Ernest Hemingway's "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" is a short story that portrays the lives of three characters: an old man, a young waiter, and an older waiter. The old man sits in a cafe late at night, nursing his drink and feeling lonely. The young waiter is impatient to go home and does not understand why the old man stays at the cafe so late. The older waiter, however, understands the old man's desire for a clean, well-lighted place where he can escape the darkness and silence of his home.
The theme of the story is the search for meaning and purpose in life, and how people cope with the fear of death and loneliness. The old man is deaf and cannot sleep without the noise and light of the cafe, which represents a sanctuary for him. He is searching for something to hold onto in a world that seems increasingly meaningless and empty.
The younger waiter represents the youthful, impatient perspective that sees the old man as a burden and annoyance. He is eager to go home and be with his wife, and he cannot understand the old man's need for the cafe. The older waiter, on the other hand, is more empathetic and compassionate. He realizes that the cafe represents a sense of community and connection for the old man, and he respects the old man's need for it.
In the end, the old man leaves the cafe and goes home, symbolizing the acceptance of death and the end of the search for meaning. The older waiter is left alone in the cafe, pondering the darkness and the silence that await him as he grows older.
Overall, "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" is a poignant and thought-provoking story that touches on universal themes of aging, loneliness, and the search for meaning in life. Hemingway's simple yet powerful writing style captures the essence of these themes and leaves a lasting impact on the reader.
A Clean Well Lighted Place
He is anxious to be out of the caf and free of the old man so he could continue his night the way he chooses. For an old, rich man to try to commit suicide over the despair of confronting nothingness is beyond the young waiter's understanding. The perforation of this religious text, which is supposed to mean so much to so many, with 'nada' or 'nothing' makes a powerful statement about meaning. You have no fear of going home before your usual hour? Realizing this, he leaves the bar and goes home. The girl wore no head covering and hurried beside him. Lesson Summary James Joyce once said that in this story, Hemingway had 'reduced the veil between literature and life, which is what every writer strives to do.
A Clean, Well
They discuss the old man, his drinking habits, and what they know of his life. The younger waiter just states that he wants to go home. Influenced largely by Friedrich Nietzsche, nihilism is a philosophy that calls into question the meaning of all things and even doubts the existence of meaning at all. Most important, however, is the emphasis on religious traditions — specifically, on the Spanish Catholic tradition, because faith in the promises of Catholicism can no longer support or console these old men. In contrast, the old waiter knows all about despair, for he remains for some time after the lights have gone off at the clean, earlier well-lighted cafe. The younger waiter doesn't need the clean, well-lighted place because he has one of his own, unlike the older waiter and old man who had lost his place.
Ernest Hemingway’s A Clean, Well
At this point, we can clearly see differences between the old waiter and the young waiter — especially in their antithetical attitudes toward the old man. This was 21 years before Hemingway would win his Nobel prize in literature, yet, the story was still very well-received. The older waiter, however, is more like the old man--he, too, seeks the refuge of a 'clean, well-lighted place. An old man is a nasty thing. The writer himself does not even comment on or Judge his characters at all. In this story, Hemingway expresses this nihilistic doubt by repeatedly using the words 'nothing' and 'nada'.
