Ernest Hemingway’s short story “The Old Man at the Bridge” first appeared in the May 1938 edition of Ken magazine and was inspired by the author’s experience covering the Spanish Civil War, specifically the lead-up to the Battle of the Ebro. The story was later included in the collection The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories (Scribner, 1938). At a mere 598 words, it is one of Hemingway’s shorter works. This guide refers to the version published in Scribner’s The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: The Finca Vigia Edition (2003); the text is also readily available online.

The story is told by an unnamed narrator, a soldier who was assigned to scout the enemy’s advancing progress on the far side of the river and is watching people evacuate over a makeshift pontoon bridge. On his way out, he notices a dusty old man who is wearing steel-rimmed spectacles and sitting by the roadside. When the soldier returns, the old man is still there.

The soldier engages him in conversation, asking where he is from. The old man responds “San Carlos” and elaborates that he was “taking care of the animals” (57). When the soldier inquires further, it becomes obvious that the old man is distressed at having to leave a cat, two goats, and four pairs of pigeons “because of the artillery” (58), and he repeatedly asks the soldier for reassurance about the possibility of their survival. The man tells him he doesn’t have family or politics, and he returns to the topic of the animals; the cat will be fine, as cats can take care of themselves. He “cannot think what will become of the others” (58), despite leaving cage doors open for the birds.

During the conversation, the soldier notices the diminishing flow of people and anticipates the appearance of the enemy and “that ever mysterious event called contact” (57). He attempts to persuade the old man to keep walking, but when the old man tries to stand, he “sway[s] from side to side and then sat down backwards in the dust” (58). The old man begins to speak again about the animals, this time to no one in particular.

The story ends with the narrator noting that it is Easter Sunday, the Fascist army is advancing, and there is nothing to do about the old man, whose only luck is that the enemy’s planes aren’t flying because of the weather and “that cats know how to look after themselves” (58).