A Clean Well-Lighted Place

In “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” the narrator describes the importance of the cafe compared to all the other places that are open to convey the idea of loneliness and despair. Through the use of imagery, symbolism, point of view and, allegory Ernest Hemingway establishes a connection between the older waiter and the deaf guy, as he illustrates the significance the well-lit cafe brings to their lonely night. As the waiters discuss their thoughts on being open so late, the older waiter claims to be one of those who enjoy the aura of the cafe being open so late compared to other places. “With all those who do not want to go to bed. With all those who need a light for the night.“ The role the cafe plays to diminish loneliness and despair does not go unrecognized by the older waiter and deaf guy who find their escape in that clean well-lit cafe. Loneliness screams louder at night for those who walk through it by themselves. They look to find comfort in a well-lit place with a calm and pleasant aura. The feeling displayed between the old deaf man and older waiter does not register with the younger waiter who does not understand the search of finding peace found in the cafe. The younger waiter has a wife to go home to as the older deaf man and older waiter have nothing and that is their escape from their dark loneliness, the cafe. Since it is clear that Ernest Hemingway has established that the old deaf man

Sadness, frustration, or discontent, however it’s put, there is an obvious difference with the characters in, “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” by Ernest Hemingway, and their ideas of mortality and old age. The short story shows the concept of “nothingness,” displayed through a very depressing view on life. This suggesting that all people, even those who are happy and content, will eventually end up lonely, drunk, or unhappy. By allowing a reader to view this from three diverse perspectives, Hemingway is able to render how someone’s attitude of their own life can go from one extreme to another. Allowing suicide as a final option to surface for some.

Ernest Hemingway's short story, "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," first published in 1933, is written in his characteristic terse style. It is the story of two waiters having a conversation in a café, just before closing up and going home for the night. They cannot leave because they still have a customer. One is anxious to get home to his wife, while the other sympathizes with the old man sitting at the table. Without realizing it, they are discussing the meaning of life.

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place is my favorite Hemingway story, so I wrote a parody mocking Hemingway’s masterful dialogue in the piece and other Hemingway characteristics. I took a careful look at the story and remembered a quote by Hemingway describing his writing process at a café in France. The quote reads “It was a pleasant cafe, warm and clean and friendly, and I hung up my old water-proof on the coat rack to dry and put my worn and weathered felt hat on the rack above the bench and ordered a cafe au lait. The waiter brought it and I took out a notebook from the pocket of the coat and a pencil and started to write”. This quote inspired the old man in my parody to be Hemingway at his favorite café engaged in his writing process. The story of my parody is essentially a story of an elderly Hemingway seated late in his favorite cafe writing while the two waiters gather the courage to ask him to leave.

As the old waiter is working in the café an old man comes in regularly. In the reading, you see how the young waiter (the old waiter's co-worker) judges the old man for drinking so late and long. The young waiter has no empathy for this customer. And when he speaks about the customer it shows that the old waiter is also in despair. The old waiter responds saying, “He is in despair,” (Hemingway 1).

Ernest Hemingway utilizes repetition in order to emphasize the unimportance of everything life has to offer. The waiter decided that he feared nothing in life because everything is “nada” and “pues nada y nada.” Hemingway uses the repetition of the Spanish word for nothing in order to expose the frivolousness in worrying about life and its challenges. By replacing words that can’t be determined by the context and can be replaced by just about any word; Hemingway accentuates the fact that everything is nothing. That everything in life isn’t worse stressing over considering its minute role in life.

So when he arrives at the bar he feels safe and a little foolish for scaring himself and smiles. But by him memorizing parts of the prayer he has very little faith. When the old waiter is praying, he wants God to have mercy on him, protect him because he's scared and lost. The old waiter also lies to himself trying to make things seem a little brighter by convincing himself it's only insomnia and "Many must have it" (Hemingway "Clean" 291). The old waiter has no faith, is scared of the dark and goes to sleep during the day; not very masculine because he's scared, lost and not in control if he can't sleep at night when most people sleep the deaf old man from, "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," by having no faith because God didn't save Catherine, and because according to Henry, "Everything was gone inside of me" (Hemingway "Farewell" 282).

Each night I am reluctant to close up because there may be some one who needs the cafe.”. The old waiter prefers to be up all night, and he keeps the cafe open late just for the people who are like him, too. The cafe is used for those who can’t sleep and need a light for the night. He feels a sense of “nothing” in his life. The sense of “nothing” is what he clings to, unlike the regular people who cling to religion, hobbies, and memories.

