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The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andric

 

            The Bridge on the Drina, a novel written by Ivo Andric, is an enlightening, relatively fictional story of the historical transgressions that took place in the small Bosnian town of Visegrad. In the novel, The Bridge built over the river Drina transcends to become a symbol of this regional history and much more than a simple structural masterpiece. Spanning generations, the anecdote encompasses events from the mid sixteenth century all the way up to the beginning of World War I. The rise and fall of The Bridge, as depicted from its origin to the times when it is skirted by the railroad and damaged by the Austrians, denotes the hardships and drastic changes endured by the people of Bosnia. The resilience of the Bridge portrays the ultimate human tendency to adjust and move on. Andric uses the gradual decomposition of the bridge over the Drina as a metaphor to compare the also declining Ottoman Empire. The bridge, especially the kapia, play a monumental role in the bringing together of people devout of different religious beliefs and highlights the multiethnic fabric of Bosnian life.
             The idea to build a bridge over the Drina was promoted by a once ten-year-old boy, Mehmed Sokolli, whom was "taken along the road from his village to the far-off, shining and terrible Istanbul".1 This type of kidnapping was common practice and known as the Devshirme. This was a process in which Ottoman authorities would demand the handing over of young Christian boys to the Ottoman service. They would take these children to Istanbul or another central part of the Ottoman Empire, and convert them to Islam.2 After being positioned as a janissary in the Ottoman Imperial administration, Mehmed demonstrates he is a "brave officer at the Sultan's court" and moves on to become a Great Admiral of the Fleet, eventually becoming the Sultan's son-in-law. Once in power, Mehmed ordered this new project of the bridge to be started as a way to replace the ferry that transported him while being kidnapped.


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