A Clean, Well-lighted Place Essay

The young waiter has a harsh view of him as well because on occasion the old man has been so drunk he walks out on his bill. The younger waiter has a different respect for time, it’s precious to him and he values it. “I wish he would go home. I never get to bed before three o’clock. What kind of hour is that to go to bed?” “He stays up because he likes it.” “He’s lonely, I’m not lonely. I have a wife waiting in bed for me.” “He had a wife once too” (153). The older you get, the more time wears down on you, and you begin to now, greater than ever, feel your mortality. This theme is used to help the reader understand the older mans pain and that no matter how young and confident someone is, they will eventually grow old and die.

The younger waiter believes he has “no regard for those who have to work.” On the contrary the older waiter also doesn’t belong to a family and attempts to explain “he stays up because he likes it” “it’s clean and well lighted” the light acting as a metaphorical parallel to the comfort the café offers in his otherwise dark life. Seeing as the older waiter understands him he does his best to make the customer feel he belongs and build a relationship with him. He realises that not everyone shares the same perspective realising “it’s not only a question of youth” but in this case a question of lack of relationships allowing sympathy and explaining his actions.

We get the picture of the old man drinking and the two waiters observing him and understanding he was drunk. Unlike A Rose for Emily we find out a little more about the character when we find out that the old man is deaf and is a regular client at this café. We also get a better depiction of the scene, “…In the daytime the street was dusty, but at night the dew settled the dust…” Ernest Hemingway also sets up a time frame for us. He lets us know that it is late at night.

Mavis Alder is tending bar. She doesn’t like tending bar, but she has a pretty face that’s good for tips, is a good listener, and enjoys making cocktails. She really just hates drunk people. Fortunately for Mavis, the bar is sparsely packed tonight. There are the regulars; Johnny and Yumay, two good friends who come to the bar every wednesday to drink, complain about their lives, and attempt to pick up Mavis. There is a depressed looking man in a tuxedo sitting at the end of the bar, staring hopelessly into his drink, and sitting next to him is a tall dark skinned man in a muscle shirt, a jacket, and some jeans. About 30 minutes ago he had come in and sat next to the tuxedoed man who, for whatever reason, seemed to had lost all hope in humanity.

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.

In the small town of Charleston, an older, lonely man sits at the bar in a Diner. A young couple sat at the other end drinking coffee. The woman was dressed nice in a pretty red dress and the man looking dapper with his blue suit and hat. The older man is a regular at this diner. He arrives at the same time, sits on the same stool, and is always dressed nice as if he were about to meet someone. He never did though. The waiter knows the older man by name and says, "Hey Hopper, anything new today or just the same old, same old?" whenever he would walk in. Hopper would just shrug his shoulders as usual and sit on his stool. He looks at the couple at the end of the bar and nods, while waiting for the waiter to get him his

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

This story is a tale of emptiness and loneliness and how different people deal with it. The younger waiter, who does not feel either, goes home to his wife. The older waiter feels both and looks

      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

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.

When entering the main dining room, whether by design or by custom, there is a definite pecking order involved in the seating arrangements.  The first table on the left, presided over by an elderly gentleman with Basset Hound eyes, belongs to the old men of the town.  The table sits in front of one of two large windows; the old men can see and are able to comment on the "doins of them young 'uns running the town these days."  It is amusing to discover that the average age of the people under discussion is at least fifty and they took over their businesses from the same old men looking over them now.

In the story “A clean, Well-lighted place”, there was two waiters that where trying to figure out why this old man was trying to kill himself. When the old man asked for another drink, the young waiter goes to serve him, and what I thought was very shocking was when the young waiter says that the old man should’ve killed himself. The young waiter thinks that old age is a horrible thing but the older waiter disagrees. When the old man asked for another drink, the young waiter refused to give him another one because he said

When the older waiter finishes his rendition of these prayers he smiles almost pleased with his private rebellion and cynicism. The old man does not have to change or alter in anyway throughout the story to indicate his overwhelming feeling of meaninglessness. He has tried to commit suicide, and he sits in the café every night until three o’clock in the morning drinking until he is

The younger waiter mentions that he hopes the customer will leave so he can go home and go to bed with his wife. The older waiter says that the customer was married once. The younger waiter says a wife wouldn’t do him any good, but the older waiter doesn't agree.

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.