HEMINGWAY, OLD MAN AT THE BRIDGE  1938

I as witness narrator.

In the first paragraph, fort eh first time trucks, lorries, carts are mentioned.

I did this and returned over the bridge-à Laconic sentence.

Laconic: using very few words to express what you mean.  He simmarizes an action of maybe two hours with one sentence.

Steel rimmed spectacles indicate the social status oft he old man. He is not rich, he is a poor old man.

Short story: shortness has certain implications. Norman Friedman, American critic asked what makes a short story short.There are quite a number of different techniques to contribute to a short story.

In medias res---->  one trick to make a short story short.

Author does not give the prehistory od characters. There is an open ending. That is another way of making a short story short.

There is just one plot line instead of quite a number of plot lines.

Henry James says about the Victorian novels---Loose Baggy Monsters.

In 1907 Henry James described large nineteenth-century novels, such as Herman Melville's Moby Dick, as “loose baggy monsters.

In short stories we have number of limited characters and we do not have subplots.

subplot /ˈsʌb.plɒt/ /-plɑːt/ noun [ C ]

a part of the story of a book or play which develops separately from the main story

 

Short story works with symbols and symbolism. You can put the world into a nutshell. Short story sticks to the present moment. It does not turn to past or future.

The climax is in the middle o rat the end. Climax ist he highest moment.

climax /ˈklaɪ.mæks/ noun [ C ]

1. the most important or exciting point in a story or situation, which usually happens near the end

The climax of the air show was a daring flying display.

The election campaign reaches its climax next week.

See also anticlimax

 

 

Things narrated have symbolic implications. This is also a way of shortening things.

There is just one place, setting and time.

Structural features are not related tot he shortness.

Paul Goetsch asked : Why hasn't the short stories become even more shorter?

Answer: It is driving at the function of repetitions. If there are repetitions in the text, then they must be meaningful. The aim oft he question ist o find the repetitions.

 

The story set in the time of Spanish War. The war started on 17 July 1936 and lasted until 1 April 1939. The war was between  Fascists and Marxist Communists.

 

In the short story, the animals are repeatedly mentioned. A repeated refference to animals. Lorries and trucks are mentioned repeatedly. What is the function of repetition then ? There should be a function behind these repetitions, otherwise Hemingway would be a bad short story writer.

 

Narrator: I as witness narrator. The protagonist is the old man and his fate.

He is a scout and he is scouting what the enemy does. His job is to find out how far the enemy advanced. He is on the side of the communist army, and the fascist army is approaching quickly. There must have been a lot of tension while he was doing his business.He should crawl, etc. We cannot see the action in the sentence. What we can see instead is a laconic sentence: I did this. He summarizes his experience. Reader remains in the dark. Reader doesn`t know how he did it. This is what makes a short story a short one.

Narrative – Narration time: Time, it takes to narrate the story fort he reader to read the story. 5 to 7 minutes narration time depending on the reading speed.

 

Narrated Time: I did this.  It could be a few hours maybe even less, because the old man is still sitting there when he comes back. At least half an hour maybe even longer.

Narrated time comprises at least half an hour o rat most 2 hours. I did this in 30 minutes, but the narrator does not tell about this.

 

Trucks, carts, lorries, animals are repeatedly mentioned. This has a function.

 

How is short story constructed? Out of which categories is it built?

 

  1.Category of space or setting: We have to say something about the setting. This also applies to drama.

  2. Time ( Narrative, narrated  and historical time. Historical time is Spanish civil war in 1930s.

 3rd category is : Characters. Majost character is the old man as the protagonist. We have the soldier as the second important character.

Minor characters: People escaping from the enemy advancing.

4th category is action: We differentiate between action and plot. Plot means that events have a certain shape and they are structured. A--->B----then C

Action: Anything that happens.

Aleads to B and B affects C is a plot. Plot indicates  causality.

5th category is language and style.

When we talk about all of these things then our interpretation is complete.

 

 

SPACE: River, river banks, bridge across the river. Earth around is dusty. Old Man`s clothes are full of dust.

Treshold: You have to cross something then something new starts. Setting has a symbolic implication. Space in short stories is not just there. Space has a certain structure.

 

Crossing a treshold: You come from A and crossing a treshold and you are in B. Then you are experiencing new things.

One side oft he space is already accupied by the enemies. Fascists are advancing. Bridge is something like treshold.  Rest oft he place is where friends live. It is towards Barcelona. River is also important. Rivers are symbols of life and time passing in literature.

River has a spring. It springs from a fountain and it ends in the sea. And time passes.  Sun affects the water and a cycle of life occurs. Clouds rain. Where rivers meet the sea is not death. It starts from there again. There is a cycle.

 

Setting is a river ironically which is usually a symbol of life. Old man sits on the bridge.

