The bridges of Madison county door Robert James Waller

Title The Bridges of Madison County. Author Robert James Waller Publisher Wolters-Noordhoff, 1997. Writer's biography Robert James Waller was professor of management at the University of Northern Iowa when he published the Bridges of Madison County. The novel became an absolute blockbuster. After that Robert stopped teaching and became a fulltime writer. Summary of the story The story begins, when Francesca received a letter from Robert, she is thinking of the time, when she met him. After photographing six covered bridges and searching for another one, Robert drove through a little village, called Winterset, and he asked the way to the last bridge he needed to photograph. He asked it to Francesca, an unhappily married woman. From the moment she saw him, she was in love with him. Instead of telling him how to drive to that place, she showed him the way to that bridge. After talking about some things, she invited him for dinner. Her husband and children were away for a week so she was all alone at home that week. After a long evening they said goodbye but Francesca wanted to see him more. So she left a note near the bridge that he was going to photograph. The result was a relationship between these two for a couple of days. After a few days they have to said goodbye to each other because her husband and children were coming home. Francesca loved Robert very much but she couldn't leave them although she wasn't happily married. She didn't say anything to her husband. After the death of her husband she tried to locate Robert but she couldn't find him. Several years later she received a packet from Robert: he had left her some stuff after his death. It remembered her to the time with him. A few years later she died also. She left a letter to her children to tell them about that time. She had not told them about this adventure but she couldn't take it with her in her grave. Her children understood it and they find it a terrific story. They go a writer and tell him the story. Setting and point of view The whole story took place in Winterset, a little village in Madison County in Iowa, in less than a week in August 1965. Around that period adultery wasn't a normal thing. It was a shame. It all happened because Robert was already 52 and still alone. Francesca was unhappily married so she was open to excitement in her life. The story is written in the third-person through the eyes of the characters. The writer describes the feelings of the two characters.
Theme The theme of the novel is love and loyalty. The book is about the love between Francesca and Robert. Francesca falls in love the first moment she sees Robert. Robert falls in love also and they have some very romantic days together. In this book you can see how love changes people. Robert takes pictures of Francesca and when she sees these pictures she sees that she is very beautiful then. Her children also see that she was very pretty than. She looks good because Robert makes her feel good. She was unhappily married and when you are unhappily married you don't feel good, so you aren't as beautiful as you can be. When she is with Robert she feels good and it is terrible for him and for her to say goodbye to each other. The theme is also loyalty because Francesca stays with her husband because she doesn't want to hurt him. He knows that he isn't the best husband on earth but she stays with him. Robert respects this and so he doesn't call and he doesn't go and look for her. Genre The novel is a love story. The novel is about a woman and a man how are falling in love whit each other but the woman is already married and she don't let her husband alone. It is a good book about love and the problems that go with love. Title The Bridges of Madison County. Robert makes photos of the bridges in Madison County. When he looks for the last one he meats Francesca and they fall in love. This is the begin of a love story and the begin of a good book. When Robert wasn't photographing the bridges, they had never met and nothing was happened. Character descriptions and character development Francesca Johnson: She is an unhappily married woman without an exciting life. By falling in love with Robert she had again a filling up in her life. She went shopping etc. She felt feminine again. But she can't go with Robert because she knows that her husband loves her very much and she can't leave him and her children alone. Because her husband comes home Robert have to leave and Francesca relapsed into her boring and unexciting life regretting for the fact that she let Robert go without her. Before Robert came she was a normal wife, she wasn't extreme beautiful or something, but when she meats Robert she changed. She become very beautiful, you can see that at the picture he made of her. He made her feel good and respected. He was the same as she was. Robert Kincaid : Robert is a photographer that lived in his own world. He did what he liked to do. Mostly he was alone on the road for a report. By falling in love his life didn't change a lot. He went his own way, but he needed some company for filling up that emptiness insides hem so he took a dog. Robert loved Francesca until his death. She was the only one in his life. The hardest thing he had to do in his life was saying goodbye to Francesca. He loves her a lot and he respected her decision to stay with her husband and children. He doesn't call her or anything because he knows that that make the things even harder then that they are now. Opdracht 1: de kwaliteit van het verhaal Ik vond het een heel erg leuk boek. In het begin vond ik het net zo'n liefdes verhaaltje, een soort romannetje, maar uiteindelijk vond ik het best een goed boek. Ik vond vooral het feit dat Francesca voor haar man en kinderen koos heel erg mooi. Ik had namelijk gedacht dat ze wel met Robert mee zou gaan, maar dat gebeurde niet. Ik denk niet dat er erg veel mensen zijn die zoveel rekening houden met hun familie. Ik vond dat ze er heel erg goed over nadacht. Ze vond het echt heel erg, maar ze wist ook dat het waarschijnlijk fataal zal zijn voor haar man als ze hem verliet. Vooral omdat ze in zo'n klein dorpje woonden. Ik vond ook het stukje als haar man dood gaat heel erg mooi. Dan zegt hij dat hij weet dat hij haar niet genoeg heeft kunnen geven en dat vindt hij heel erg. Ik vond dat heel erg mooi beschreven. Ook vond ik het stukje mooi van toen ze hem ging zoeken en erachter kwam dat hij dood was. Ik zal zelf helemaal niet weten wat ik in zo'n situatie zal doen, maar ik vind het knap van haar dat ze een soort haar hele leven aan haar man heeft gegeven, want ze was helemaal niet gelukkig met hem. Ook vond ik het leuk hoe haar kinderen naar haar dood reageerden op het feit dat hun moeder vreemd was gegaan. Ik vond het boek helemaal niet saai en het was makkelijk te volgen.
Opdracht 5: de presentatie van de handelingen Ik vond dat alle gebeurtenissen elkaar goed opvolgende, je kon je alles heel goed voorstellen en daardoor leek het verhaal net echt gebeurd. Je voelde heel erg goed de sfeer van het boek aan. Je voelde goed de spanning toen Francesca het briefje op de boom ging hangen waarbij ze hem uitnodigde. Het boek was helemaal niet saai, maar ik vind het wel jammer dat het boekje zo kort was. Als ik de schrijver was had ik net wat meer verteld over de situatie in het huwelijk van Francesca zodat je net nog een iets beter beeld zou krijgen van de situatie. Opdracht 6: wat heeft het met mij te maken Het boek heeft op zich niet zo heel veel met mij te maken. Ik ben namelijk nog niet getrouwd en ik kan me dan ook moeilijk voorstellen hoe het is om geen goed huwelijk te hebben, maar dan toch bij je man te blijven en niet met de liefde van je leven mee te gaan. Ik snap best dat ze het moeilijk heeft, want als je zelf een vriendje hebt en het gaat minder goed, dan ga je ook twijfelen, maar ik kan niet zeggen dat het verhaal echt veel met mij te maken heeft.