The Other Side of the Bridge

“Arthur looked at Jake and saw that he was staring at the knife. His expression was one of surprise, and this was something that Arthur wondered about later too. Was Jake surprised because he had never considered the possibility that he might be a less-than-perfect shot? Did he have that much confidence in himself, that little self-doubt?”

Arthur looks down at his foot after Jake has thrown a knife through it and then immediately looks up at Jake. This scene in the Prologue shows Arthur already second-guessing Jake, unsure of his motives. It also illustrates Jake as someone is unable to consider the consequences of his actions.

“He imagined living in Toronto, or Vancouver or New York. Think of the freedom. You could be whoever you wanted to be. No one expecting anything of you, no one knowing who your parents were, no one caring if you were a brain surgeon or a bum.”

Ian begins the book wishing he were somewhere other than Struan, anywhere outside of the stifling confines of a small town. He, much like Jake, imagines that his family is holding him back and his choices for his future are limited.

“‘It could be a hundred years,’ Pete said, giving his line a sharp jerk and hauling in a perch, ‘maybe two hundred, before you get another night as perfect as this for fishing. But there will always, always, be another test.’”

Pete sums up his approach to life for Ian in this scene, the first of many scenes where Ian and Pete fish. However, it only Pete who really fishes, while Ian worries, is distracted, talks of his problems, and pays very little attention to what he is actually doing.

“When Jake finally arrived, the outcome of all that pain and fear and grief, he would be so precious to his mother that she could hardly bear it. She carried him around with her all day, holding him tightly, fending off death with the crook of her arm.”

Very early on, Arthur recognizes that his mother loves Jake more than him, which Arthur doesn’t seem to be too bothered by. Like so many other things in the book, he simply accepts it, even in this scene when he is very young. This will continue to hold true until the very end of the novel, where Arthur finally beats Jake and, in turn, Jake unintentionally kills Arthur’s son.

“‘If I won’t go with you, will you go anyway? Will you go without me?’ This time, struggling with the shaking of her voice, she said, ‘Darling, you do not know what it has been like, all these years.’ By which he understood, finally, that he was not important to her. Not that important.”

This scene is the source of Ian’s hatred for his mother: not that she divorced his father, but that she is willing to leave Ian behind in the process. For Ian, being a parent means setting aside one’s own life and placing their child’s first. This is not something that Ian’s mother can do, and Ian never forgives her for it.

“All the way through high school Arthur didn’t have a girlfriend.”

Arthur is shy with nearly everyone, though more so with women than men. His inability to talk to women leaves him even more alone after all his friends are shipped off to WWII.

“He loved Saturday nights. The rest of the week had nothing going for it whatsoever. The kids he sat beside at school—those who had stayed on after they were sixteen—were mostly nice enough, but he didn’t belong with them.”

Arthur doesn’t graduate with the rest of friends. His mother forces him to stay in school, despite the fact that he hates it and is far too old to continue. He begins to live for Saturday nights, the only time he gets to see his friends and do anything other than attend school and farm. For Arthur, this amount of socialization is enough.

“Arthur didn’t hate his brother, or not very often. Mostly he just didn’t understand him. How did they get to be in the same family? What did Jake want? Because Arthur definitely got the feeling Jake wanted something; you could see it sometimes: there was a fretfulness, a frustration—something indefinable behind the eyes.”

This passage shows Arthur growing out of the sibling rivalry that has defined his youth. He still has to deal with Jake wanting to compete with him, but Arthur no longer cares about the outcome. Further, he seems to truly not understand that Jake could want more than what’s offered to him in their small town.

“April. The wind turned around and blew from the south and like magic the snow sagged, collapsed on itself, and melted away. The air smelled of damp earth and things trying to grow, trying to force their way up out of the still-frozen ground.”

Lawson is adept at conjuring strong images of the landscape in very few words, such as this one, in which the visual and tactile combine to give a complete picture of spring in Struan in just a few lines. Struan is place governed by the seasons, and Lawson realizes she must show this often, and intrepidly.

“Jake loved that. Loved proving to Arthur and the world just how stupid Arthur was. How gullible. He never got tired of proving it. ‘Art!’—his voice a shriek—‘I’m going to fall!’ ‘Good,’ Arthur said. A word that would haunt him for the rest of his life. He felt Jake fall. Felt his weight leave the bridge. Just like that.”

In this scene, Jake’s habit of pushing Arthur, of taunting him and taking his uncomplaining acquiescence for granted finally comes back to haunt him. The moment Arthur picks to stop falling for Jake’s schemes, Jake falls and breaks his legs on the rocks below and is crippled. Arthur spends the rest of the novel feeling guilty for saying “good” to Jake, even though the reader is made to side with Arthur nonetheless.

“You shouldn’t have to feel guilty about living your own life. You shouldn’t have to be responsible for your parents’ happiness. It wasn’t fair.”

In this scene, Ian says what Arthur might also say, since he too spends his time protecting Jake to make his mother happy. In Ian’s case, he is worried about his father’s depression after his mother leaves them, which gives Ian another reason to continue to despise his mother.

“Arthur wondered what Germany would look like, or wherever they ended up. Not as beautiful as Canada, that was a safe bet. He got a kind of ache mid-chest at the thought. Homesick already, and he was only fifty miles from home.”

