In a letter to his family Ernest Hemingway writes “How much better to die in all the happy period of undisillusioned youth, to go out in a blaze of light, than to have your body worn out and old and illusions shattered.” In the short story “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”, writer Ernest Hemingway examines the various perceptions of death and the world as a whole through the three main characters. In “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” we see how the perceptions of the other characters relate to the older waiter’s views on the world, and how that view evolves throughout the story. The story begins “It was late and every one had left the cafe except a deaf old man who sat in the shadow the leaves of the tree made against the electric light.” This is the first time the reader see’s the contrast of light and dark and this is a reoccurring symbol that will be discussed later in the paper. The conversation between the waiters begins when one of them (unspecified which one) brings up the failed suicide attempt by the old man sitting in the café. For the first half of their dialogue the reader is not sure which of the waiters is speaking, which Hemingway does so the reader has to look close at the text to try and infer who is speaking each line. The uncertainty about who is speaking completely changes the dynamic of the story and that is what seems to be Hemingway’s intention. It is not until later that it becomes clear that it is the older waiter who knows about the attempted suicide and begins the conversation. Their conversation was very rapid but the reader is able to get their first insight into the central theme of the story. When the older waiter is asked what the old man was in despair about he responds "Nothing” since the old man has... ... middle of paper ... ... Bennett, Warren. "Character, Irony, and Resolution in 'A Clean Well-Lighted Place,'" American Literature Mar. 1970: 70-79. Rpt. in Short Stories for Students. Ed. Ira Mark Milne. Vol. 9. Detroit: Gale Group, 2000. Literature Resource Center. Web. 25 Nov. 2013. . Hemingway, Ernest. "Clean Well-Lighted Place." Http://www.mrbauld.com/hemclean.html. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. Kerner, David. "The Ambiguity of 'A Clean Well-lighted Place,'" Studies In Short Fiction Fall 1992: 561-74. Rpt. in Short Stories for Students. Ed. Ira Mark Milne. Vol. 9. Detroit: Gale Group, 2000. Literature Resource Center. Web. 25 Nov. 2013. .
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.
"Unit 2: Reading & Writing About Short Fiction." ENGL200: Composition and Literature. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. 49-219. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.
In Hemingway's short story there are three characters, two waiters and their customer. Of these three, two are older men who are experiencing extreme loneliness. The customer sits alone drinking his glasses of brandy slowly, and very carefully, peacefully becoming drunk. While he is meticulously drinking his alcohol, the two waiters talk about him. They discuss his suicide attempt of the week past. The younger waiter doesn't seem to understand why a man with money would try to end his life. Although the older waiter seems to have an insight into the customer's reason, he doesn't share this with the younger one. He seems to know why this deaf old man is so depressed, and sits there alone and silent. When the younger waiter rushes the customer, the older waiter objects. He knows what it is like to go home to emptiness at night, while the younger man goes home to his wife. The older waiter remarks on the differences between him and his younger companion when he says, "I have never had confidence and I am not young.&qu...
Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Jenny Cromie. Vol 39. Detroit: Gale, 2000. Short Story
Pike, Gerald. “Excerpts from Criticism of the Works of Short Fiction Writers.” Short Story Criticism. Ed. Thomas Votteler. Vol. 6. Detroit: Gale Research International Limited, 1990. 90. Print.
In the short story, The Fall of The House of Usher, Edgar Allen Poe chooses the setting as his main focus. This tale is one of many that focus on the character’s surroundings in order to truly emphasize and express the tone the author is trying to portray. The Fall of the House of Usher was included in Poe’s first literary collection from 1839 and is one of his most famous works. He was orphaned by the age of three, which in my opinion, would mean that he had a relatively dark childhood. A dark childhood that may or may not be the reason he allows for his stories to reveal a mysterious and dreary tone. Perhaps, setting is what truly affects the way your life plays out, and this is why the time and place has such a great affect in the world of literacy. In this essay, I would like to discuss how the setting sets the mood, affects your prejudices of the characters, and how it foreshadows where the story is headed.
Upon finally reaching his home, he is baffled that there are no lights on and the door is locked. When he peers through the windows, the house is empty. The finality of this fact reveals that he has progressed from the suburban life to the muddled old age and emptiness, his misfortunes are real and have caught up with him. No longer can he deny the painful memories of what has occurred in his life through his journey. The semi-surrealism of this journey can in theory be a progression of his life, his mind having gone from clarity of a midsummer's day to the darkness of approaching night and old age, with its frailties and troubles, his lapse of memories coming to clarity in the end.
... In Teaching Short Fiction 9.2 (2009): 102-108. Literary Reference Center Plus. Web. 2 Apr. 2014.
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.
In our lives, we go through stages of mindset and maturity that naturally coincide with aging. One thing that remains the same, though, through all of these stages, is that eventually, we die; we are completely aware of that as humans. Whether because it’s due to the painful reality that is mortality, our ever-diminishing ability to be wistful and imaginative, or merely the impending coming of the Grim Reaper, our entire lives are, ironic as it is, surrounded by and flooded with death. However, as we grow older, our perception of death changes. It goes from taboo in our young ages to something that begins to surround and eventually consume us as we grow older. Between the poems “For the Anniversary of my Death” by
...;The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber ends with Wilson saying, “ ‘I’m though now”, he said,’I was a little angry. I’d begun to like your husband’”(28). What Hemingway is telling us plainly is that Macomber was able to achieve something. His death, although tragic, is not as tragic as Paco’s. As we have said many times in class, Hemingway knows death does indeed come for everyone. From short stories like The Killers to novels like For Whom The Bell Tolls, death can almost even be described as a reoccurring character in Hemingway’s work. However death impact is weighed by comparing it to life. For Macomber, death came at his highest point. He went down like man. Paco however, lost his life before he could lose his innocence. He was not even given the chance to live. And that is what Hemingway thinks is all the more tragic. To die not like a man, but a boy.
The atmosphere of a well-lighted place may bring comfort to one 's darkness. With living each day, some may just live to pass time and others will live to become a greater something and to achieve. The older waiter in this story fits the characteristics of an existentialist. The older waiter has very little left in his life to look forward to, and the cafe isn 't just a job to him, its something to wake up for. "I am of those who like to stay late at the cafe" (203), "With all those who do not want to go to bed. With all those who need a light for the night" (203). These quotations from the older waiter show not only the connection he feels with the old man, sharing the same feeling. With a life filled with darkness, both the old man and older waiter, find comfort in the well-lighted cafe. Due to the conversations between both the younger waiter and older, they share vastly different perspectives on everything. The older waiter is very skeptical and does not have enough in life to cherish. Although he did not go to the extreme of trying to end his life, he lives each day dying rather than
Magill, Frank N., ed. Critical Survey of Short Fiction. Revised ed. Vol. 2. Pasadena: Salem Press, 1993. 7 vols.
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.
Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing. 10th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s. 2013. Print.