CHAPTER 1: SUMMARY

The short story “People on the Bridge” by Phaitoon Thanya is about two bull keepers
who try to cross a bridge from opposite directions, but it is too narrow for them and their
bulls to pass the bridge. Both men refuse to turn back and they argue on who should get
off the bridge. Then, a number of other passers-by want to cross the bridge but they cannot
cross it and get angry. Therefore, they also get involved in the argument and temper runs
high between all of them until a monk came and tried to solve the issue. He managed to
get all the other travelers to step off the bridge but alas the two bull keepers could not
manage to turn their bulls back. In the end, the weight becomes too much for the bridge
to bear as the bulls were clashing horns which ended up the bridge to collapse and both
the bull keepers and the bulls fell into the whirlpool.

CHAPTER 2: CHARACTER ANALYSIS

1. Red Bull Keeper (first bull keeper)

The red bull keeper is a hardworking person. This can be seen when the author writes
in detail how the bull keeper would wake up every morning and bring the bull for
various exercises such as running, walking around the beach, taking the bull to parade
in the market and also walking across a narrow bridge. Despite his good quality, he
also has a number of negative qualities. First and foremost is his pride which exceeds
that of his master’s. This is highlighted in the line “The man was, in fact, only a bull
keeper”. It also is shown in a scene where the bull keeper feels proud whenever he
and the young bull grabs the crowd’s attention in the market as they walk pass by to
the point that he had a feeling that he was the real owner of the bull. Next, the bull
keeper is an egoistic person. His ego had provoked an argument between him and the
second bull keeper which led to an unresolved conflict. The bull keeper was also
selfish when he did not care about the rubber carrier’s rubber liquid which was so
heavy and was spilling. The main thing was that he was stubborn too. His
stubbornness to not try to work things out with the other bull keeper resulted in a bad
ending.

2. White Bull Keeper (second bull keeper)

 The white bull keeper also portrayed most of the negative traits of the red bull keeper.
Hence, they both did not result in any good and neither of them attained victory. He
was egoistic too as he also thought of himself as better than the other bull keeper
which initiated the argument. He was, of course, stubborn as he did not want to try to
make his bull turn around. The white bull keeper was selfish and inconsiderate when
he responded rudely to the middle-aged woman without considering her desperation.

3. Rubber Carrier

The rubber carrier was a man who was annoyed with his boss as it could be seen when
he was complaining to the red bull keeper on how his boss would get mad at him for
not bringing in the rubber liquid.

4. Middle-aged Woman

The middle-aged woman was a woman who was distressed and only wanted to cross
the bridge to get some medicine for her child who was dying. She was viewed as
emotional.

5. Man with the Bicycle

The man was just a curious passer-by who wanted to know what was going on at the
bridge.

6. Monk

The middle-aged monk was a very calm person and he was portrayed as the mediator.
This is because he tried to look for a solution and mediated with the others to move
back from the bridge.

CHAPTER 3: UNIQUE ASPECTS OF THE STORY

A unique aspect found in this story, is the mention of the god of death Yama who in
Hinduism is the king of ancestors, and final judge on the destination of souls (Cartwright,
2015)) This, mention of the god implies that the characters have a gut feeling that they
are about to die as they liken the heavy roars of the bulls and also their hot breaths to
signals from his messenger. Thus, it can be said, that in their final moments, this intuition
was a result of guilt from not being humble in this world and the fear of their uncertain
fate in the afterlife.

Next, is the aspect of dialogue which is argumentative in nature and conveys how angry
and impatient the characters are by the use of words such as hurry up and quickly and the
line “you wanted to provoke me didn’t you?” In this, a large part of the story is developed
by these arguments between the people trying to cross the bridge who are the bull keepers,
the monk, the rubber tapper, the mother and the villager. However, in the end, the
argument paved the way for the death of the bull keepers who refused to leave the bridge
even until the end. Also, the use of dialogue portrays the stubborn personality of the
characters as well as the arguments revolved around blaming each other and refusing to
see that they are all wrong in the situation and come to a compromise This can be seen in
the lines “you move back, we were on the bridge first, you came afterwards so you get
off first” followed by “Who said I came after you. You were walking backwards how
could you see.” Next, dialogue also shows the view of men towards women, when the
red bull keeper yelled at the distressed woman and said that all she could do is scream,
illustrating that he views women as emotional and troublesome.

Additionally, is the unique aspect of the describing of the river as having human attributes
is also a form of foreshadowing. This is because the water is described as green, whirling
and ready to swallow up each body that fell into it. Upon reading this line readers will get
the sense that the river is menacing and will somehow be significant in the story which
ultimately proves to be true. A justification is that when, the bridge broke, the two bull
keepers and their bulls fell to their death into the whirlpool beneath the bridge, their
bodies sinking along being consumed by the river below. Thus, the river can be seen as
an clue to the nature of the bull keepers deaths

Another unique aspect of this short story is the its limited setting in terms of time and
place. As for place, the story is based in Thailand, as can be seen from the mention of the
Thai baht at the start of the story, However, the incident takes places mainly on the bridge
which is surrounded by the environment of a sandy beach and also a river passing
underneath which places its location somewhere in in the interiors. On top of that, in
terms of time, the entire story takes place in one day somewhere between morning and
mid-day or noon. This is justified by the mention of the word morning right at the start
of the story and throughout the first part while the line the sun had risen quite high
indicates the time of noon, as the sun is at its highest peak then.