This scene is as far from Struan as Arthur ever gets in the course of the book. After being rejected by the Army for having flat feet, he returns to Struan and never leaves again.

“There must be dozens of people in Struan who had been all the way through school with the boy who was now their doctor. One day you’d be gouging each other’s eyes out in the schoolyard and the next you’d be obediently saying ‘aahhh’ so he could look at your tonsils, or pulling down your pants so he could stick a needle in your ass.”

In this scene, the man Jim Lightfoot may or may not have stabbed has just died and Ian’s father is arguing with Gerry Moynihan about removing Lightfoot’s handcuff. Ian realizes that Moynihan and his father probably went to school together in Struan and have probably known each other all their lives. This quote captures one of the aspects of small town life that Ian initially hopes to escape.

“Everything seemed normal. The fact was—Ian saw this suddenly—everything was normal. His father was so familiar with death that it didn’t warrant discussion. It wasn’t a shocking or unusual occurrence, it was a commonplace. Which was the most shocking thing of all.”

After Ian’s father can’t save the man and he dies, Ian tries to sort out how he feels about it. He is taken aback by the realization that for a doctor, death is a more familiar part of life than it is for most.

“Otto was looking from one to the other of them. Arthur couldn’t help noticing, couldn’t suppress a small surge of pride that Mr. Luntz recognized that he was part of the picture now.”

With his three sons off in the war, Otto Luntz asks if the Dunn family will work some of his fields. Arthur’s father agrees to do it, but the fact that he consults with Arthur in making the decision is one of the few moments in the novel where Arthur’s skills are recognized.

“His legs were shuddering with the strain. What if he could not keep it up? What was the point of his size and strength if he could not keep the weight of the tractor from crushing his father?”

In order to work the additional fields, Arthur’s father agrees to use Otto Luntz’s tractor. Taking it for a drive the first day, he accidentally rolls it into a ditch and is killed. Arthur, who tries to save him, has to face up to the fact that his strength will not always save him and those around him.

“‘Toronto’s nothing. How about somewhere a little more exciting? How about New York? Los Angeles? Hell, why not go to China? They have universities there. See the world!’ Ian stared at him, and Jake laughed. ‘Got you thinking, haven’t I?’”

When Jake first arrives back at the farm, he sees Ian as little like him and encourages him to go out into the larger world. In doing so, he makes Ian realize that even Ian’s conception of the world is limited, since Toronto is as far away as Ian has ever considered going.

“He was a city type. Sure of himself. Confident. Ian envied him that. He looked like someone who had no doubts about himself or where he was going. Someone who knew exactly what he wanted out of life. Someone who had all the answers.”

Ian’s initial perception of Jake is someone who has everything Ian wants. Over time, though, as Ian learns more about him and more about his history, it changes his perception.

“No reply from Jake. Arthur had to see his expression, so he looked up. If only he hadn’t done that. If only he had just stayed as he was. Swallowed his potato, kept his head down. If only. But he raised his head, just fractionally, just an inch or so, and the movement caught Jake’s eye.”

In this scene, Arthur’s tiny movement while eating catches Jake’s eye and Jake sees a new opportunity to compete with Arthur, in this case, over Laura. This also mirrors several scenes that mention both Arthur and Arthur’s father not looking up while eating

“He was looking at Arthur out of one eye so savagely bright it made Arthur think of an animal caught in a trap, an animal you’d kill as quickly as you could to put an end to its pain. Arthur turned around and left the room.”

Arthur goes to see Ted Hatchett, who has been badly disfigured in the war and is missing his legs, one arm, and one eye. In this first encounter, Arthur’s perception of Ted foreshadows Ted taking his own life.

“He was going to have to deal with Jake directly. It made him sweat to think about it but he could see no other course of action. He would tell him straight out that if he touched Laura he would kill him. He would make sure that Jake believed him.”

Despite this scene in Arthur’s imagination, he never actually lifts a finger to stop Jake from pursuing Laura until much later, when he and Laura are already married. Ironically, when Arthur does act to stop Jake, Arthur’s child winds up dying.

“After a while he said, ‘I don’t know how else to put it, man, except to say that everything I care about is here. Everything that matters to me is right…here.’ ‘But that’s because it’s all you know!’ Ian said. ‘Jesus, Pete! You don’t even know what else is out there!’ ‘No,’ Pete said. ‘But I know what’s important to me. And I know I don’t have to go anywhere else to find it.’”

Ian and Pete spend several scenes discussing what they’re going to do with their lives, though it’s mostly Ian who talks. In this scene, Pete reveals that he plans to stay in Struan, which Ian takes a betrayal. Pete’s defense of his decision also sums up the theme of Struan versus the outside world.

“It wasn’t until he saw Arthur’s face that Ian began to feel uneasy. Arthur hadn’t said a word but there was something in his eyes that Ian hadn’t seen before in anyone, far less in Arthur. It was the look of someone who had reached the limit, the end of the line—as if he were teetering right on the edge of a cliff within himself, and if he went over, there would be no telling what came next.”

Ian doesn’t think through his decision to tell Arthur that he saw Jake and Laura together until Arthur is already in a rage and throwing Jake out of the house. This scene is also the first and only time Arthur confronts Jake about anything, despite all the times he’s wanted to, which makes his pent-up rage a formidable thing to release all at once.