Summary of The Old Man at the Bridge
The background of the story is civil war between leftists and rightists in Spain. Rightist or fascist would kill the innocent people. So, many people are escaping toward safety place crossing the Ebro River. Supporter of leftists, many soldiers were helping to cross people from pontoon bridge (पानीमा तैरिने पुल).
An old man was in the bridge. A soldier asked him why he did not want to run away in safety place. The old man had come there from a town, San Carlos. He did not have any family remembers. When the soldier advised him to run away, he only talked about his three types of animals, two goats, a cat and four pair of pigeons. He thought that in the time of war, the cat only looked after himself. He said that he did not know about politics. The soldier told him to go to Barcelona so that he might not be hurt and killed by fascists. The old man did not want to go there because there were not any known people to him. Soldiers again asked him if he freed the cage bird, dove. At that time, soldiers got slips of the tongue as the old man had told him that he had only four pair of pigeons. If fact, dove stands for peace in Europe. the soldiers may have wanted peace so that his mind may have asked him about dove.
At that time, there was Easter Sunday which is the day of Jesus Christ's resurrection. Similarly, the weather was not good so that there were not any fascists' plane in the sky. It was the great luck to the old man. In this way, the story shows the negative impact of war, especially for poor and old people.