Old Man at the Bridge

Hemingway emphasized realistic-sounding dialogue and at times made it the core of his stories, as is the case with “The Old Man at the Bridge.” He stated his desire to make readers feel like they experienced his stories, and realistic dialogue helps create this effect. His idea of reducing words to the minimum extends to his creation of dialogue. There are no eloquent diatribes on war or pontificating characters in Hemingway’s story. Instead, he conveys the realism of the conversation between the old man and the soldier through techniques such as having the soldier ask the same question twice because he is distracted. Similarly, the old man can’t carry on a coherent, logical conversation due to his worries about the animals he left behind and his fear of moving forward. His obsessive return to the same concern about his animals exemplifies Hemingway’s theory of the iceberg; the man expresses only a minimal portion of his thoughts and concerns, but this suggests the depth of the suffering and anxiety that are below the surface. That both the soldier and the old man ask the same questions and repeat themselves reveals their distraction and detachment.