Old man at the bridge ernest Hemingway
.docOLD MAN AT THE BRIDGE Ernest Hemingway
The opening paragraph presents a piece of description. It is drawn as seen by a passer-by, looking from the road. The narrator of the story is not introduced in this paragraph. It is later that the reader understands that it’s the narrator, an officer, who describes what he sees. The scene is pictured with precision and such photographic accuracy that the reader is almost ready to believe that he is among the refugees crossing the pontoon bridge.
This impression is achieved by the details of the depicted scene, given step by step with a remarkable sense of knowledgeability, so characteristic of Ernest Hemingway.
The first sentence introduces an old man with steel rimmed glasses and very dusty clothes, who sat by the side of the road. Then we see a pontoon bridge across the river and carts, trucks, men, women and children crossing it… “But the old man sat there without moving. He was too tired to go any farther”.
It must be noted that the title of the story and the first sentence are in strong position. They provide a clue to the message of the story. They get double expressiveness because they stand out most effectively; the information in the title is repeated and enlarged in the first sentence. Thus we have double expressiveness which is heightened and enlarged in the following parts of the story and in its implication.
The mentioning of the old man’s clothes discloses the implication that the old man covered a lot of kilometers and is very tired, but this idea is expressed in the closing sentence of the first paragraph.
On the syntactical level we have framing reiteration which also accentuates the reader’s attention on the old man and the fact that he was not fit to continue his way. “The old man sat there” is the key sentence of the story.
The atmosphere of bodily fatigue and exhaustion is created through the following words: staggered, ground, plodded, pushed; they underline the main idea – to move unsteadily with great difficulty and effort. The phrases “steep bank”, “ankle deep dust” add to this atmosphere of bodily fatigue and exhaustion and the reader becomes aware of the physical sense of things that sharpens the feeling of absolute reality. And this heightens the effect of solidity and accuracy of immediate observation. The reader has no difficulty in clearly imagining the described scene through the blend of sight, touch, smell and sound associations.
The feeling of absolute reality created through the above-mentioned blend of the associations, makes the reader see the activities in detail. It makes him hear the screeching sounds of the slowly moving carts, feel the exhaustion of the people crossing the bridge, smell the dust in which everything is absorbed.
The second paragraph contains information concerning the officer’s business to find out to what point the enemy had advanced the concluding part of the last sentence.
The fourth part contains information concerning the officer’s business to find out “to what point the enemy had advanced…” with the same concluding part “and the old man sat there”. It sounds as it were an exposition placed in the middle of the story. The officer “was watching the bridge an wondering how long now it would be before they would see the enemy and listening all the while for the first noises that would signal that ever mysterious event called contact”. The atmosphere of this paragraph is that of nervous strain and tension and its concluding part, taken out of the context, doesn’t sound as if it were part and parcel of the story. But the impression doesn’t last long. It is this part that is necessary and important. And it is this key sentence that is always brought to the foreground, this time by the device of defeated expectancy. The reader’s attention is again drawn to the old man sitting by the side of the road, because the pattern of predictability, the reader has been conditioned to expect (the further description of the officer’s thoughts), is defeated and more prominence is given to the old man who is not fit to go any further. The officer’s feeling of strain and tension turns into a feeling of worry for the old man. It is still implied, it is at the back of the officer’s mind. The atmosphere of tension is emphasized by periphrasis: “contact” stands for “battle”, “the first noises” for “bombardment”, the epithet “mysterious” heightens the expressive force of the used periphrasis.
Then comes the continuation of the conversation between the officer and the old man from which we learn that the old man is 76, he is without politics, he has no family. he was looking after his animals, and he had to leave them because of the artillery. The only good luck for him is that “the cat will be all right, cats can look after themselves”. But he worries about the goats and the pigeons. The officer is the man feeling deeply and sincerely and he is painfully bewildered at the trifling character of the old man’s worries. The incongruity between the officer’s nervous strain because of the advancing enemy and the coming battle and the seemingly trifling character of the old man’s worries is further enhanced by the following detail: “I asked watching the far end of the bridge where a few last carts were hurrying down the slope of the bank”. The officer tries hard to persuade the old man to stand up and continue his way. He is aware of the coming danger. The old man thanks him and says that he knows no one in the direction the trucks go.
The sixth part contains the climax of the story. The officer keeps telling the old man to leave the place watching the far end of the bank where now “there were no carts”. The officer’s feeling of worry is increasing, he urges the old man to stand up and resume his way. “The old man got to his feet, swayed from side to side and sat down backwards in the sand”. The reiteration of the sentence “I was taking care of animals” first addressed to the officer in his attempt to share his worries with somebody and then “I was only taking care of animals” addressed to no one, sharpens the feeling of pain, the feeling of doom. The implication can be easily interpreted. The word “only” sounds pathetic and stirs feelings of pity and sadness in the reader. On the other hand, it underlines the old man’s bewilderment because taking care of animals is the most peaceful of all people’s occupations. Then why was he made to leave his animals and the town he lived in? The question is left unanswered. The image of the old man is the embodiment of human sufferings caused by war. The reader is aware of the officer’s growing pain for the old man. He is a soldier, his duty is to defend his people and his motherland, but right now it’s beyond his power to help the old man and the old man is too old and too tired to fight for survival.