Ernest Hemingway’s short story, A Clean Well Lighted Place, created literary controversy when it was initially published in 1933. During this time, there were several literary critics concerned with the dialogue inconsistencies. In the original story, the reader would not be able to distinguish between the two waiters. Hemingway failure to identify the characters by name leaves the story flawed according to the literary critics. Hemingway does not go into the mind of any characters but chooses to describe events from a distance. Thomson (1983) postulates that there are three issues with the text of A Clean Well-Lighted Place:”
1. The content of the story is difficult to understand and requires revision.
2. The flow of conversation in the story is not the traditional way to present literary discussion.
3. The content of the story is correct but difficult to decipher.
It is important to note that the three issues are crucial, but it does not obliterate the concept of the story. Although there is not a main idea stated, the tone establishes the cadence for the story.
The introduction offers the reader the first glimpse of loneliness. For example, Hemingway introduces the deaf man first but does not describe him. All the reader knows is that he is deaf, drinks a little too much and that he has a leather purse. Empathy is an immediate emotion as the story begins. The reader is saddened by the fact that the old man sits in the shadows and becomes inebriated. The old man is lonely and has no one to go home to so he stays at the café and drinks. Loneliness can be darkness, dankness, depression and desperation. Hemingway offers different ideas of loneliness throughout this story.
The café represents brightn...
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...eaving the café, both men are thrown back into reality and into the throes of loneliness. The final criticism evolves in the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer which reveals his feelings about the non-existent God. The reader has to assume that this is a suggestion of depression and loneliness. The old man is lonely and stumbles drunkenly home to nothing and loneliness. The old waiter strolls into another bar to avoid going home to loneliness and insomnia. In the end, both men are denied the comfort of a clean, well lit café.
References
Hemingway, E. (2013). A Clean, Well-lighted Place. In X.J. Kennedy & D. Goia (Eds.). The Literature Collection: an e-text (Vita Source digital version) (p.48). Boston,
MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
Thomson, G. (1983). A Clean, Well-Lighted Place. Interpreting the Original Text. Hemingway
Review, 2 (2), 32-43.
The main focus of A Clean, Well-Lighted Place is on the pain of old age suffered by a man that we meet in a cafe late one night. Hemingway contrasts light and dark to show the difference between this man and the young people around him, and uses his deafness as an image of his separation from the rest of the world.
of the world. Yet, there would come the day when he would be known as
The narrator’s loneliness were viewed by his indifference, anxiety, and routine. His indifference is changed by imagining himself to be the person in his situation; his anxiety is changed by opening his eye inside his mind to see the world that he is living; his routine is changed directly by blind man, the blind man’s life attitude affect him deeply.
Meter, M. An Analysis of the Writing Style of Ernest Hemingway. Texas: Texas College of Arts and Industries, 2003.
Earnest Hemingway is one of Americas foremost authors. His many works, their style, themes and parallels to his actual life have been the focus of millions of people as his writing style set him apart from all other authors. Many conclusions and parallels can be derived from Earnest Hemingway's works. In the three stories I review, ?Hills Like White Elephants?, ?Indian Camp? and ?A Clean, Well-lighted Place? we will be covering how Hemingway uses foreigners, the service industry and females as the backbones of these stories. These techniques play such a critical role in the following stories that Hemingway would be unable to move the plot or character development forward without them.
In Hemingway’s “A Clean Well-Lighted Place”, the old wealthy man keeps ordering drinks. One of the employees of that restaurant mention...