CHAPTER 4: LITERARY THEORIES IN THIS SHORT STORY

In doing a critical analysis of this short story, three different literary theories can be used
which are Freud’s Psychoanalytic criticism, the feminist criticism and the Marxist
criticism. Below, I will provide an in-depth discussion of the story from these views.

1. Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytic Criticism

This is an extremely significant story for us to contemplate. This story envelops how ego
literally kills individuals. Both the red bull manager and the white bull keeper toss their
lives in question so as to secure their self-image and pride. Ego here shows obliviousness
of making the best decision. both the bull keepers were not ready to offer approach to
each other on the grounds that they will be marked powerless and lose the purported
challenge to see who was the best as no normal bull manager can deal with their bull on
a shaking span. The two are inundate with sky-rejecting confidence and were not ready
to think right. This is like Sigmund Freud's hypothesis on the Dynamic Model. In this
case, both the conscious and unconscious part of the mind works. The unconscious part
is when both the bull keepers were slow-witted by taking a gander at one another.
Likewise, an interesting part with regards to this story would be before the ending. The
narrator, depicted the unconscious thoughts that were going through the bull keepers’
brains by saying that the overwhelming thunders and the hot breaths of the two bulls
resembled the sign from the Hindu lord of death, Yama. At a point, I believe, the thoughts
of Yama came about because of the oblivious feeling of dread and blame. Yama is the
lord of death or divine force of equity, now and again alluded to as Dharma which intends
to keep up a law. In the Hindu sacred writings, it is stated, Yama chooses the outcomes
or disciplines of one's deeds in the afterlife. This unconscious or the "superego", which
can be a dread might be the aftereffect of blame for not having picked a prudent
arrangement by being modest towards one another in settling their concern. They didn't
express a solitary word saying they need to fight. The Tripartite Model is additionally
relevant here. both their "id" was strong particularly the red bull manager as he wanted to
be the best and with further consciousness, he went enraged to prove he is the strongest
and the best in dealing with bulls.

2. Feminist Criticism

The following minor role is about a woman who surges in to go to the market to purchase
prescription for her child. In spite of the fact that she appears likes she truly loves her
child and protective, she is nearly blinded with the slowed down within reach. She was
too engaged to even think about buying medication until she was uninformed of the peril,
she was placing herself as well as other people in. The lady was additionally pestering on
the extension like common ladies. This is likewise as comparable to the feminist theory.
Again, this lady likewise is by all accounts somewhat difficult as she was not tuning in to
both the bull managers. Once more, her inner self of being correct kicks in and she
couldn't act like she minded on the current issue. Then again, she begins giving her
woman's rights attributes when she began to sob due to the shaking span that made her
tremble

3. Marxist criticism

This story likewise features the distinction in social class where the decision world class
whom are the red bull keeper’s master, the village headman, and the rubber carrier’s boss,
force rules and guidelines on the common laborers characters whom are the two bull
keepers and the rubber carrier. The cultural hegemony can be seen from the first bull
keeper’s fixed day by day wage by his lord which would not surpass in excess of thirty
baht paying little respect to the measure of devotion and responsibility that he put in
giving consideration to the red bull. Notwithstanding that, the most noteworthy prize that
he would get was appreciating a heavenly gala at his lord's table in particular if the bull
under his consideration won a battle. Disparity between social classes is likewise obvious
with the second bull keeper and the rubber carrier too. For the second bull keeper, an
arrangement must be fixed with the town headman and the bull must be brought by the
bull keeper despite the fact that it is the village head who wishes to see it. On account of
the rubber carrier, he was irritated that his boss would be angry with him if the tubs loaded
up with white elastic fluid were spilt and all the elastic in the two tubs were lost, for the
misfortune would be an entire day's pay to the elastic bearer. In the event that the lower
working-class people don't do their obligations well, they will endure a greater loss in
their day by day life and this made them edgy to get over the extension notwithstanding
the obstacle by the two bull keepers and their bulls.

REFERENCES:

1. Cartwright, M. (2015, July 13). Yama. Retrieved from

https://www.ancient.eu/Yama
2. Eagleton, T. (2003). Marxism and literary criticism. Routledge.
3. Humm, M. (1986). Feminist criticism. Brighton: Harvester.
4. Wright, E. (2013). Psychoanalytic criticism. Routledge.
5. Suprusr. (2018, January 4). People on the Bridge, Phaitoon Thanya Essay
Example. Retrieved from https://graduateway.com/people-on-the-bridge-
phaitoon-thanya/.