Bridge to Terabithia

Katherine Paterson

The main character and protagonist of the novel. Jess is a fifth-grader living in a rural Southern area. He is lonely and lost in the middle of a family of four girls when Leslie Burke moves in next door. Leslie and Jess become best friends, and the novel centers on their friendship. Jess is a budding artist whose talent receives little praise from anyone except Leslie and Miss Edmunds. Yet he is quite talented, as well as intelligent, caring, and down- to-earth.

Highly intelligent and imaginative, it is her idea to build a fantasyland named Terabithia across the creek. Leslie's family is affluent and well educated, in stark contrast with the rest of the residents in the area, and has an entirely different slant on life than any of the neighbors. All this influences Leslie as well and helps to develop her uniqueness and distinct flair.

The music teacher at the school. Jess is deeply in puppy love with her. She seems a creature from another world to him, a beautiful woman with a beautiful look and a smile for all the students, but especially Jess. She encourages his artistic talent, one of the two people in the world, including Leslie, who does, and seems to care about him in a special way

Jess's father. Mr. Aarons is likewise harried by the concerns of being the sole breadwinner for a large family. He rarely has time for Jess, which is hard on the boy. He wants to do the right thing by his son, but he isn't quite sure how; the irony is that all he would really need to do would be to sit down with Jess, ruffle his hair, and talk with him about his day, but he doesn't seem to understand this.

Jess's mother. Mrs. Aarons is tired and careworn with the stresses of trying to support a family of seven on a poor family's income. She always seems to be hounding Jess to do chores or milk the cow, but her shortness of temper is merely a result of overwork. After Leslie's death, she shows herself to be a caring mother torn apart by her son's pain.

There are several themes in the novel.

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and the bridge to terabithia novel

Jess Aarons is an 11 year old country boy who lives with his parents and his four siblings. Jess has dreamed all summer long that when school opens back up he wants to be one of the fastest runners in 5th grade. Jess strongly believes that he his one of the fastest runners and Jess really wants to win the rast but he comes back to reality wants his moms screams his name so he can come eat breakfast. his mom complaining about him running for too long. his mother said that Jess will have to milk the cows we he is done eating. then their is jess older siblings Elli is the oldest and brenda is the second oldest who are always bickering and asking there mother for money. and then there is may-belle jess 6 year old sister she cares for Jess A lote and they get along better then Jess other siblings and then joyce ann she is the youngest and is very annoying because she is four. brenda and and Elli asked there mother for money to go shopping witch leaves jess to do all of the chores as usual.

Later that day Jess helped his mother with canning the beans and the heat was not delightful so it put jesses mom in a bad mode and made her tired.then it made jess tired. later that day everyone in the house was sleep and they forgot about the beans. they had burned the beans and it left a atrocious smell in the house. Jess made him and his little sisters peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and they had ate outside. jess haves the biggest crush on his music teacher jess thinks that the only person who truly knows him is miss Edmunds because she is nice and she is the only one who actually looks happy with there job and knows what there doing.The next morning, Jess goes out for his morning run, as usual. He is interrupted by a comment from a person sitting on their fence—"If you're so scared of the cow, why don't you just jump the fence?" At first, Jess cannot tell if the person speaking to him is a boy or a girl. He or she introduces him/herself as Leslie Burke, one of the new neighbors. Eventually, Jess comes to the correct conclusion that Leslie is a girl.

Miss Edmunds' invitation to Jess to spend the day with her reinforces how unorthodox she is, and how careless of the standard rules and regulations of society as regards propriety and acceptable behavior. In a strict sense, it probably is not terribly appropriate for Miss Edmunds to invite Jess, alone of her students, on a trip to Washington with her. Jess loves art; he has never seen the galleries at Washington; his talent ought to be encouraged and she is the only one to do it. This reinforces that society's standards are not always beneficial or fair, a fact to which Leslie has been opening Jess's eyes ever since she came to Lark Creek. Both Leslie and Miss Edmunds are, to a degree, outside of society's restrictions, and this is part of what makes each one such a good influence on Jess, taking him out of the box as they do and exposing him to the wonders of the larger world. and later that day leslie did not go with jess and bridge of terabithia had flooded and leslie died

Jess's little sister. May Belle is closer to him than any other member of their family. She is six and a bit lost, and she is without close friends or siblings close enough in age to play with. She often tries to push herself in with Jess and Leslie, which they do not like, but all the same Jess feels bad for her. At the end of the novel, it is she who allows Terabithia to live on, as she becomes its new queen.

Jess's youngest sister, at four years old. Joyce Ann is not developed very much as a character. She is often portrayed as whiny, but she is only four. Jess does not share the same bond with her that he does with May Belle, but he seems to feel a certain warmth toward her

Jess's oldest sister. Her age is never given directly, but we can guess that she's about fifteen or sixteen. Ellie is thoroughly spoiled the difference between them is that Ellie has mastered the art of sycophancy, and consequently leaves a much better taste in most people's mouths. Vain, conceited, and shallow, Ellie continually annoys Jess.