The old man, according to the two waiters, had a wife and a family. All the old man has now is his niece, who saved him from a suicide attempt. The old man loves to sit in the café, while drinking brandy. For example, “The old man sat in the shadow of the leaves of the tree that moved slightly in the wind”. The old man also enjoys staying at the café late at night because he has nothing better to do. Even though the old man is alive and well, he feels lonely because the love of his life is gone. He has no one to go home to, so he sits in the café, looking at the lives of other people. For instance, the old man saw a girl and a soldier go by in the street. The street light shone on the brass number on his collar. The girl wore no head covering and hurried beside him. Although the old man tried to hang himself and seems lonesome, he managed to survive and keep on living life to the

The younger waiter has all the time in the world since he is young, confident, has a wife, and has a job. He is not sympathetic to the old man’s plight because he still has a lot of time in the world. The old man has conflicts with his own ‘life’, it has made him despair and lonely, doesn’t present any good. In Ford’s story, the conflict is between Steven and Marjorie. The solution of their conflict depends on how they give meaning to their lives.

In the story “A Clean, Well- Lighted Place” by Earnest Hemingway begins with the main character and his co-worker in a café. The two are analyzing, and discussing a deaf, drunk Oldman, who is their last customer of the day. As the deaf old man insists on having more whiskey, the main character informs the young waiter as to why and how the old man tried to commit suicide. They began to converse about the Oldman’s depressed life. The younger waiter is in a rush to go home to his wife, while the older waiter is patient and he stands up for the Oldman, being able to relate to him. Hemingway’s sentence structure and writing style represents the comparison and contrast between setting, people, and objects, along with emphasizing how it is to have and be nothing.

      Hemingway's second portrayal of symbolism that a reader may distinguish is the café itself.  The café represents a sanctuary of the evilness of the world.  The namesake of the short story is a clue for the reader to see that the café would represent some form of an asylum not only from the elements of nature, but also safety from evil.  An example of the usefulness of this sanctuary is how the deaf old man uses the café as a safe-haven to be to himself after the incident where he almost succeeded in committing suicide and enjoys the comfort the café gives.  The old waiter represents in the café the kindness and caring that the café should provide; whereas the younger waiter is more of a materialistic character.  He clearly displays shallowness and selfishness.  Arthur Waldhorn writes that the older waiter helps keep the light on a little longer at the café for those, who like himself, 'do not want to go to bed.' (P 28)  The younger waiter is a protagonist in attitude of the older waiter.  The philosophy of Nihilism is brought into this theme when the older man recites the Lord's Prayer but substitutes the word "nada" for every noun in it.  Nihilism is brought onto a larger scale because it is very evident that there is nothing to believe in, even as a

Life sucks, does it not? Life is nothing and everything in life is meaningless. Perhaps there are a few things that can distract the mind and guard from the inadequacies of life, but in the end all fades away. Nothing lasts forever. While all the somethings are dying and fading, nothing is still there. Sure, one can search for meaning and think happy thoughts, but throughout the struggle everyone is alone and slowly spiraling down the path to despair. In “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” Hemingway uses the concept of nada, characterization, and the setting to emphasize the idea of human life being full of nothing.

This story was written by Hemingway in 1933. It details an evening's interaction between two waiters, and their differing perspectives of life. Hemingway uses an old man as a patron to demonstrate the waiter's philosophies. Hemingway is also visible in the story as the old man, someone who society says should be content, but has a significant empty feeling inside. What follows is a line-by-line analysis, putting emphasis on the philosophies of the waiters.

Furthermore, the setting contributes to the structure of the story, like cartilages in a human body. The café can be viewed as a workplace and also as a place of peaceful socialization. Each person deals with despair differently. Having the setting at a café where it was mentioned that it was quiet help structure the story that it is neither a depressing story nor, a happy story. The two waiters who were gossiping about the old man mentioned that he had committed suicide but, he was saved. Being in a café is different than rather being in a bar or anywhere else. The café signifies a place for space or time, depending on the person. The old man is not trying to cure his despair but rather subdue it. The setting could have taken place anywhere but it also could have affected the structure of the story differently. For example, when the older waiter was out trying to kill time due to insomnia, he went to a bar but, it was not soothing; therefore, he went home. This proves how the setting was able to support its main structure of having a café rather than a different place.