I am asking my students to read, Bridge to Terabithia, so I thought I would read the book for this class and be ahead a little bit as the class begins mid-April. The book, published in 1977 has become popular again to the recent movie release. Katherine Paterson wrote the book to help her son and herself as they grieved the death of one of her son's friends as he was growing up. The book has themain characters as young adults who become friends and then are separated by a tragic accident. Leslie tragically dies trying to cross the creek leading to Terabithia while Jesse, her best friend is attending a fieldtrip with a teacher. Jesse must deal with the grief and regret that the accident may not have occurred if not for his selfishness in not asking Leslie to go along with them to the art museum. The story is realistic, students should be able to come to terms with death and literature can certainly help.
I also had the chance to view the movie as well as view the 1985 movie version on DVD, they are different and rich with symbolism.. I will ask my students to complete a graphic organizer(remember last week as they will read the novel, view the 1985 movie version and then we will attend as a class and see the recent movie release). The process of death and dying is hard for all let alone students. I can recall specific incidents at the elementary school where I was principal at: a house fire claiming the lives of 5 students, a car accident claiming the lives of 2 students, and a suicide by a seventh grader. The faculty, staff, students, parents, and community assisted each other during those terrible times. And we read literature and poetry to assist us.
1 comment:
Like Bruce, I also read Bridge to Terabithia for the theme of trauma. I like Katherine Paterson's writing style because I think she deals with delicate emotional moments in very sensitive yet "true" ways. For example, how surprised and excited David was when he went on a trip with his favorite teacher; how she depicts David's reaction to Leslie's death and so forth. It is hard for anybody, let alone teenagers to deal with the issue of death. So, after David's (Paterson's son) friend was strike by lightening and died, she came up with the idea of writing this book to "try to make sense out of a tragedy that seemed senseless'.
The trauma of the lost of the beloved can hardly be healed. Even if it can, it takes a long long time and there's still a wound. I am not sure how this book is going to help those who with the same exprience of losing the love of their lifes, but the emotional transitions or stages Jesse has been through can be a positive example in dealing with such kind of issue.
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