Summary of the story "Old man at the bridge" by Ernest Hemingway
Answers
An old man sits alongside a bridge, exhausted and covered in dust. Many people are hurrying to cross the bridge with their families and belongings, but he is too tired to proceed. They are villagers who are fleeing from the fighting in the Spanish Civil War.
The narrator, a soldier for the Republican (left-wing) side, spots the old man as he crosses the bridge to see if the enemy, the right-wing Nationalists or Fascists, are advancing behind them. When the narrator returns, most of the other evacuees are gone but the old man is still sitting on the ground. The narrator engages with him, trying to rouse him to keep moving toward safety. The old man says that he came from the town of San Carlos, where he was taking care of animals. The narrator wonders why the old man is telling him this until the man explains that he didn’t want to desert his creatures, so he was the last person to leave his village. He worries about the goats, pigeons, and cat that he has left behind to die. Meanwhile, the narrator worries about the advancing forces who will surely try to kill them both.
Old Man at the Bridge Summary. An old man sits alongside a bridge, exhausted and covered in dust. Many people are hurrying to cross the bridge with their families and belongings, but he is too tired to proceed. They are villagers who are fleeing from the fighting in the Spanish Civil War.
The narrator, a soldier for the Republican (left-wing) side, spots the old man as he crosses the bridge to see if the enemy, the right-wing Nationalists or Fascists, are advancing behind them. When the narrator returns, most of the other evacuees are gone but the old man is still sitting on the ground. The narrator engages with him, trying to rouse him to keep moving toward safety. The old man says that he came from the town of San Carlos, where he was taking care of animals. The narrator wonders why the old man is telling him this until the man explains that he didn’t want to desert his creatures, so he was the last person to leave his village. He worries about the goats, pigeons, and cat that he has left behind to die. Meanwhile, the narrator worries about the advancing forces who will surely try to kill them both
When the narrator urges the old man to try to walk until he can catch a truck that could carry him away, the old man can only fall back down, repeating, “I was taking care of animals.” The narrator concludes that he cannot help the old man, and presumably leaves him to die there.
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The narrator, a young soldier, meets an old man at a pontoon bridge across the Ebro river. The old man, sitting by the road is too tired to move any further. The narrator asks the old man his whereabouts. The old man tells the narrator that he belongs to San Carlos and had to leave the town and animals because of the artillery fire by the enemy. The narrator tells the old man to walk up the road and catch a ride on truck to Barcelona. The old man thanks the narrator but expresses his concern for the fate of his animals - a cat, two goats and four pairs of pigeons. The narrator reassured him, saying that the animals would be fine. The old man tried to get up and walk. But he was too weak and tired and sank back to the ground. The narrator thought that the old man's only luck was that the cats could protect themselves and as the day was overcast, the Fascists would not launch their planes to attack the local people.
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old man at the bridge" is a short story written by Ernest Miller Hemingway an American novelist. The story is based upon an incident that took place during an Easter Sunday stopover at the Ebro River while Hemingway was a war correspondent covering the Spanish Civil War. "Old Man at the Bridge " demonstrates the power of narrative arts Hemingway takes a small, ordinary detail in a situation and through 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 " .Displaced, disoriented and alone, he is faced with the inevitability of death.
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