Bridge Over the River Kwai

A detailed Summary of Bridge Over the River Kwai


The Bridge Over the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle begins with a large deployment of Allied prisoners of war headed to the Kwai river valley. Once at the river, the P.O.W.'s receive orders to begin work a bridge to connect a railway that stretches from Burma to Siam. Things begin badly for the allies when the commander of the P.O.W. camp, Colonel Saito, tries to force the officers of the allies to work with the regular soldiers. However, the imprisoned commanding officer of the allies, Colonel Nicholson, will not allow the officers to work, and for that Saito "throws [Nicholson] into a hut where there was neither bed nor chair" (26). Nicholson was also given salt-laced rice and a less than meager amount of water. Since they did not have good military leaders, the workers did very little right when working on the bridge. Eventually Saito relents and allows the officers to command their troops rather than work with t


Plans about the railway started surfacing and the allies began work on a plan to destroy parts of the railroad to make it inoperable. The mission falls into the lap of Major Shears of Force 316. Force 316 is a special operations force that is called upon to act covertly and in small groups. Shears gets permission to use to other agents on this mission. He chooses Captain Warden and a recruit named Joyce, a boy fresh from the Force 316 school. Shears chooses Joyce because he "seemed to have his head screwed on the right way in spite of his youth"(75). While the special operation force makes plans Nicholson begins to meet with Saito and his engineer to discuss the bridge and how it should be completely redone. Eventually Saito gives in and gives full control of the bridge to Nicholson and his staff of Major Hughes and Captain Reeves.

Finally the day comes when Force 316 moves into position and they set the cha

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Approximate Word count = 618
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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