Név: PÉTER MAGYAR
Neptun: WJLTKU
Szak: BGF KKK Nemzetközi Tanulmányok (MsC, angol)
Munkarend: Levelező
Oktató: Hidasi Judit
Tárgy: Távol-Kelet tanulmányok

PIERRE BOULLE:
THE BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER KWAI

The bridge over the river Kwai is a book by French author Pierre Boulle. The novel is a fictional story about British prisoners of a war camp during the second world war in Burma under Japenese reign.
The book tells the story of British prisoners of a war camp forced to build a bridge that would connect Bangkok and Rangoon named the „death railway” over the river Kwai. Meanwhile the Allies’ goal is to prevent the completion of the works.
As the book has reached the heights of being considered a „classic” it is really hard to comment on it. Perre Boulle who witnessed the disasters of the second World War in the Far East used his own experiences to write this masterpiece of literature.
The book portrays well the characters of the British Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson and Japanese Colonel Saito. In the meantime the novel has received huge criticism because of the behaviour of Nicholson. Survivals of such war camps state that such rebellious attitude (that of Nicholson) would have led to his elimination at an early stage in real life. Apart from that the book is an exciting twisted story. Nicholson who demands proper treat for his fellow soldiers agrees to build the bridge for the Japanese. But fugitive British soldier Shears, reaches the Allies, leads them to site and they destroy the bridge. The story ends here. Although this twist at the end makes the whole novel tensioned and extremely exciting as a book, it also raises philosophical questions. Parallely to „Catch 22” the pointlessness of the war, the smallness of the human being, and the mindless efforts of destruction leave the reader shocked and amused at the same time, a very contradictional state of mind.
The bridge described in the book didn't actually cross the River Kwai. Pierre Boulle had never been to the bridge. He knew that the 'death railway' ran parallel to the River Kwae for many miles, and he therefore assumed that it was the Kwae which it crossed just North of Kanchanaburi. This was an incorrect assumption; the bridge actually crossed the Mae Klong river.