Allegory Ernest Hemingway's A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

There is an apparent unity seen between the old man and the older waiter. Opposite from the young waiter, the older waiter and old man seem devastatingly lonely and worn out by life. While the young waiter is rude and insistently talks down to the old man, the older waiter defends him. He too understands and appreciates a clean, well-lighted café opposed to a bar or bodega. The older men understand each other without there being any communication between them. In the final line the reader is able to truly understand the older waiters view of his own morality, “He disliked bars and bodegas. A clean, well-lighted café was a very different thing. Now, without thinking further, he went home to his room. He would lie in the bed and finally,

The older waiter is much more understanding of the old man’s situation. He knows what it feels like to be lonely. He knows the desire to stay in the light that staves off the darkness, a darkness that brings thoughts of how lonely you really are. There is an emptiness in him can only be filled with the cleanliness and light of the café. He feels that this is the same for the old man.

How does Ernest Hemingway’s life reflect into his writing of “A Clean Well-Lighted Place” and “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”? Of the stories the two that stood out to me were “A Clean Well-Lighted Place” and “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”. These two stories demonstrate how Hemingway writes about very dark times for people and himself. Hemingway’s experiences were involved in the writing of all three of these stories. Hemingway's life because towards the end he had troubles with himself, hallucinations, and thought people were after him. In “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” and “A Clean Well-Lighted Place”, Hemingway demonstrates hope because he uses light as imagery for people to escape insomnia and death.

Mallory Cox Period 3 12/17/2015 Comp 1 Despair, Loneliness, and Nothingness In Ernest Hemingway's A Clean, Well-Lighted Place he uses the struggle of dealing with despair to show the hardships that the characters are facing. The old man that the waiter's guess is about 80 years old has attempted in many ways to deal with despair. He had a wife, but he does not anymore. He has money, but the money is enough to deal with what he is feeling.

In this story yet again a old man is alone; this time at a cafe where two servers are left to attend to their last customer. One server, an older man and the other a young man filled with self-proclaimed confidence. Throughout the story, the reader again discovers a lonely and dark backstory for the lone man. The man is said to have attempted suicide by trying hanging himself with a rope. When one server asks why the older one replys “he was in despair” and it was over “nothing”. As the story continues the two servers begin to distinguish themselves through their personalities. The young one: irritable and entitled. Stating an hour for him is far more important than an hour to the old man. (168) While the other is shown to be compassionate and understanding, defending the against the the young servers onslaught saying “This old man is clean. He drinks without spilling. Even now, drunk. Look at him,” (Kennedy Gioia Hemingway 169) to which the aggravated server replies with “I don’t want to look at him. I wish he would go home.” At this point the young server refuses to serve the old man and sends him on his way home where he walked away “unsteadily but with dignity”. The tone of the story then changes from the two servers combatting, to the older server being left with his thoughts and acceptance. The older server tells the younger one that he has “youth and confidence” and that that is “everything.” (Kennedy Gioia Hemingway 169) As their conversation ends the older server again relates to the lone gentleman saying he is also one “who need a light at night”; with that the two close up the shop as the older server explores his brain by himself showcasing Hemingway’s thoughts of depression as he walks to the

An essential theme in “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” by Ernest Hemingway, is that of depression, and how realizing the fragility and inconsequentiality of humankind can lead to feelings of isolation and “nothingness.” When the old waiter thinks to himself, “[What he feared] was not a fear or dread. It was a nothing that he knew too well. It was all a nothing and a man was a nothing too.” , he divulges his true cynicism and his thoughts on the human condition.

In Ernest Hemingway’s short story “A Clean, Well Lighted Place”, Hemingway uses a disillusioning environment to show the loss of happiness, and the fear of suffering. Two men are sitting in a cafe waiting for the closing, while another is alone drinking his Brandy. The two waiters discuss their lives as they compare them to the customers. He uses the text to show the different kinds of lives amongst the three men. The younger man is impatient to get home; that waiter has a family.

The short story “A Clean Well-Lighted Place”, by Ernest Hemingway was nothing more than a plotless story. Although there was lack of plot, in my opinion, the author’s used several languages to get through his audience such as myself. Through much of the story the author was able to make more than just one detail jump out to me as the reader. First, Hemingway allowed me to see the distinction between the older and younger waiter. Secondly, I was able to see how Hemingway portrayed his literary devices such as symbolism and irony through the character’s behavior and mannerisms. Another thing that drew me in as a reader was how the author marks the many themes that could be interpreted such as the theme of nonexistence and night-time. Fascinating enough that wasn’t the only theme I was able to analyze through my reading of, ”A Clean Well-Lighted Place”. There were themes of the dominant and overwhelming sense of the word “nada” which was a very repetitive word throughout the reading. Lastly, the author used themes of mortality, oldness, and lonesomeness with a simple drawing of an old man whose misery exists beyond his plenty of money.

