The Bridge on the Drina is a novel by Nobel Prize winner Ivo Andric.
The following is an essay I wrote on it for an Eastern European Literature course at Grinnell College.

The Bridge on the Drina was erected out of pain, existed with pain and died in pain. This novel, written by Ivo Andric, portrays, through the stories of those who were there, the pain and the joy that centered on this bridge. Of particular interest is the recurring theme of piercing associated with the bridge.

Before the bridge was built, the "aga of the janissaries" came to take young boys of Bosnia to Stambul in order to put them to work for the Sultan. For these boys, the Drina was the point where their families were finally unable to pursue them further. One ten year old was especially affected, he felt "within himself...a sharp stabbing pain which seemed...to cut his chest in two and hurt terribly" (25). This pain was recurring throughout his life and was "always associated with the memory of that place where the road broke off...and of the stony banks of the river, across which the passage was so difficult, so expensive and so unsafe" (25). This boy grew up to be the Vezir, who provided for the construction of the bridge. In a sense, his heart had been pierced by the loss of his family and the struggle the river presented to travelers.

The man in charge of the construction of the bridge was a very mean man and the people whom he forced to work on the bridge without pay became angry. A couple of them decided to start to sabotage the bridge, and spread rumors of a ghost who didn't want the bridge built. When one of these individuals, Radisav, was caught, the foreman decided that he should have a stake driven through his body and that his body should be displayed. As they were preparing to execute this sentence, Radisav pleaded with them, "Listen, by this world and the next, do your best to pierce me well so that I may not suffer like a dog." (48) They proceeded to pierce him and put his body on display at the bridge.

The next piercing is the nailing of Alihodja's ear to a piece of wood on the kapia. Alihodja was the devil's advocate for the town; he always took the opposing viewpoint. At times he was revered for his insight, and at times he was an outcast. One day his mouth got him into trouble and it was decided to nail his ear to the kapia. He remained there, in pain, until he was rescued by Austrian troops. Alihodja had in fact argued against resisting the invasion. Thus, there was "...nothing good for 'the Turkish ear'...and...every intervention on their part could only be harmful" (285). These Austrians posted a proclamation on the kapia. After reading this proclamation, Alihodja felt a "leaden pain in his breast which was fiercer and harder to bear than any human pain that could be imagined" (122). Alihodja, therefore, experiences a pain similar to that experienced by the Vezir himself. This, and following proclamations, served as a sort of symbolic piercing of the bridge. Its actual piercing occurs later.

Then, bridge itself was pierced. In a wartime effort to cut off advancing armies, if necessary, the bridge was "mined". That is to say that a hole was made in the bridge and filled with dynamite. Then the commander could blow up the bridge in order to keep out the enemy. The people felt pain at the sight of the mining; it was as though their own hearts were being mined.

All of these events of piercing, from the breaking of the young Vezir's heart, to the stake driven through poor Radisav, to the leaden pain in Alihodja's breast, took place at that spot on the Drina where the bridge stands. The kapia was the heart of the bridge and the bridge was the heart of the town. I believe the bridge also acts as a symbol. The kapia is the heart of the Vezir; the Vezir is the heart of a people. The kapia is the heart of a human; a human is the heart of society. This is illustrated by the manner in which the bridge lives in pain as the people do. The bridge is strong and timeless as is society, and when society begins to crumble, so is the bridge partially destroyed.

The bridge symbolizes society in that it seems eternal and powerful. The water under the bridge represents the flow of humans within society.

All these tumultuous desires and daring words under the night sky on the kapia will not change anything basically; they will pass, beneath the great and permanent realities of the world and will be lost where all desires and winds are stilled. (246)

In this sense, society and the bridge were these "great and permanent realities of the world". (246) Furthermore, much of the life of the town revolved around the kapia, as it did around society, until the huge societal changes of the industrial revolution, namely the railway, were introduced. These changes hurt the people of Visegrad, and had a piercing effect on them.

The bridge and the piercings associated with it are symbolic of society and of (wo)man's role within society. "So it sometimes seems to us that mankind...has been telling itself, in a million variants...the same story constantly." (Andric speech) In this passage, we note the word mankind. This is just another word for society. The variants of the stories are similar to the variants in the flow of water beneath a bridge. They are never exactly the same, but are of the same type. These instances of piercing differ, but they all bring pain.

(c) 2002 by Martin Kretzmann