What is your impression of the story ' old man at the bridge' ?
Answers
Answer:
Explanation: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.
Answer:
The narrator is a scout who takes part in the Spanish civil war. His duty is to cross the bridge and find out how far the enemy has advanced. The narrator tries to convince the old man to leave that place as the enemies could attack anytime and there was danger to his life but the old man being obsessed with the thought of his animals does not care about his own life and prefers to stay there. The narrator thus cannot do anything but feel sad for the old man as he would die if he did not leave the place and so he leaves to perform his further duties.
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