The Other Side of the Bridge

Ian meets Jake and witnesses his awkward reunion with first Laura and then Arthur. Ian is enamored with Jake as a representative of the larger, outside world. Jake encourages Ian to go further away than Toronto, which is Ian’s half-hearted plan for college. Jake suggests Ian go to New York, Los Angeles, or even farther. Ian suddenly sees that even going to Toronto is a provincial idea of the larger world, and that “maybe it took someone from outside to point out that there was a world out there” (182).

Ian goes to dinner with Cathy and is appalled by her sentimentality and breaks up with her. He tries to retreat from himself by going out to the lake and paddling the canoe. He finds Pete, but Pete is abrupt with him and does not offer Ian a chance to unburden himself. He returns home and has a fight with his father about Jim Lightfoot, who is in jail on murder charges and who will most likely not be given a fair trial in Ian’s eyes. Ian has taken up Pete’s cause.

Ian helps his father, acting as a nurse before taking his final exam, a chemistry test. Just before the test, his father comes down to the dock where Ian has been sitting and tells him that Jim Lightfoot has escaped from jail.