41 pages • 1 hour read
Mary LawsonThe Other Side of the Bridge
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2006A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 12-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 12 Summary
Much to Arthur’s chagrin, Jake begins to pursue Laura. Arthur watches helplessly, never lifting a finger to stop Jake or interfere in any way.
World War II becomes a more central plot point as it winds down and the first soldiers return. One of the POWs working Arthur’s farm gets a telegram informing him that his brother has died. Arthur’s mother, who has come to think of the two POWs as family, consoles him.
Of all the boys who went with Arthur to enlist, only one, Ted Hatchett, is still alive. He returns home badly disfigured, missing both legs, an arm and an eye. He also does not talk. Arthur, after overcoming his initial horror, begins to visit him regularly.
Arthur loses interest in Jake and Laura, preferring to simply avoid his brother. He begins to spend more time with Ted Hatchett, who still has not spoken to anyone. Arthur tells him stories about his work and the farm. Ted does not respond.
Arthur goes to help the Reverend March fix a generator and considers warning him about Jake and Laura, but decides that no one would believe him because “Jake’s lies were far more convincing than the truth” (281).
Several days later, Arthur goes back to sit with Ted and does not say anything, but just sits there, brooding about Jake and Laura, until Ted asks “How are the pigs?” (283).This is the first thing he’s said since he’s come home.
World War II ends in May and Arthur goes into town to celebrate. He sees Jake and Laura, but the whole town is a drunken party so he doesn’t think much of it. He takes his mother home, then returns. He stands on the sidelines, watching the soldiers celebrate: “They looked so happy. Happy, and proud of their victory. Their victory, not his” (286).
Arthur goes to Ted’s house and tells him about the war being over. Ted’s mother leaves them alone to talk and Ted asks Arthur to get his service revolver out and move it to the bottom drawer. Then he asks Arthur to help him out of bed and over to the floor by the revolver. Arthur helps him and then leaves.
Jake doesn’t come home until very late. Arthur doesn’t pay any attention to him, still thinking about Ted. Reverend March tells them Ted shot himself.
Jake dumps Laura, which Arthur watches happen but doesn’t do anything about. Then two things happen to wake Arthur up. His brother asks to borrow all the money he has, and then Jake disappears, leaving only a note that says “Sorry to go without saying good-bye. Love, Jake”(292). A few weeks later, Laura comes to Arthur to ask if Jake is coming back. He tells her no. She tells him she’s pregnant and suddenly Arthur remembers Jake coming home on VE day. Laura is distraught and not sure what to do. Arthur tells her to marry him.
The two get married. Arthur’s mother moves away because she won’t be in the same house with Laura. The last section of this chapter catches Arthur’s timeline up to Ian’s, with Arthur talking about Jake’s return.
Chapter 13 Summary
Ian and his father get a dog they name Molly, which is also the name of a dog they had in the past. Old Mr. Johnson shows up despite it being a Saturday, but Ian no longer cares or worries that people are taking advantage of his father: “In the process of correcting Jake’s view of his father’s relationship with the people of Struan he’d corrected his own as well” (300).
The following week, the school guidance counselor tells Ian he must make a decision about where to go the following year. Ian and Pete go fishing and talk about the future. Pete tells Ian he’s not leaving Struan; he will stay and open a fishing-guide business. Ian feels betrayed and is angry with Pete. Pete calls Ian out on his desire to be a pilot saying, “At least I’m not doing something I don’t want to do just to prove a point” (307). This makes Ian angry, and he asks Pete what he means. Pete says, “go work it out” (307).
Ian has another dream of his mother. She tells him she could not “stand the nothingness” (307) of Struan. He asks her if it’s really nothingness if he’s there and the dream mother echoes Pete, saying, “go work it out” (307).
Ian’s appointment with Mr. Hardy, the guidance counselor, makes him late to the farm the following day. Arthur’s son, Carter, is looking at the engine of Jake’s car, trying to figure out how everything works. Jake doesn’t know. Ian and Arthur go out to the fields to plow. They come back for lunch, but Ian is lost in his head, not paying attention to the Dunns and thinking about his decision to go to medical school and his dreams about his mother.
March Dunn points out that her mother is dropping things and that brings Ian back to the present. He remembers the scene with Jake and Laura and begins to have suspicions about them. He doesn’t say anything, though. March asks him to sharpen a scythe, which Ian does. Julie Dunn comes in to tell them there’s an eagle outside. Everyone goes outside to look at the eagle before Ian and Arthur return to work in the fields.
Ian realizes he’s left the sharpening stone in the house and has to go back. When he gets to the house ,he walks in on Laura and Jake in the kitchen. They are just talking, but she has “her arms up, hands flat against his chest as if she were going to push him away, but she wasn’t pushing him away” (313). Ian assumes there is something between them and goes to tell Arthur.
