The film Bridge to Terabithia (2007) begins with a description of the life of Jess Aarons who lives in lark Creek town where he has his family life. Jess Aaron is described as a lonely man who has a passion for drawing and running. In his entire family, he only gets along well with his sister. Jess wants to be the fastest runner, and he is challenged by Leslie, a girl who later became his friend, who runs faster than everyone else in the school. Jess and Leslie are both outcasts and spend most of the time together following lonely paths so as to escape from the bullies. They even gang up to embarrass one of the bullies by writing her a fake love letter. They spent the Easter holiday at Jess' home because it was dangerous to go to Terabithia. It was raining, and they feared to risk their lives. However, upon reception of news that Miss Edmund wanted Leslie to go with her to the museum she agrees and leaves without informing Jess and died while trying to Cross Creek. Jess could believe the news, and in an attempt of comprehending what happened, he traveled to Terabithia with her little sister who almost falls into the creek. It is only then that he understood the courage of Leslie.
The theme of courage is most eminent in the story. This theme is seen in the character of Leslie who lost her life in the Creek (Paterson, 2007, pp. 14). The way she lost her life is not described, but through the experience that Jess had saving her own sister from the creek, it is evident that it took a lot of courage to try crossing the Creek. Courage is also seen in jess who lacks the courage to show his father his drawing (Shmoop Editorial Team, 2008,).
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The theme of courage is shown in the creek where Jess is followed by her younger sister as he embarks on a journey to understand why Jess had killed herself. This is the same creek that had killed Leslie, and Jess realized how courageous Leslie was as he struggled to save his own sister from the creek (Paterson, 2007, pp. 28).
The theme of gender roles is also shown in the story through Jess small sister. She stands up for the girls and decides to follow her brother even though she was supposed to remain at home while Jess travels (KHOIROH, 2017). She challenges the usual Gender belief that the male is the ones who are supposed to take care of the females. Leslie challenges the usual gender norm that the females can only travel or risk their lives with either the support of the males or through their aid. It is the reason why Jess could not believe that Leslie had left without informing him (Paterson, 2007, pp. 33).
This instance occurs on the way to the Creek. Where she follows her brother and even risks her own life in the process. Another case of gender roles occurs that Creek when Leslie decides to travel on her own without informing Jess (Paterson, 2007).
It is evident that the story Bridge to Terabithia (2017) discusses very important issues in the society through the character of Leslie and Jess. Among the themes, addresses include the theme of courage of courage and gender roles which gives us a glimpse of the intentions of the author. The author uses the location of the Creek to ensure the ideas for the themes are well discussed in work (Shmoop Editorial Team, 2008).
References
KHOIROH, M. (2017). THE ANALYSIS OF IMPLICATURE IN BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA MOVIE (Doctoral dissertation, STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY).
Paterson D. 2007. Bridge to Terabithia: The Official Movie Companion. HarperEntertainment.
Paterson, K. (2017). Bridge to terabithia. Noura Books.
Shmoop Editorial Team. (2008, November 11). Bridge to Terabithia Themes. Retrieved April 19, 2018, from https://www.shmoop.com/bridge-to-terabithia/themes.html
