The Old Man
The Old Man is a cynical, hedonistic, and unpatriotic figure who presides over the Roman brothel where Nately's whore lives. He serves as a philosophical antagonist to the idealistic young bombardier Nately, articulating a worldview that prizes survival, adaptability, and the art of losing wars over the ideals of honor, patriotism, and victory. His mocking debates with Nately expose the absurdity of patriotic sacrifice and the self-serving logic of those who align with whichever power is in control, making him one of the novel's most corrosive critics of the very values that drive the war.
Identity and Role
The Old Man is a gaunt, dissipated figure with shabby long white hair and a slovenly white unbuttoned shirt, who sits in a musty blue armchair in the brothel's sitting room like a satanic deity on a throne. He is a lecherous and depraved presence, often found with naked girls lounging on the arms of his chair, and he drinks heavily. He claims to be a hundred and seven years old, a boast Nately finds dubious. He lives in the brothel alongside the clucking, proper old woman who disapproves of the immorality but tries to tidy up. The Old Man is utterly repellent to Nately, who sees in him a debased mirror of his own dignified father, though the two men are nothing alike.
Philosophy and Worldview
The Old Man's philosophy is one of radical opportunism and survival. He tells Nately that the real trick lies in losing wars, not winning them, and that Italy has prospered for centuries by being defeated. He argues that a country is merely a piece of land surrounded by unnatural boundaries, and that so many nations cannot all be worth dying for. He boasts of having been a fascist under Mussolini and an anti-fascist after his fall, a fanatical pro-German when the Germans occupied Rome and a fanatical pro-American now that the Americans are in charge. He admits to having no principles and no morality, yet claims to be a very moral man. He mocks Nately's belief that anything worth living for is worth dying for, inverting the saying to "it is better to live on one's feet than die on one's knees." He also defends prostitution, arguing that it provides fresh air, wholesome exercise, and keeps a girl out of trouble.
Key Actions and Conflicts
The Old Man's most significant action is his wounding of Major -- de Coverley. During the triumphal Allied entry into Rome, the Old Man, seedy and intoxicated, fired a flower at close range into the major's eye, then bounded onto his car, seized him by the head, and kissed him mockingly on both cheeks before dropping back into the crowd. Nately is horrified to learn that this "vicious and criminal" act was committed by the same man he has been arguing with. The Old Man is unrepentant, describing the major as a "silly old fool" and the act as a tempting target he could not resist. He also witnesses Nately's love affair with the whore with insulting derision, refusing to admit that Congress is the greatest deliberative body in the world, which further infuriates Nately.
Thematic Significance
The Old Man embodies the novel's critique of patriotism, honor, and the very concept of dying for one's country. His cynical pragmatism directly challenges Nately's naive idealism, exposing the self-serving calculations that underlie political allegiance. He represents a worldview in which survival and personal pleasure are the only genuine values, and where the grand narratives of war and nation are merely tools for the powerful. His presence in the brothel, a space of commerce and bodily desire, underscores the novel's argument that the war itself is a business, and that the ideals for which men are asked to die are often hollow. The Old Man's eventual death—described by the old woman as something that "broke" in his head, one minute alive, the next dead—is as abrupt and unheroic as his philosophy would predict.