Ernest Hemingway and Raymond Carver are two of the most influential authors of American literature. Carver’s literary works are often considered to have a close connection to Hemingway’s, because of their similar writing styles, such as simplicity and clarity (Mclnerney, 1989). However, though their works share the same aesthetic feature, their works convey fairly different philosophical inquiry on values of faith and existence. Ernest Hemingway’s A Clean, Well-lighted Place and Carver’s Cathedral are two works with distinctive views on questioning the life and manhood.
story’s focus would not be conveyed nearly as well as it is with the figurative language
Ernest Hemingway is known as one of the best writers of our time. He has a unique writing style in which he manipulates the English language to use the minimum amount of words and maximize the impression on the reader. A Clean, Well-Lighted Place is a prime example of this. Here, Ernest Hemingway uses his writing style to reinforce the theme of “Nada”. The setting is simple, the characters are plain, and the dialogues among them are short and to the point. It is with the absence of similes and metaphors that the reader is able to appreciate the work for what it is.
When a writer picks up their pen and paper, begins one of the most personal and cathartic experiences in their lives, and forms this creation, this seemingly incoherent sets of words and phrases that, read without any critical thinking, any form of analysis or reflexion, can be easily misconstrued as worthless or empty. When one reads an author’s work, in any shape or form, what floats off of the ink of the paper and implants itself in our minds is the author’s personality, their style. Reading any of the greats, many would be able to spot the minute details that separates each author from another; whether it be their use of dialogue, their complex descriptions, their syntax, or their tone. When reading an excerpt of Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast one could easily dissect the work, pick apart each significant moment from Hemingway’s life and analyze it in order to form their own idea of the author’s voice, of his identity. Ernest Hemingway’s writing immediately comes across as rather familiar in one sense. His vocabulary is not all that complicated, his layout is rather straightforward, and it is presented in a simplistic form. While he may meander into seemingly unnecessary detail, his work can be easily read. It is when one looks deeper into the work, examines the techniques Hemingway uses to create this comfortable aura surrounding his body of work, that one begins to lift much more complex thoughts and ideas. Hemingway’s tone is stark, unsympathetic, his details are precise and explored in depth, and he organizes his thoughts with clarity and focus. All of this is presented in A Moveable Feast with expertise every writer dreams to achieve. While Hemingway’s style may seem simplistic on the surface, what lies below is a layered...
Through the characters' dialogue, Hemingway explores the emptiness generated by pleasure-seeking actions. Throughout the beginning of the story, Hemingway describes the trivial topics that the two characters discuss. The debate about the life-changing issue of the woman's ...
SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on A Clean, Well-Lighted Place.” SparkNotes LLC, 2007. Web. 26 May 2011.
..., Well-Lighted Place”, represent the opinions and views of one typical person, in one ordinary life. The theme of a world of nothingness is overwhelming to the human brain, and almost inconceivable, and everything we do in this life is simply designed to help us take our mind off of death; suicide is the ultimate escape from “despair” over “nothing” (494). Hemingway’s brilliant transitions in time explain how life eventually grows worse with age, and humans will succumb to suicide, drunkenness, or something comforting and safe, much like a clean, well-lighted cafe. Further, Hemingway has shown the world that man has created many bogus ways to cope with the insurmountable fear of nothingness, namely religion. People can try to kid their selves into feeling soulful, genuine, or meaningful, but there is no need to “fear for [the human] soul”, as it is non-existent.
The art, literature, and poetry of the early 20th century called for a disruption of social values. Modernism became the vague term to describe the shift. The characteristics of the term Modernism, all seek to free the restricted human spirit. It had no trust in the moral conventions and codes of the past. One of the examples of modernism, that breaks the conventions and traditions of literature prior to Modernism, is Ernest Hemingway’s short story “Hills Like White Elephants”. The short story uses plot, symbolism, setting, dialogue, and a new style of writing to allow human spirit to experiment with meaning and interpretation.
In 1933, Ernest Hemmingway wrote A Clean, Well-Lighted Place. It's a story of two waiters working late one night in a cafe. Their last customer, a lonely old man getting drunk, is their last customer. The younger waiter wishes the customer would leave while the other waiter is indifferent because he isn't in so much of a hurry. I had a definite, differentiated response to this piece of literature because in my occupation I can relate to both cafe workers.