A Developing Jesse

Author’s Note: This is a character development piece on the character Jesse from the book “Bridge to Terrabithia.”

Has a character in a book that you are reading ever had a slight difference in attitude or actions from beginning to end? Well in the book “Bridge to Terrabithia” which I read the main character Jesse changed a lot from the start to end of the novel. But how he changed is a different story. There are many ways to change but only one way is the correct way.

In the previous paragraph I mentioned, “There is a specific way that he had a difference in attitude/action from start to end of “Bridge to Terrabithia.”” So, in the beginning of the novel he had an independent personality. He had an independent personality because he would always do things by himself. Such as whenever he would go for mile or more runs in the morning he would always go when everyone was sleeping. Also no one would ever have to help him get stuff together for school. He would always do it himself, so he was the do it yourself type of guy.

Now that we know that he is the do it yourself type of guy, here comes the twist. There’s a new girl that moves in his neighborhood, her name is Lesley. She is into all of the same activities that he is. They both like to run, what a coincidence. So instead of him still being the do it yourself type, he starts to go on runs with her, which I would have never thought would be possible.

So at this point of the novel he is becoming more of a people person not such a loner. He isn’t much of a loner anymore because of him and Lesley having running as a hobby in common they both go for runs with each other. Sometimes instead of just running for distance they have little competitions just for bragging rights, such as little races just for fun.

Lastly, towards the end of the story you can see how much he has changed from a do it yourself person to a people person. Some things that would show how much he has changed is how he was a person that would run by himself in the morning and now he has competitions with Lesley for fun with running. Also Jesse reminds me from Michael Oher in the novel "The Blind Side." Jesse reminds me oh Michael because in the begging of "The Blind Side" Michael was a no good child who was living on the streets and at the end of the book he was a kid who was in college and is getting a good education and is a fantastic football player even though before he didn't even play a sport besides for playing basketball with his friends. Now you can see that there is only truly one way to change throughout a period of time but it doesn’t have to be the same length of time.