Deafness shu ts the old man out from the rest of the world. In the day, everything must be a reminder to him of his disconnection from the world. The busy streets, the marketplace, the chatter in the cafes along the street, the animals, and the motor vehicles fill the town with noise all day long. The old man knows this and recognizes that he is completely cut off from the sounds that he probably had not thought much of as a young man. What in his life caused this, or was it just Hemingway's remorse.
Males are far more likely to attempt to commit suicide than females.
A multitude of sources on the Internet describe suicide as a desperate cry for help. People who commit or attempt to commit suicide will tell those around them that they intend to perform the act well before they actually try to kill themselves. The people they tell, usually, do not take their warnings seriously. This person may not truly want to die, but will commit the act in order to garner the attention it will give them. Emile Durkheim's Suicide, published in 1897, drew correlations between rising suicide rates, isolation, and the changing expectations of society.