Hero, Man or Animal? Interpreting the Old Man in "Old Man at the Bridge"

Abstract: The old man at the center of Hemingway's 1938 short story "Old Man at the Bridge" has generally been viewed positively, often seen as a stoic "Hemingway Hero." However, here it is argued that Hemingway encourages sympathy for the old man not through his humanity, but rather by dehumanizing him, depicting how war reduced him to the state of an animal, even in the eyes of seemingly compassionate Republicans. This reading aligns with Adam Long's view that a key theme in works such as In Our Time and A Farewell to Arms is the "transference of human tragedy onto animals".