Book Report

The Bridge of San Luis Rey, written by Thornton Wilder.

The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927) is a novel that takes place in Lima, colonial Peru, at noon of Friday, June 12, 1714. At this particular time, an ancient rope-fiber suspension bridge (which was fabricated by the Incas a century earlier) collapses, killing the five people who were crossing it. In his novel, Thornton describes events lived by the characters leading up to their being on the bridge, and eventually to their sudden death. He also explores the reasons for which each of the characters might be there. He does this through Brother Juniper, a Franciscan monk, who witnessed the horrible event while he was on his way to cross the bridge himself. Brother Juniper's curiosity about why God would let such an awful event happen leads him to inquire the question through scientific methods; he decides to inquire into the lives of the victims. The Bridge of San Luis Rey explores a philosophical question which many may tempt to answer: does everything happen for a reason? I found the novel very interesting to read mainly, because I am intrigued by these types of philosophical questions.

In the novel, Thornton expresses through the character of Brother Juniper that perhaps one of the reasons for which the five victims were "chosen" to die was to end their unhappiness. ("Like all the cultivated he believed that only the widely read could be said to know that they were unhappy.") I thought this was an interesting approach to the philosophical question he explores throughout the novel. It did however leave me with another question: does one die because it wants to on some level end their unhappiness? The Bridge of San Luis Rey was, for the most part, narrated through the third person omniscient point of view. Because it was written this way, the author gives more information helping to understand the events without one of the characters perspective (which often makes it bias)

(Thornton won the Pulitzer Prize for this novel in 1928, one year after it was published.)

Literature: 54/60

Language: 28/40

Total: 82/100

For the extra 5%...

The Bridge of San Luis Rey, written by Thornton Wilder.

The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927) is a novel that takes place in Lima, colonial Peru, at noon of Friday, June 12, 1714. At this particular time, an ancient rope-fiber suspension bridge (which was fabricated by the Incas a century earlier) collapses, killing the five people who were crossing it. In his novel, Thornton describes events lived by the characters leading up to their being on the bridge, and eventually to their sudden death. He also explores the reasons for which each of the characters are there. He does this through Brother Juniper, a Franciscan monk, who witnessed the horrible event while he was on his way to cross the bridge himself. Brother Juniper's curiosity about why God would let such an awful incident happen leads him to question the occurence with a scientific point of view; he decides to inquire into the lives of the victims. The Bridge of San Luis Rey explores a philosophical question which many may strive to answer: does everything happen for a reason? I found the novel very interesting to read mainly, because these types of philosophical questions intrigue me.

In the novel, Thornton expresses through the character of Brother Juniper that perhaps one of the reasons for which the five victims were "chosen" to die was to end their unhappiness."Like all the cultivated he believed that only the widely read could be said to know that they were unhappy." I thought this was an interesting approach to the philosophical question he examines throughout the novel. It did however leave me with another question: does one die because one wishes to on some level end their unhappiness? The narration in The Bridge of San Luis Rey is from a third person omniscient point of view. Because it was written this way, the author provides more information which helps the reader to understand the occurences better.

(Thornton won the Pulitzer Prize for this novel in 1928, one year after it was published.)