Old Man at the Bridge: a Hybrid Text
| |
|“Old Man at the Bridge”: A Symbolic and a Hybrid Text |
|[Type the document subtitle] |
|Ines Belkahla |
|12/8/2012 |
Being one of the most renowned figures of “The Lost Generation”, Ernest Hemingway proved a high sense of experimentation at the level of form and style in “The Old Man at the Bridge”. For a simple glance at this short story, provides us with the fact that there is an obvious deviation from the conventional narrative standards. In this essay, I intend to demonstrate how the text reflects the state of mind of the modern man. I will also explore the hybrid nature of Hemingway’s text. That is its weaving between fiction and history.
With the eruption of WWI, the American people were greatly disillusioned. They turned to be skeptical of all their traditions, and questioned all their established beliefs. Traumatized by war and devoid of all morality and hope, the American writers reproduced their fragmentariness, fear and isolation through their texts.
In “The Old Man at the Bridge”, the reader is put before a different style of writing. While trying to seize the progression of the text, the focus of the reader is distracted by a question, an explanation or a repetition. In fact, the natural flow of ideas and events is replaced with a disrupted and fragmented narration. This short story in particular, reflects the shattered mind of men in the war aftermath through the form and the content.
As far as style is concerned, Hemingway’s text embodies a number of
|“Old Man at the Bridge”: A Symbolic and a Hybrid Text |
|[Type the document subtitle] |
|Ines Belkahla |
|12/8/2012 |
Being one of the most renowned figures of “The Lost Generation”, Ernest Hemingway proved a high sense of experimentation at the level of form and style in “The Old Man at the Bridge”. For a simple glance at this short story, provides us with the fact that there is an obvious deviation from the conventional narrative standards. In this essay, I intend to demonstrate how the text reflects the state of mind of the modern man. I will also explore the hybrid nature of Hemingway’s text. That is its weaving between fiction and history.
With the eruption of WWI, the American people were greatly disillusioned. They turned to be skeptical of all their traditions, and questioned all their established beliefs. Traumatized by war and devoid of all morality and hope, the American writers reproduced their fragmentariness, fear and isolation through their texts.
In “The Old Man at the Bridge”, the reader is put before a different style of writing. While trying to seize the progression of the text, the focus of the reader is distracted by a question, an explanation or a repetition. In fact, the natural flow of ideas and events is replaced with a disrupted and fragmented narration. This short story in particular, reflects the shattered mind of men in the war aftermath through the form and the content.
As far as style is concerned, Hemingway’s text embodies a number of