26 pages • 52 minutes read
Ernest HemingwayOld Man at the Bridge
Ernest HemingwayFiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1938A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
The Unnamed Narrator
The narrator’s keen observations at the beginning of the story show Hemingway’s concise characterization. They not only instantly establish the chaotic scene of people fleeing an advancing army but also reveal that the narrator is an efficient observer. The second paragraph reveals that it is the narrator’s job to scout out the enemy’s movements; he looks for and brings back detailed information, just as he provides information for the reader. For example, he documents the number of people moving across the bridge, the dust on their feet, the old man by the side of the road, and the way the other soldiers help move things along. His observations are thorough and presented neutrally.
Observation is all he does while he waits for the enemy, setting up one of Hemingway’s major points and setting the stage for the bleakness of the story’s end. While other soldiers help push carts, the narrator does nothing to help, even when the old man attempts to rise but must sit back down in the dust. Hemingway doesn’t directly reveal anything about the narrator other than his skills as an observer, but implicit characterization reveals the soldier’s inattention and inaction relative to the suffering happening directly in front of him, his quick dismissal of the old man at the end, and his casual attitude toward the death of others. His attitude reflects that of the cat that the old man notes “will be all right” because “A cat can look out for itself” (58).
Hemingway doesn’t assess this but leaves open the question of whether this is necessary self-preservation. Stopping to help could jeopardize the soldier’s life, the success of his mission, the outcome of the battle, and the lives of his comrades. The character’s moral ambiguity reflects the author’s minimalist approach.
The Old Man
The unnamed old man wears steel-rimmed spectacles; these and his dark clothes lead the narrator to infer that he is not a herdsman or a shepherd. The man states that he has no family and was the last person to leave his town because “[he] was taking care of animals,” though where or why he acquired them isn’t answered. The glasses imply a man who works with his eyes and mind, rather than one who works in a field or on a farm all day. The manner in which he leaves the animals creates further questions. He doesn’t release the goats or lead them away as a herder would, and he doesn’t coax the pigeons out their open door before the artillery begins to fall. While the circumstances of his life aren’t revealed, he does not seem to fit either his former role as animal caretaker or, by his own declaration, a new life as a city-dweller in a safer place like Barcelona. He is stuck in the liminal space of the bridge between two worlds.
The old man is deeply upset that he failed to save the animals, so much so that he repeatedly asks the soldier for consolation and an alternative outcome from what he fears. He repeats a variation of his question multiple times, as if he cannot accept the reality that they might not survive. His guilt is all-consuming. That the old man was the last person to leave his town parallels the narrator’s position as the final soldier left by the bridge.
That he has no politics and doesn’t care about the conflict emphasizes that the old man is a victim of the war. By the end of the story, there is little differentiation between him and the animals he left; they all face potential death by the artillery of the approaching army. When the old man rises to go but “sway[s] from side to side and then sat down backwards in the dust” (58), his actions imitate those of a dying animal, much like those he assumes perished in his hometown.
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By Ernest Hemingway
