Narrator and point of view

The short story “The Old Man at the Bridge” by Ernest Hemingway is a first-person narration. The storyteller is one of the characters and presents events that he has experienced, which make him a reliable narrator.

Because the story was inspired by the author’s experience as a war correspondent in Spain, it is usually considered a semi-autobiographic narrative. This implies that the narrator is a fictional persona of the author, Ernest Hemingway.

In the story, the narrator acts as an observer of external events. Consequently, he has limited knowledge on what is happening. He does not know when the Fascists will attack but can make assumptions. Also, he does not know more about the old-man than the character tells him: “ ‘I stayed, you see, taking ...