INTRODUCTION OF THE AUTHOR

Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American

novelist, short-story writer, journalist, and sportsman. His economical and
understated style, had a strong influence on twentieth century fiction, while his
adventurous lifestyle and his public image brought him admiration from later
generations. Ernest Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-
1920s and the mid-1950s, and he was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize in
Literature. He published seven novels, six short-story collections, and two
nonfiction works. Three of his novels, four short-story collections, and three
non-fiction works were published posthumously. Many of his works are
considered classics of American literature.
Hemingway raised in Oak Park, Illinois. After high school, he was a reporter for
a few months for The Kansas City Star before leaving for the Italian Front to
enlist as an ambulance driver in the First World War. In 1918, he was seriously
wounded in the war and returned home. His wartime experiences formed the
basis for his novel A Farewell to Arms (1929).
In 1921, he moved to Paris where he worked as a foreign correspondent and
fell under the influence of the modernist writers and artists of the 1920s.
Hemingway's debut novel The Sun Also Rises was published in 1926.
Hemingway was present with Allied troops as a journalist in the Second World
War at the Normandy landings and the liberation of Paris.
Hemingway covered the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) as a war
correspondent which formed the basis for his novel For Whom the Bell
Tolls (1940).  Apart from that, he wrote a lot of short stories, articles and
journals during that time, one of which was “Old Man at the Bridge”. It is
considered to be the shortest story which Ernest Hemingway has ever written.
The story was originally composed as a news dispatch from the Amposta
Bridge over the Ebro River on Easter Sunday in 1938 as the Fascists were set
to overrun the region. The story ‘Old Man at the Bridge’ is in the form of
conversation between a soldier and an old man. Hemingway takes the
ordinary detail and transforms it into a powerful story about the tragedy of war.

SUMMARY OF THE STORY

The story ‘Old Man at the Bridge’ is in the form of conversation between a
soldier and an old man. Ernest Hemingway takes the ordinary detail and
transforms it into a powerful story about the tragedy of war. The old man in the
story becomes a symbol of countless civilians who perish in war. The story
‘Old Man at the Bridge’ deals with the themes of resignation, depression and
impending death. The old man is gripped by panic and anxiety. In this story, an
old man sat exhausted by the side of a road near a pontoon bridge that
crossed the river. The soldier got engaged in conversation with the old man.
During the conversation he came to know that the old man was worried about
his animals that he had left behind. The old man told the soldier that he had
the charge of two goats, a cat and four pairs of pigeons. He said that a captain
had told him to leave the town and the animals because of artillery fire. He had
no family but he expressed concern about what would happen to his animals.
He said that the cat would be all right because cats could look after
themselves, but he did not know what would happen to his other animals. The
soldier was concerned about the old man’s safety whereas the old man was
concerned about his animal’s safety. He told the soldier that he was too tired
to walk up the road and catch a ride on a truck to Barcelona. The old man
thanked the soldier for his concern for his safety but he continued to express
his concern over the fate of the animals he had left behind. The old man
remained obsessed with the thought about the safety of his animals. At the
end of the story, the soldier realized that he could not remove the old man’s
concern about the safety of his animals. The story reflects the theme of
depression, impending death and the pointlessness of war and proves that
common people are the victims of war.

COMMON PEOPLE: THE VICTIMS OF WAR

War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies,

or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is
generally characterized by extreme violence, aggression, destruction, and
mortality, using regular or irregular military forces. War is not restricted to
purely legitimate military targets, and can result in massive civilian or
other non-combatant suffering and casualties.
The effects of war are widely spread and can be long-term or short-term. The
widespread trauma caused by the atrocities and suffering of the civilian
population is another legacy of these conflicts, the following creates extensive
emotional and psychological stress. Present-day internal wars generally take a
larger toll on civilians than state wars. This is due to the increasing trend
where combatants have made targeting civilians a strategic objective. Effects
of war also include mass destruction of cities and have long lasting effects on
a country's economy. Armed conflict has important indirect negative
consequences on infrastructure, public health provision, and social order.

Long-term effects of war are decrease in population, widespread of diseases,

permanent ailments in civilians and the destruction of land. The economy may
suffer devastating impacts during and after a time of war. Everyday activities of
a community or country are disrupted and property may be damaged. When
people become misplaced, they cannot continue to work or keep their
businesses open, causing damages to the economy of countries involved. A
government may decide to direct money to fund war efforts, leaving other
institutions with little or no available budget. This results in low salaries or
wages, loss of jobs, rise in unemployment and sometimes scarcity of food and
goods, affecting the daily lives of common people.
Destruction of infrastructure can create a catastrophic collapse in the social
interrelated structure, infrastructure services, education and health care
system. It can cause environment degradation as well. Destruction of schools
and educational infrastructure have led to a decline in education among many
countries affected by war. Over half of the world's children that are out of
school are forced to live in conflict-affected fragile states. The labour force of
the economy also changes with the effects of war. The labour force is affected
in a multitude of ways most often due to the drastic loss of life, change in
population, the labour force size shrinking due to the movement
of refugees and displacement and the destruction of infrastructure which in
turn allows for a deterioration of productivity.
Displacement or forced migration results most often during a time of war and
can adversely affect both the community and an individual. When a war breaks
out, many people flee their homes in fear of losing their lives and their families,
and as a result, they become misplaced either internally or externally. [29] Those
who are internally displaced face a direct threat because they do not receive
the rights that a refugee may receive and are not eligible for protection under
an international system.  During a war, cultural assets are threatened with
destruction, confiscation, looting and robbery. Cultural heritage can be
excavation sites, finds, archives, libraries, museums and monuments that are
sometimes simply vandalized or stolen by warring parties in order to finance
the war. Thus, common people are the victims of war.

CONCLUSION

Old Man at the Bridge is one of the greatest short stories written by
Ernest Hemingway. Through the story, he tries to convey the message of
pointlessness of war. The story also conveys the detrimental effect of a
war on the common people. The old man in the story was the reflection of
the war who lost everything in his life as the effect of the war. Hemingway
felt sorry for the old man and the people like him who were mentally
broken by the civil war. At the end, there is no winner in a war, but
destruction in all senses. To conclude, war should be avoided at all costs
as it has adverse effects on mankind and it is the common people who
are the victims of war.