Arthur comes back to the house in a rage, throwing Jake down the stairs and out the door. He shoves Jake in the car and tells him to go, but Jake doesn’t leave. He tries to reason with Arthur, but Arthur has “the look of someone who had reached the limit, the end of the line” (315). Arthur picks him up and begins to beat Jake against the car until both Laura and Ian try to stop him. Ian succeeds in getting Arthur off Jake and Laura puts Jake in the car. Jake starts the car, hits the gas pedal in reverse and collides with Carter Dunn, who is killed.
Epilogue Summary
Ian and his father get a dog they name Molly, which is also the name of a dog they had in the past. Old Mr. Johnson shows up despite it being a Saturday, but Ian no longer cares or worries that people are taking advantage of his father: “In the process of correcting Jake’s view of his father’s relationship with the people of Struan he’d corrected his own as well” (300).
The following week, the school guidance counselor tells Ian he must make a decision about where to go the following year. Ian and Pete go fishing and talk about the future. Pete tells Ian he’s not leaving Struan; he will stay and open a fishing-guide business. Ian feels betrayed and is angry with Pete. Pete calls Ian out on his desire to be a pilot saying, “At least I’m not doing something I don’t want to do just to prove a point” (307). This makes Ian angry, and he asks Pete what he means. Pete says, “go work it out” (307).
Ian has another dream of his mother. She tells him she could not “stand the nothingness” (307) of Struan. He asks her if it’s really nothingness if he’s there and the dream mother echoes Pete, saying, “go work it out” (307).
Ian’s appointment with Mr. Hardy, the guidance counselor, makes him late to the farm the following day. Arthur’s son, Carter, is looking at the engine of Jake’s car, trying to figure out how everything works. Jake doesn’t know. Ian and Arthur go out to the fields to plow. They come back for lunch, but Ian is lost in his head, not paying attention to the Dunns and thinking about his decision to go to medical school and his dreams about his mother.
March Dunn points out that her mother is dropping things and that brings Ian back to the present. He remembers the scene with Jake and Laura and begins to have suspicions about them. He doesn’t say anything, though. March asks him to sharpen a scythe, which Ian does. Julie Dunn comes in to tell them there’s an eagle outside. Everyone goes outside to look at the eagle before Ian and Arthur return to work in the fields.
Ian realizes he’s left the sharpening stone in the house and has to go back. When he gets to the house ,he walks in on Laura and Jake in the kitchen. They are just talking, but she has “her arms up, hands flat against his chest as if she were going to push him away, but she wasn’t pushing him away” (313). Ian assumes there is something between them and goes to tell Arthur.
Arthur comes back to the house in a rage, throwing Jake down the stairs and out the door. He shoves Jake in the car and tells him to go, but Jake doesn’t leave. He tries to reason with Arthur, but Arthur has “the look of someone who had reached the limit, the end of the line” (315). Arthur picks him up and begins to beat Jake against the car until both Laura and Ian try to stop him. Ian succeeds in getting Arthur off Jake and Laura puts Jake in the car. Jake starts the car, hits the gas pedal in reverse and collides with Carter Dunn, who is killed.
Chapter 12-Epilogue Analysis
These chapters see events in the lives of both Ian and Arthur taking on an aspect of inevitability, raising the question of how free either are to control their lives. Arthur’s inaction makes many events seem inevitable since even though there may be ways of changing them, Arthur will never actually act. We see this in Jake’s pursuit of Laura, which Arthur could have stopped, or at least derailed slightly by warning Laura’s father about Jake’s intentions. Arthur does not say anything and Jake gets Laura pregnant then disappears.
This same kind of inaction plays out in the way Arthur helps Ted commit suicide. Arthur doesn’t do all that much, just moves Ted’s gun and helps Ted out of bed.
Ian takes a little more charge of his life, finally choosing to become a doctor while remaining unsure how much of this choice is his own will and how much is the inevitable outcome of being born the son of a doctor. Again his friend Pete helps him see through the lies he tells himself, especially with regard to becoming a pilot, which Pete sees through long before Ian does.
The final tragic scene that pulls together the respective timelines and plays out the violence that has been building throughout the book is narrated through Ian’s eyes. We never get Arthur’s view of what happened, even afterward, in the Epilogue. In Ian’s eyes, everything that happens is the result of “a number of trivial little incidents […] without any one of which everything would have turned out differently” (311).
After Carter’s death, Ian has to live the rest of his life knowing that he set all those incidents in motion by telling Arthur what he had seen. In the Epilogue, Laura reveals that though she may still have had feelings for Jake, she really loved Arthur, which leaves Ian again with the guilt that causes Ian to avoid the Dunns the rest of his life and even to a nervous breakdown in medical school. He also acknowledges that he has never forgiven his mother for leaving his father.
The final scene, with Ian and Pete in their boats, fishing, hints that while things have changed for Ian, things also remain the same.
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By Mary Lawson
