The Effect of Terabithia for Jess and Leslie

Furthermore, the fifth fantastic imaginative experience in Terabithia was Leslie inaugurated Jess as the King of Terabithia. It can be seen from quotation below : Leslie’s eyes were sparkling. “Arise” –she barely swallowed a giggle-“arise, king of Terabithia, and let us proceed into our kingdom.” The king of Terabithia snuffled and wiped his face on the back of his hand. “I will arise,” he replied with dignity, “when thou removes this fool dog off my gut.” Jess nooded. Paterson, 1977:115 From the fifth fantastic imaginative experiences in Terabithia by Jess and Leslie above can be concluded that “Terabithia” was not only an ordinary place, because when Jess and Leslie began their imagination, “Terabithia” would change into a full magic place as if it would come true, such as swinging to Terabithia with a rope, building a castle to stay in Terabithia, finding a Terabithian creature, battling a wicked creature in Terabithia, and Jess became a King of Terabithia.

3.2 The Effect of Terabithia for Jess and Leslie

Jess and Leslie realized that Terabithia was not ordinary place, but they could also find many moral lessons to break their fear and appreciating friendship. It can be seen from quotation below : Leslie took a deep breath. “This is not an ordinary place,” she whispered. “Even the rulers of Terabithia come into it only at Universitas Sumatera Utara times of greatest sorrow or of greatest joy. We must strive to keep it sacred. It would not do to disturb the Spirits. He nodded, and without speaking, they went back to the creek bank where they shared together a solemn meal of crackers and dried fruit. Paterson, 1977:60 “Terabithia” had given significant effects for Jess and Leslie to motivate them facing their daily life through the story that they experienced, they are : 1 Jess got inspiration to write a poem, 2 Jess and Leslie felt higher, stronger, and confident-self when they came to “Terabithia”, 3 the biggest effect for Jess was she could build a bridge to “Terabithia” as a symbol of the return of Jess’s spirit after Leslie’s death. The first effect of “Terabithia” was Jess got inspiration to begin her poem writing. One day Leslie challenged Jess to describe “Terabithia” into beautiful words in her poem. At the time Jess could not write a poem, but when she was on one of the tree in “Terabithia” she got inspiration to write poem as she saw a shadow from the castle they built as if everything was able to do. It can be seen from quotation below : “You should draw a picture of Terabithia for us to hang in the castle,” Leslie said. “I can’t,” Jess said. How could he explain it in a way Leslie would understand. “I just can’t get the poetry of the trees,” he said. She nodded. “Don’t worry,” she said. “You will someday.” He believed her because there in the shadowy light of the stronghold everything seemed possible. Paterson, 1977:52 Universitas Sumatera Utara Furthermore, The second effect of “Terabithia” with Jess and Leslie was Jess and Leslie felt higher, stronger, and self-confident when they came to “Terabithia”. Whenever they came to “Terabithia” from started swinging on the rope until stepped on the castle, they would feel greater magic powers which made them higher, stronger personality, and more confident. It happened whenever they came to “Terabithia”. It can be seen from quotation below : “Terabithia was their secret, which was a good thing, for how could Jess have ever explained it to an outsider? Just walking down the hill toward the woods made something warm and liquid steal through his body. The closer he came to the dry creek bed and the crab apple tree rope the more he could feel the beating of his heart. He grabbed the end of the rope and swung out toward the other bank with a kind of wild exhilaration and landed gently on his feet, taller and stronger and wiser in that mysterious land.” Paterson, 2006:59 The third effect of “Terabithia” was the biggest effect for Jess. Jess built a bridge to Terabithia as a symbol of the return of Jess’s spirit after Leslie’s death. Terabithia did not only influence as Jess and Leslie played together, even after Leslie’s death because she was sunk in the river where they usually played, Terabithia also influenced for Jess. The stories which happened to them in Terabithia made Jess realized that he might not be sad after Leslie’s death. Jess also kept her spirit by building a bridge to Terabithia and brought her sister, May Belle, to Terabithia for the first Universitas Sumatera Utara time by crossing her bridge. Furthermore, Jess introduced Terabithia to May Belle and said that Terabithia had a new queen namely her sister, May Belle. It can be seen from quotation below : “Shh, Look” he said. “Where ?” Maybelle said. “Can’t you see ‘um?” he whispered. “All the Terabithians standing on tiptoe to see you.” “Me?” she said. “Shh, yes. There’s rumor going around that the beautiful girl arriving today might be the beautiful girl arriving today might be the queen they’ve been waiting for.” Paterson, 1977:163 From the three effects of Terabithia by Jess and Leslie above, it is concluded that the experiences that they had in Terabithia gave the positive effects to Jess and Leslie, not only when they were in Terabithia, but also when they did their daily life, like braver and more confident personality. Even after the death of their friend, Leslie, Terabithia still gave good influence to Jess and her sister, May Belle, to keep imagining it. By returning of Jess’s new spirit to continue his imagination in Terabithia even without Leslie proved that Terabithia gave big influences to everyone who came in. Universitas Sumatera Utara 4. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION 4.1