Old Man on the Bridge - Analyse
Old Man at the Bridge by Ernest Hemingway. Analysis.
“Old Man at the Bridge” was inspired by Hemingway’s travels as a war correspondent during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s. Old Man at the Bridge demonstrates the power of narrative art. It takes a small, ordinary detail in a situation and by the art of story-telling transforms it into a powerful story about the tragedy of war. The old man becomes a symbol of the countless civilian victims of war-- those "without politics." The old man is going to die at the bridge--displaced, disoriented, alone. He's not a cat, nor a dove, but a goat--who was "only taking care of animals." The themes of the story are ‘many innocent people become victims of war’, ‘even when exposed to the atrocities of war some people do not lose their basic humanity.’ The story is laid in a war zone at a pontoon bridge across the Ebro river. The time is Easter Sunday 1938. Such geographical names as San Carlos, Ebro contribute to the credibility of the story. A first person narrator who tells the story through careful description, reportage of dialogue and insightful commentary about the old man. The narrator makes the reader see the old man. His engagement with him suddenly brings the old man into focus, he emerges out of the faceless, voiceless crowd. The Narrator's consciousness of the approaching enemy "contact" is used to create the dramatic tension between the immobility of the old man and the coming destruction as he constantly observes the movement of carts across the bridge while talking. The narrator's conversation allows the old man to have a voice. The voiceless victims speak through the old man. The story does not really go in sequence. It starts off in the present, then goes back and forth between past and present throughout the whole story. The central character is the 76 yr. old man, a war refugee who has been uprooted and displaced by the war. The old man is "without politics," who was only taking care of his animals, but
“Old Man at the Bridge” was inspired by Hemingway’s travels as a war correspondent during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s. Old Man at the Bridge demonstrates the power of narrative art. It takes a small, ordinary detail in a situation and by the art of story-telling transforms it into a powerful story about the tragedy of war. The old man becomes a symbol of the countless civilian victims of war-- those "without politics." The old man is going to die at the bridge--displaced, disoriented, alone. He's not a cat, nor a dove, but a goat--who was "only taking care of animals." The themes of the story are ‘many innocent people become victims of war’, ‘even when exposed to the atrocities of war some people do not lose their basic humanity.’ The story is laid in a war zone at a pontoon bridge across the Ebro river. The time is Easter Sunday 1938. Such geographical names as San Carlos, Ebro contribute to the credibility of the story. A first person narrator who tells the story through careful description, reportage of dialogue and insightful commentary about the old man. The narrator makes the reader see the old man. His engagement with him suddenly brings the old man into focus, he emerges out of the faceless, voiceless crowd. The Narrator's consciousness of the approaching enemy "contact" is used to create the dramatic tension between the immobility of the old man and the coming destruction as he constantly observes the movement of carts across the bridge while talking. The narrator's conversation allows the old man to have a voice. The voiceless victims speak through the old man. The story does not really go in sequence. It starts off in the present, then goes back and forth between past and present throughout the whole story. The central character is the 76 yr. old man, a war refugee who has been uprooted and displaced by the war. The old man is "without politics," who was only taking care of his animals, but