On The Bridge (short story)

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On the bridge is an english short story written by Todd Strasser (*1950) and published around 1981. It is about 4 pages long.

The story is about two boys that hang around on a bridge smoking a cigarette. They get into trouble and one of the two boys who pretended to be a tough guy turned out to be a coward and not very loyal.

General story line

The short story "On the bridge" written by Todd Strasser sends out an excellent message to the young teens of todays society. The main character Seth is visiting high school as a senior. He strives to be someone that he is not. Seth often hangs out with Adam which is not a good influence in his role of a friend. The climax of the story is when Seth and Adam are on a bridge smoking cigarettes. As they were smoking Adam flicks his cigarette down onto the highway where it landed on a car with three men inside. The three men got upset because of this and drove back to the bridge where the cigarette came from to punish the one who threw a cigarette butt on their car. When they arrived at the bridge where Seth and Adam were standing they confronted them with what happened and Adam puts the blame on Seth. The three men did not leave enough time for Seth to even explain the situation correctly and aggressively harassed him and told him to lick the cigarette butt of their car. This short story explains and shows a good example of knowing who your real friends are. Also having true friend who let you have your own opinion and do not pressure you into doing things you do not want to do is important.

Plot

Adam, who first acts like a though guy and a good friend turns out to be a fake friend and a pretender. Consequently Seth seems to be about to break up their friendship.

Characters

There are two main characters and three other characters.

The main characters are two boys, Adam Lockwood and Seth Dawson. The other characters are three big men, which we do not get to know much about.

Adam Lockwood

Adam Lockwood is a male character who is still going to school. He is one of the two main characters of the story. Adam has got long black hair and always wears a leather jacket. He plays the role of the "bad boy" in the story and always tries to impress other people with his "amazing skills". He goes to partys and smokes cigarettes in order to complete his Image. Because of that image he often states that he makes out with many girls, had been in many fights and that the police knows him quite a bit, which has never been proven. He is a good friend of Seth Dawson.

Character background

Adams parents do not really care about him. They don't care what he wears for school, with who he is meeting and what he is doing all day.

He chills out with all the "cool kids" and is part of them.

Character development

At first he gloats about his success in fighting with others and being wanted by the police. But in the end of the story we get to know another side of him. He gets scared about a fight coming up after he throws his cigarette over the bram of the bridge and the guys who drove the car pulled over and asked who threw it. While he normally is the strong, fearless guy he now blames it on Seth who has not done it.

Seth Dawson

Seth Dawson is the second male main character in the story, who still goes to school. He dresses "normally" but when he is with his friend Adam he always wears a denim jacket, which he tried to make look old and warn but just looks messed up and new. Seth does not go on partys very often and does not take any drugs either, except for his first cigarette he smoked at the beginning of the story. He has never been in a fight before and the police does not even know him. He also is very inexperienced with girls. The only kisses he gave and got happened on partys he went to with Adam, but they were just on base of the game truth or dare.

Character background

Seth Dawson's parents are strict. He does not want them to know that he sometimes wears his denim jacket, that looks worn and new at the same time.

We don't get to know more of Seth's friends than Adam but he is probably the only one who is one of the "cool kids".

Character developement

At the beginning of the story Seth is kind of a hangers-on by only doing what he is told by Adam and not having his own opinion on different things. He admires Adam for being "so cool". Throughout the story he realizes Adam is only doing bad things. After the climax he realizes that Adam is even worse by being a pretender and lying to him about nearly everything throughout their friendship.

Three men

The three men are driving a black car. The car is probably very expensive because they got very angry about Adam's cigarette hitting their hood.

Their attitude is to solve all problems with force. They harrass Seth falsely because they think he chopped the cigarette on their car.

Stylistic structure

This short story is written in the third person limited narrator perspective. We only gain access to Seth's mind. This narrative perspective allows the author to manipulate our impression of the different characters and their actions because these actions get filtered through Seth's point of view. The author creates a strong contrast between the two characters by explaining and describing the actions and looks of Adam and Seth himself. Seth is portrayed as an innocent boy and Adam is described as a rather bad person, because of his attitude and his lifestyle.

Contrasts

Seth Dawson	Adam Lockwood
wears a denim jacket	wears a leather jacket
never been in fights	been in many fights
smoked his first cigarette	has smoked cigarettes before
does not know how to inhale	knows how to smoke properly
only kissed a few girls once at a party	makes out with many girls
born without the "touch"	born with the "touch"
hangers-on	pretender

Symbols

There are several symbols in the story.

One of them is the bridge. The bridge is a symbol for the two lifestyles Seth can choose, the lifestyle similar to Adam's or a rather normal lifestyle. At first he has almost crossed the "bridge" and went to the "bad" side without noticing he is. Throughout the story he understands, that Adam's lifestyle is not what he wants. He wants to be different. That's when Seth stopped walking towards the "wrong side". When Adam turned out to be a coward and pushed his blame on Seth, Seth turned around on "the bridge" and began to walk faster and faster towards the normal but loyal lifestyle.

Another symbol are the cigarettes which are representing the bad and the forbidden things. The boys are probably under the age of 18 and therefore not allowed to smoke. The cigarettes also are representing Seth's pride over doing something illegal as he is carrying them in his chest pocket of his denim jacket.

Additionally another symbol is the denim jacket which is a symbol for the friendship of Seth and Adam. At the beginning of the story Seth wears the jacket proudly and after Adam showed his true character he throws it in the trashcan on his way home. This is symbolizing the end of their friendship.

On top of this there is the leather jacket. It is a symbol for bad behavior or someone who wants/is cool.

Weblinks

All information you are getting in this article are from this short story by Todd Strasser:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=129BeWevo6YXQp3v4_rwtxaG5591pSz7e

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