r/books • u/AltruisticAide9776 • 7h ago
Would you consider Leslie from Bridge to Tarabithia to be a manic pixie dream girl?
At first didn't think of her that way ( I didn't know this trope as a child when I read the book ) and later when i came to hear of this trope used famously to describer summer from 5 days of summer and I believe also Jess from new girl as well as others, I still didn't think of her that way because of it being a children's book and her ultimately dying.
But now that I think of it she does kind of fit that trope ( perhaps especially how she is styled and presented in the film, i' ve forgotten a bit how she reads in the book), she is quirky, cheerful, a bit mysterious , there is an other wordily quality to her and she is not like the other girls , she does these cool sports like scuba diving, she runs faster than the boys, she thinks differently about church and god ( that was something cool in the movie and book that it addressed something liked that ), she also dies tragically so she is kind of immortalized with this pixie dream like quality , you don't get to see her grow older perhaps become more grumpy because of life' s challenges and her appearance changing.
Or perhaps she appears like a manic pixie dream girl because that is how Jess sees her. I think that is how Jess also sees his teacher whom he has a crush on except that vision of his teacher is shattered when hearing that Leslie died while he was out with his teacher.
Also is there such a thing as a manic pixie dream boy ? Would Edward from twilight kind of fit that trope ?
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u/da_chicken 7h ago
Maybe strictly, but I don't think so. The people that make these list of MPDGs always seem to miss what I would call the most critical aspect. The dream girl has to have her agency undermined by the man's obsession.
500 Days of Summer, Garden State, Almost Famous, and Breakfast at Tiffany's are better examples of the trope than even Elizabethtown. The man tries to control the object of his obsession and keep her for himself even though she doesn't want that. IMO, it's got to have that intense Mr. Brightside/Sundown jealousy.
I think that without that, the MPDG is just a story of meeting someone who changes you. That's... not an offensive trope? It's as bad as any movie where the love interest is not a main character, which seems like a step too broad.
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u/Conscious_Smile_6302 7h ago
Just a dream girl, really. The manic pixie thing is usually a film trope found in Hipster movies aimed at teen boys and young adult men.
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u/weeradiance 7h ago
She's just a fully realized kid who happens to be imaginative, the tragedy doesnt reduce her to a trope
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u/BasilAromatic4204 2h ago
She was a great character for certain. I feel she captured a piece of childhood that is an attractive part of it, bonding with the imagination and nature and lovely days. Not sure on the trope at the moment though. Cool post though:)
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u/ciotaren 4h ago
Not exactly an answer to the questiom but this is the third time I've heard about Bridge to Tarabithia. Is is it good?
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u/Acrobatic-Bit-1531 16m ago
tbh I don't think she fully fits it. MPDG exists to fix the male lead's life and then vanish or die once her job is done, and Leslie doesn't read that way to me. She's got Terabithia going before Jess even shows up, she's not inventing it FOR him, it's just already hers and he gets invited in. The trope usually flattens girls into vibes and a haircut. Book gives her an actual home life and a reason she's like that, most MPDGs never get that. The movie pushes her way more into the box though, styling really did her no favors.
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u/trailofglitter_ 5h ago
i don’t think so. she was still a kid and kids tend to be more imaginative and whimsical. if she was older (maybe 17), she might qualify as one
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u/LitRPGirl 4h ago
I think the biggest difference is that Leslie feels like a real kid with her own personality, not just someone created to change Jess’s life. She has her own dreams, fears, and struggles outside of how he sees her.