"Old Man at the Bridge" by Ernest Hemingway - 9th Grade English Midterm [201-202]

Key Details

Old Man: 2 goats, 4 pigeons, a cat No family Spectacles, dusty clothes From San Carlos What will happen to the animals? 76 old, walked 12 km Toward Barcelona "I have no politics" Cross bridge at Ebro Delta Narrator Job: Scout ahead, see how far enemy has advanced, and return

setting

Spanish Civil War (1930), spot in the countryside The bridge and how everybody is crossing it

theme

You can't move forward if you won't let go of the things from the past People react differently to the same situations War has innocent victims; It displaces, disorients and may even destroy them

conflict

man vs. himself - the old man doesn't want to leave his animals behind man vs. man - the old man doesn't want to move preventing the narrator from doing his job

protagonist

narrator - soldiers in the war

antagonist

old man - preventing narrator from doing his job

exposition

people are crossing the bridge; the old man is still there

characters

the Old Man and the Narrator

rising action

the conversation between the old man and the narrator

resolution

the narrator continues with his job leaving the old man behind who probably dies.

climax

the old man plops down, kind of giving up, and won't move (inability)