script nor the actors can quite do justice" to fully revive the quality of the
original book.
In spite of some failures in adaptation, the movie is still worth watching. The theme of
friendship is deepened by loss of the best friend rather calmly than shockingly, so
viewers "may sniffle, but they won't be traumatized" (Catsoulis). For this movie's major
audience, children, fantasy scenes filled with computer graphic will be a juicy source to
allure them, and if children "watch it in the right spirit, and the right company, it could
prove emotionally enlarging" (French). Moreover, this mature story is good enough to be
favored even by adults "who fondly remember when a friendship could be ignited by a
gesture as simple as offering a stick of Juicy Fruit" (Chun).
Her 6
Overall, Bridge to Terabithia is very much about friendship and imagination. With
"faith in the capacity of young readers to make their own judgment and form their own
values." The author uses death as main issue in the book and shows a boy's way to
overcome deep sorrow over losing his best friend (Stahl et al 857). Since we are mortal,
it
is possible that our beloved person suddenly die. The author "comes to terms with her
own
mortality, which helped her add honesty and sincerity to the story" in the portrayals of
life (Bryson). Through the experience that her children lost their friends, the author
depicts facing the death of loved one very honestly such as Jesse's anger at Leslie right
after she dies. The movie also focuses on it and makes the theme more sophisticated
and
thoughtful. Finally, after Jesse loses his bridge to Terabithia, he begins to build a real
bridge to enter Terabithia. Through re-building the bridge, he accepts the death and
remembers his friend. That is because, maybe only their precious memories are enough
to
"let us [them] proceed into our [their] kingdom" (Paterson 89)
Works Cited
Berardinelli, James. "Bridge to Terabithia." Reelview. 1 Oct. 2007 <http://www.
reelviews.net/movies/b/bridge_terabithia.html>.
Bridge to Terabithia. Dir. Gabor Csupo. Perf. Josh Hutcherson, Anna Sophia Robb.
Disney/ Walden Media, 2007
"Bridge to Terabithia." Imdb. 1 Oct. 2007 <http://imdb.com/title/tt0398808/>.
Bradshaw, Peter. "Bridge to Terabithia." The Guardian. 4 May. 2007. 1 Oct. 2007 <http:
//film.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/Critic_Review/Guardian_review/0,,207165 6,00.
html>.
Bryson, Kent L. "Bridge to Terabithia." The National Council of Teachers of English. 1
Oct. 2007 <http://www.ncte.org/about/issues/censorship/resources/113744.htm>.
Catsoulis, Jeannette. "Transcending Pain, a Friendship Fed on Imagination."
New York
Times. 16 Feb. 2007. 1 Oct. 2007 <http://movies.nytimes.com/2007/02/16/movies/
16tera.html>.
Chang, Justin. "Bridge to Terabithia." Variety. 2 Feb. 2007. 1 Oct. 2007 < http://www
.variety.com/review/VE1117932755.html?categoryid=31&cs=1&p=0>.
Chun, Alex. "Bridge to Terabithia." Los Angeles Times. 2 Reb. 2007. 1 Oct. 2007 <http:/
/www.calendarlive.com/printedition/calendar/cl- etterabithia16feb16,0,2332074.
story>.
French, Philip. "Bridge to Terabithia." The Observer. 6 May. 2007. 1 Oct.
2007 <http://
film.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/Critic_Review/Observer_review/0,,2073464, 00.ht
ml>.
H-- 8
Knight, Tim. "Bridge to Terabithia." Reel. 1 Oct. 2007 <http://www.reel.com/movie.
asp?MID=143108&buy=closed&Tab=reviews&CID=13#tabs>. Leyland, Matthew.
"Bridge to Terabithia." BBC. 3 May. 2007. 1 Oct. 2007 <http://www.
bbc.co.uk/films/2007/04/30/bridge_to_terabithia_2007_review.shtml Reviewed by
Matthew Leyland 03 May 2007>.
Murphy, Kevin. "Bridge to Terabithia." Tiscali. 2007. 1 Oct. 2007 <http://www.tiscali.co.
uk/entertainment/film/reviews/bridge-to-terabithia/2>.
Nayman, Adam. "Bridge to Terabithia." Eye Weekly. 1 Oct. 2007 <http://www.
eyeweekly.com/eye/issue/issue_02.15.07/film/onscreen_4.php>.
Paterson, Katherine. Bridge to Terabithia. New York: HarperCollins, 1972.
Stahl, J.D., Tina L. Hanlon, Elizabeth Lennox Keyser. Crosscurrents of Children's
Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
"The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000." American Library
Association. 27 Sep. 2007 <http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/