The Old Man at the Bridge- Ernest Heminway

By investigating The Old Man At The Bridge, we can understand that that the author Ernest Hemingway is potraying the short story as an example of the relationship that he previousily shared with his father. Hemingway uses devices such as the plot and characters to suggest that Hemingway and his father were not close. He also emphasizes his fathers death in this story; how he was watching through a window of consciencenous.

This short story describes Hemingway and his fathers interconnection. In the story The Old Man and the Soldier do not know eachother. The soldier sees The Old Man as a stranger in his eyes. The soldier is just there doing his job, and happens to see an old man that he'd never seen before, sitting on the bridge. "An old man with steel rimmed spectacles and very dusty clothes sat by the side of the road." (Hemingway1) What makes this a bit interesting is that during his real life, Hemingway was distant from his father. They did not have a good father to son connection that the Dad's are always braging about. "Growing to disdain his father and despise his mother, Hemingway left Oak Park, Illinois, at 18 to begin his career as a journalist at The Kansas City Star." (Broad,2,1) After his father had committed suicide he felt somewhat more degrated and left behind. Therefore, The Old Man and Soldier symbolize his father and how Hemingway saw their relations.

To continue with, The Old Man At The Bridge is a brief description of Hemingway's real life relationship between him and his father. In the story the bridge is the door to death and The Old Man is waiting behind it, in the reality of the story he at his last breathe, he's old and he doesn't want to go on. While this happens, the soldier is standing by watching and knowing that he is going to die if he doesn't move along. The Soldier tries but he makes no difference to The Old Man;
"If you are rested I would go," I urged. "Get up and try to walk now." "Thank you," he said and got to his feet, swayed from side to side and then sat down backward in the dust." (Hemingway48)
This is uniquely relevant to Hemingway's real life. Hemingway was not an old man when his father committed sucide, Heminway went through a tough exprience feeling upset and depressed. He sat back and watched his own father take his life. His father had many of his own beliefs related to masculinty and being a man; "his father was robbed of his masculinity, his comrades in war were robbed of their lives. No one would rob Hemingway of the heroic death he alone had chosen for himself." (Copyright © 1998 by Timeless,15,4) So not a soldier nor a son would have changed his mind. Overall, Hemingway used this piece of literature to contrast how closely it relates to the bad interconnection that him and his father once shared. They were never close, as were The Old Man and the Soldier. Additionally, he sat back and watched an older figure die before him; where as the Soldier watched The Old Man basically die. He knew that was it for the Old Man, that he was going to die. Both are similar situations, and are mind setting on the relation that they share. The Old Man On The Bridge is a symbolization of Heminway's relation with his gaurdian.

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2011/10/hemingway-201110 Notes
http://www.timelesshemingway.com/content/fathersandsons