 

Old man sits at the upper end oft he bridge. He sits on the friendly country side. It is relevant for our short story. He has already crossed the treshold. He is already on the safe side. Crossing a river means crossing a treshold from dangerous to a friendly country. As soon as he passes, he sits there down. Crossing a treshold means leaving everything behind that is dear to him. The things that are dear to him are his animals. Pigeons, goats and cats. It becomes clear to him that he left everything behind. That is why he doesn`t move forward and sits there.

 

TIME: Narrated time is at least 30 minutes or it may also be 2 hours.

A technique of making a short story short: Hemingway concentrates on a short period of the narrator.

 

Historical Time: It is easter Sunday. Middle oft he thirties. It is 1936.  The rising of Jesus Christ happened on easter Sunday.  Life is going on. Eternal life.

 

All things that are mentioned in the short story are meaningful.

 

Hope for the old man----> A possible interpretation. The ending could be ironic in the sense that  there is deep discrepancy between the life of old man and the advancing fascists.

discrepancy /dɪˈskrep. ə n t  .si/ noun [ C or U ] formal

(a) difference between two things that should be the same

There is some discrepancy between the two accounts.

The committee is reportedly unhappy about the discrepancy in numbers.

 

Ironic contrast between the time and what is happening. On easter Sunday Christ was resurrected.

 

 

Clouds: Planes of the enemy cannot fly. Clouded sky could refer to being Godless. You cannot see the God in heaven, because it is clouded.

 

Narrative- Narrated Time: Old Man's old house is in San Carlos. There he has his animals. A flashback. A jump out oft he present into the past. Old man was taking care of animals in San Carlos. When we are dealing with his animals, it is a flashback.

 

 

The most important character is the old man. He was taking care of animals in his past life. The old man is charaterized from the outside.  Steel rimmed spectacles and dusty clothes should have meanings. He is very simple, not very posh, not very sophisticated. His sight is handicapped.  He is not dangerous for the advancing fascist soldiers. Dusty clothes refer to very laborious journey. We do not know how long.

 

We hardy know anything about the narrator.

 

Old man is innocent human being hit by the war. The soldier, first person narrator wastes his time. What are his intentions. He is trying to persuade the old man leave the bridge. He wants the old man to go on. He wants him to save his life. He is not successful. First person narrator is acting from humane reasons. He tries to get him move. That is why he wastes his time. He wants to help the old man get moving. Dialogue is the focus of the short story. Trucks, carts, lorries are repeated at least 3 or 4 times. At first there are a lot oft rucks, lorries and carts for people to get in and escape, then less and at the end there are no carts, trucks or lorries. Old man misses the last chance to save his life. The repeated mentioning of trucks and carts illustrates the drama underneath the surface. On the surface the story is calm. Repetitions illustrate the drama. First person narrator is also important like the old man. He takes his time to save the old man's life, but fails to do save him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

20.11.2009 TIMO

                               AUTHORIAL                                                                                 FIGURAL

EXPLICIT          narrator very explicitly charaterizes a figure      one character characterizes the other

IMPLICIT          describing character's deeds                        one character says sth about other character      

 

Now I will introduce you------authorial explicit

 

The whole class is the part of the story and I say I am a bad guy.

Narration is 1st person and characterization is figural.

 

We always have a narrator in a narrative fiction.

Story is the sequence of events. What happens?

Plot: why are thing happening the way they occur?

 

1.Story: events

2.Plot: Causality

3.Discourse: Presentation. How are the events are told. Final product of narrating.

The story might also be scrambled in the presentation in the discourse.

Middle start and the end.    2  1  3.

Base of discourse is plot and base of plot ist he story.

Flashbacks: Giving events after they happened. Disrupts the chronological order and belongs to discourse.

William Boyd`s A Good Man in Africa is like this:  2   1  3

2 is chaos  1 is start, explanation  3 is the end.

Story and plot belong to the fictional level. What happens in the fictional world.

Discourse belongs to the level of narrating. How he or she wants to arrange the story to make it interesting for the narratee.

In what chronological order, how do I present, what kind of characterization technique?

 

Story time: It is the time the story takes. A novel covers a 20 years of a hero's life. Then the story time is 20 years. Narrated time.

 

Discourse time:  Narrating time. Time it takes the narrator to get the story narrated. Imagine a narrator. Who tells you, who narrates to you.

Acceleration: speed up.  10 years in a second or a minute.

Deceleration: Story time of Ulysses is only one day, but you need days to narrate it.

Character enters the room: acceleration

Character enters the room and sees a sofa and a bag ……: deceleration. It makes the story much more interesting.

Congruent presentation: story time and discourse time are more or less equal.

If you take the story time, narrated time and rearrange it, analepsis and prolepsis happen. We do it to make it more interesting.

Discourse is not related tot he author. It is related tot he narrator. How to pass the story to the narratees.

One evening on the Thames: Marlow's discourse. It is the discourse time.