Setting and Narrator in Neil Gaiman’s “Troll Bridge”

“Three Billy Goats Gruff” has been Neil Gaiman’s inspiration for this short story “Troll Bridge”. However, many elements from the old fairytale has been replaced and Gaiman brings a more twisted and dark version on the table. The main character, Jack, meets a troll three times and, de-spite his selfishness, actually lets the troll eat him the last time. The ending of the story is unex-pected and provides no resolution but is a crucial part to Jack’s development. The story is split up in three parts where Jack is at three different stages in his life. Throughout the whole story, the narrator uses the setting to reflect Jack’s feelings and changes through these three stages.

It is a first person narrator and Jack is telling the story. In the first part of the story, the narrator is describing the setting positively and magical. Jack is 7 years old in this part and is very detailed with his description of nature and his fantasies, for example: “The light that penetrated the leaves was stained green and gold, and I thought I was in fairyland” (p. 60 l. 24-25). This makes the at-mosphere of the setting lively and Jack’s pureness as a child is present through what the narrator describes of the setting.

In the next stage of his life, Jack is 15 and the atmosphere of the setting changes. The narrator starts the part with telling the reader about how the fields in the area started to go as new houses and roads took over – even his own home is torn down (p. 63 l. 23-27). The immediate change of setting reflects Jack’s change as he goes through puberty – the child in him is torn down and is replaced by his new identity as a teenager. At this part, the narrator also starts to exclude things in the story, for example: “I was fifteen: I’d changed schools twice in that time. Her name was Louise, and she was my first love” (p.64, l. 3-4). Perhaps Jack omitted it because he did not think it was important enough to be in the story or maybe he would rather talk about exciting things – like girls. The narrator and setting in this part is all about Louise (his girlfriend-to-be). When they walk on the path he sees “the light of distant houses (that) shone like stars on the ground” (p. 65, l. 4-5) which is an example of how the narrator romanticizes the setting and reflects Jack at this stage of his life.

Jack is an adult in the last part of the story. The narrator becomes more concise than before and the setting has a dark and depressing atmosphere. His wife has just left him and he ends up taking a long walk where he describes his surroundings with “the trees were skeletal black against the harsh grey winter sky” (p. 67, l. 31-32). The narrator does not tell much about Jack’s feelings, but the setting clearly indicates his current state.
When Jack first stumble upon the bridge he sees it has a huge arching arc and he is impressed (p. 61, l. 11-12), but when he finds it again as an adult the bridge is filled with graffiti and trash is ly-ing around (p. 68, l. 17-20). These two settings can symbolize Jack’s development through the sto-ry – how he goes from an imaginative child to a depressed adult.

Jack has been a selfish man throughout the whole story by telling the troll to eat his sister and Louise instead of him. The troll never accepted those though and Jack had to promise to come back every time. The story ends with Jack giving up – he surrenders himself to the troll. The two of them switch bodies. The troll is happy as Jack and Jack feels more at home being the troll (p. 70, l. 4-10).
The narrator uses the setting to reflect Jack’s feelings and changes through the three parts of the story. In the first part, the setting reflects Jack as a child and how wonderful the world is there. In the second part, the setting reflects Jack as he goes through puberty. The setting in the last part reflects Jack as a depressed adult.