Jonathan Middleton: Bridge to Terabithia

 Bridge to Terabithia is another wonderful example of escapism in fantasy. Not only do two main characters regularly escape into their own fantasy world away from the responsibilities of the world but this also allows them to grow to appreciate the real world more in doing so.

The two main characters use their fantasy world, Terabithia, as mechanism to escape from and cope with the less savory aspects of their life. Bullies, over bearing parents, and even poverty. This fantasy world allows them to escape from these decidedly difficulty circumstances and view them from a more easily digestible perspective.

As an example, the two children imagine their bullies and many of their other problems as monsters rather than actual people. In doing this they are better able to understand why these things are happening because you expect a monster to be abusive and cruel but not your parents or your classmates or another person for that matter, at least from the perspective of a child. This stance allows the main characters to better cope with their surroundings by providing a sort of other worldly explanation to the tragedies that befall them throughout the story.

By stories end though, like with many other fantasy stories that use their worlds as a coping mechanism for their characters, the characters realize that they can't always simply run away from their problems and that this coping mechanism can't shield them from every tragedy that may befall them. In this unfortunate realization on behalf of the main characters there is an important message to the reader. That no matter how pleasing a fantasy may be in comparison to the realities of life, eventually what is real must be faced and what is fantasy must be accepted as fantasy.