Conformity And Individuality

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Conformity and Individuality The loss of innocence is generally thought of as a terrible loss that parents try to shield their children from for as long as possible. Yet children still lose their innocence and life goes on to repeat the cycle of the protective parent again and again. Ernest Hemingway said “All things truly wicked start from innocence.” The best possible way to lose your childhood innocence is through life experience and self-acceptance; experience alone is not enough to ensure that the loss of innocence will not be replaced by something unsavory, as exemplified in Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi and Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson. Bridge to Terabithia is a children’s novel that follows two lonely kids who create their own magical forest kingdom. Katherine Paterson wrote the novel based on a true event; in August of 1974, Lisa Hill, the best friend of Paterson’s son was struck by lightning at a beach and killed. Jesse Aarons is the main character; in the beginning of the novel the reader learns that Jess is the only boy in a family with five children and that he has artistic talent but his masculine father does not approve, which makes Jess feel very fearful, angry and depressed. Leslie Burke is the other main character in the novel; she is Jess’s neighbor and the first time they meet she upstages Jess in a race on the playground at school. They become friends rather quickly, find “their place” in the woods and begin building Terabithia. As the novel progresses the reader witnesses Jess opening up, learning to relax and ultimately finding himself, as well as any middle school boy can. The book setting is mainly in the woods at Terabithia, but Terabithia is in Jess’s hometown which is rural and very country; the boys are supposed to like watching football, helping their parents on the farms that they will eventually inherit and behaving

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