Hemingway’s use of vivid style, such as juxtaposing shifts and explanatory dialogue, help reveal how people may be going through hard times ,but they deserve somewhere they do not have to think about those problems. Throughout “A Clean, well-lighted place,” shifts are used to illustrate how the characters feel and think of each other. One shift occurs when the story goes from seeing how the younger waiter feels about the old man “You should have killed yourself last week” to when the older waiter understands and relates to the old man “A clean, well-lighted place was a very different thing…. After all, he said to himself, it’s probably only insomnia” (Hemingway 9). The older waiter's feelings prove how he also goes to the cafe to escape his

In the short story “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” Ernest Hemingway writes about a deaf man who sits alone and drowns his sorrows in brandy at a local café. Two waiters work their regular shifts and view the usual client very differently. Throughout the short story, Hemingway uses symbols to hint at “nada” or nothingness. This symbolic concept of nothingness is developed through the setting, characters and writing style.

The old man had attempted to deal with despair in various ways unsuccessfully (Hemingway, 1990). He has money; however, it has not assisted him. His only ways to handle this despair is to sit in the well-lit cafeteria. He feels that he will not be lonely if he just sits there. The older waiter mocks his prayers by constantly using the world nada. He seems to show that religion cannot solve despair and his answer just like the old man is to spend time during the night at cafes (Hemingway, 1990). He is very specific on the cafe he loves; it ought to be well lit and hygienic. To him, bars and other entertainment spots do not eliminate despair as they are not well lit. The habitual sitting at the cafe and the drinking aids them in tackling despair as it makes life predictable meaning they can control it, unlike nothingness that follows.

Ernest Hemingway, the author of “A Clean Well-Lighted Place” was born in 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois, near Chicago. When Hemingway finished high school, World War I was raging across Europe. Although Hemingway wanted to enlist in the war, he became a reporter for the Kansas City Star. This is where he really practiced writing. He eventually moved to Paris to work as a reporter and he joined a group of writers and artists, including Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, and Pablo Picasso. In 1937, Hemingway went to Spain as a reporter to cover the Spanish Civil War. After, he moved around a great deal, first to Havana, Cuba, and then back to Europe to contribute to the war effort in World War II. Hemingway’s work won him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” is one of Hemingway’s most famous short stories, as much for its existentialist themes, as its questionable dialogue that has been argued over for years. Existentialism is a philosophical movement that believes that life has no higher purpose and that no higher being exists to help us make sense of it. People are just left alone to find meaning in the world and their lives. Despite his great literary achievement, Hemingway dealt with existentialism, depression, alcoholism, and other health problems. He died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds in 1961 at age sixty-one.

     Hemingway's short story, "A Clean Well-lighted Place", takes place at a cafe very late at night. Two waiters are watching their last, lingering customer, an old man, who is by now very drunk. The younger waiter's impatience and the older waiter's understanding toward the old man carry out the theme of the story: "It [life] was all a nothing and a man was a nothing too."(114) Man must consequently find something to distract himself from his horrible truth. For the old man and the older waiter, "a clean and well-lighted" cafe is such an escape.

The short story “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” by Ernest Hemingway is about an old man who is sitting alone at night in a café. He is deaf and there are two waiters who are watching him carefully because if he gets too drunk they know he will not pay. While the old man is having his drink the whole story mainly revolves around the conversation of the older waiter with the younger waiter. None of the characters are referred by their names they are known as The Old Man, The Older Waiter, and The Younger Waiter to the readers. The author conveys the idea of light and darkness symbolized in the characters and the café.

When I have a lot on my mind, I find it hard to quell my thoughts and drift away peacefully asleep. The only thing i can do then, is to give up on sleeping. Watch the TV, or anything to get my mind to stop wandering. Ernest Hemingway never fails to make you think deeper thoughts when reading his works. This is the case In Ernest Hemingway's a clean well-lighted place is a short story about two waiters, and an old, deaf man in a late night cafe. The young waiter is tired and impatiently waiting for the old man to leave so he can go home. The older waiter tries to explain to him why the old man is there at the cafe instead of a bar or bodegas. The short story is a set of dialogs, and within these we learn that some need a safe haven for their despair. Some need a clean and orderly place to contradict the dirty, unorganized mess they have in their head. Hemingway's short story is about loneliness and despair.