Skip to main content

Book Review: Old Man at the Bridge by Ernest Hemingway

Old Man at the Bridge by Ernest Hemingway is a short story staged against war-torn Spain. The time is of Spanish Civil War, around Second World War. Like in many other short stories of Hemingway, death during war time is prominent in this story as well. A soldier passes by an old bridge to go back to a village to see whether the enemy army is following his army or not? The Spanish Civil War was fought between Fascist and Republican. The soldier is from Republican Party. While crossing the bridge, the soldier notices many people crossing the bridge, in fact fleeing the village because of ensuing war. He spots an old man sitting by the road on the bridge. When the soldier comes back, he finds the old man still there, whereas all people have left the place. The old man is lonely, dusty, and tired.


Seeing the miserable state of the old man, the soldier initiates conversation with him. The old man says that he is the last man to leave his village because he cares for his animals that consists of pigeons, cats, and goats. He is of the opinion that death is inevitable for his cattle and him. Though he expresses gladly that cats are intelligent to escape the wrath of approaching army, but pigeons and goats look bleak.

The old many says that he is seventy-six years old and has already walked for twelve miles. And now he is too tired to walk further. Upon asking his political inclination, the old man reports that he is a simple man with no political side favouring. The soldier encourages him to walk some distance so that he can catch a truck for Barcelona. The old man denies as he knows no one there. The soldier looks up at the overcast sky and forms conclusion that today there will not be any air raids, thus the old man is considerably safe for the day. However, deep at this heart, he is firm that the old man is waiting to embrace his death. It is ironical to note that during war, people run here and there for life, but this old man is rather waiting to die after all. Why? The answer is to get rid of war misery.

Loved reading this story, try reading The Old Man and The Sea.
Labels:

Comments

  1. ApoorvApril 4, 2019 at 12:22 AM

    I just love those book that are based on holocausts or just revolves around them. This is definitely going to be in my upcoming reads. Loved the Review <3

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousSeptember 13, 2023 at 3:33 PM

    The old man is such a nice story for teenagers who are developing in the years of 2000.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Book Review: The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond

Among all Ruskin Bond books, The Blue Umbrella has, so far, gathered immense applaud from readers and critics alike.  This is a short novel, but the kind of moral lessons it teaches to us are simply overwhelming. This is a story of Binya, a poor little girl living with her mother and an elder brother, Bijju, in a small hilly village of Garhwal. One day while herding her two cows back home, she stumbles upon some city people enjoying the picnic in the valley. She is enthralled to see them well-groomed and rich. She craves to be one like them and among many other things of their, a blue frilly umbrella catches her attention. She begins craving for it. On the other hand, the city people get attracted by her innocent beauty and the pendant in her neck. The pendant consists of leopard’s claw – which is considered a mascot widely in the hills. Binya trades her pendant off with the blue umbrella. The blue umbrella is so much beautiful that soon it becomes a topic of conversatio...
65 comments
Read more

Poem Summary: Where The Mind Is Without Fear by Rabindranath Tagore

Poem by Rabindranath Tagore: Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. Short Summary: This poem is written by Rabindranath Tagore during pre-independence days, when India was a colony of the British. The underlying theme of the poem is absolute freedom; the poet wants the citizens of his country to be living in a free state. According to the poem, we see that the poet is expressing his views there should be a country, like where people live without any sort of fear and with pure dignity…they should ...
68 comments
Read more

Character Sketch of Binya from ‘The Blue Umbrella’ by Ruskin Bond

The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond is a popular children’s story. It features Binya as the main character, though there are other important characters as well, but the story revolves around Binya and her little beautiful umbrella. The story is widely popular among children, thus it has also been included in the schools’ syllabus all across the country. Since it is often taught in the school, thus the character sketch of Binya is often demanded by students from year to year. Character Sketch of Binya from The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond Binya is the main character of the novel ‘The Blue Umbrella’ by Ruskin Bond. Her full name is Binyadevi. As in the hills or anywhere in India it is a kind of trend to call children with their short nicknames. Binya’s elder brother’s name is Bijju, whereas his real name is Vijay. Binya aged eleven is a hilly girl. She lives with her small family in the hills of Garhwal. Her father died when she was two years of age. For sustenance, the...
41 comments
Read more