Question

Analyse the character of the old man in the story 'Old Man at the bridge' by Ernest Hemingway.

How is he used as a symbol in the story?​

Answer 1

Answer:

Explanation:

The old man, the story’s central character, has fled his hometown to escape the encroaching violence of the Spanish Civil War. Throughout the story, he is sitting by the side of the road, exhausted from attempting to travel to safety and feeling that he can no longer go on. When the narrator (a soldier) stops to try to convince him to move along to a safer place, the old man reveals that he was reluctant to leave his hometown (the very mention of which is the only thing in the story that makes him happy) because he was the caretaker for a number of animals who might not survive without him. While at first he risked his life to stay and care for them, he evidently valued his own life enough to leave them behind when a captain ordered him to evacuate because of artillery fire. The old man says that he has no family, doesn’t know anyone in Barcelona (where the fleeing masses are heading), and has no politics, and therefore no stake in the war. Without his animals, he has no great reason to live, and he tries and fails to walk again when the narrator urges him to keep moving towards safety. Feeling that he cannot help the man, the narrator moves on, concluding that the only luck the old man would ever have was that his cat, at least, was likely to survive, and that the enemy planes were grounded for the moment. Presumably, the old man is left to die.

                                                      The old man symbolizes war's destructive impact on the innocent. Like the animals he leaves behind, the old man has no idea what the war means or why it is happening, but it nevertheless upends his life. Hemingway uses the old man's fate to critique warfare.

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