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Threshold Bridge: Symbolic Rituals and the Poetics of Children’s Growth in Bridge to Terabithia

Author(s)

Yidan Zhou

Affiliation(s)

School of English Language and Culture, Xiamen University Tan Kah Kee College, Zhangzhou, Fujian, China

Abstract

Katherine Paterson’s Bridge to Terabithia constructs a transformative threshold ritual through a cluster of “bridge” imagery, mediating children’s transition from real-world trauma to psychological maturity. This paper integrates Arnold Van Gennep’s “rites of passage” theory with Jung’s archetypal criticism to dissect the triple symbolic dimensions of the physical, imaginary, and spiritual bridges. The physical bridge—from fragile rope swing to shattered barrier—functions as a traumatic trigger, marking the violent rupture of innocence. The imaginary bridge, manifest in Terabithia’s utopian forest, operates as a liminal space where Jesse and Leslie rehearse symbolic power, negotiating childhood anxieties through ritualized play. The spiritual bridge, culminating in Jesse’s reconstruction of both the literal and metaphorical crossing, embodies the integration of grief into a coherent sense of self. By examining how these bridges intersect to navigate loss, the study reveals how children’s literature transcends life’s dilemmas through spatial poetics, offering a nuanced model of growth that honors the messiness of trauma while affirming the resilience of the child subject.

Keywords

Threshold Space; Symbolic Ritual; Trauma Narrative; Children’s Subjectivity

References

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