A Clean Well-Lighted Place

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A Clean Well-Lighted Place

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway looks at age from the viewpoint of an inexperienced and experienced individual, with the aid of an old man to emphasize the difference between the two. This story takes place late one night in a caf. The caf is clean, pleasant, and well lighted, which brings some kind of comfort to the atmosphere. Here in the caf sits a deaf, lonely, older man, who although is deaf can feel the difference that the night brings to the caf, a younger waiter, who believes people stay around the caf to make his life miserable, and a waiter who is a bit older and seems to understand that this place, the caf, is comforting. The older man spends his late nights in the caf, because at his home there is nobody, he is widowed. All he has is the comfort that the light inside the caf brings to him at night, and the appearance and thought of other human beings may bring him. The old man is under the care of his niece, who last week had to cut him down from his attempting to commit suicide. Why did he attempt to kill himself? He was in despair. Stated one waiter, and I am assuming it is the younger waiter because he goes on to state that he was in despair over nothing because he has plenty money. Money would be the answer to any problem to an individual of youth because when one is younger he/she has not yet come to realize the importance of relationships. The older waiter shows us the importance of relationships by stating, Each night I am reluctant to close up because there may be some one who needs the caf. This appearing to mean that he knows that there are many lonely people in the world without relationships and no one to turn to in time of need or having some one to just be ...

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...per meanings. Looking at my critical approach New historicism and comparing it with my piece A Clean Well-Lighted Place, only from the point of view of a new historicist without doing any additional research into the ties or times of the author I believe I have a well understanding of what it means to be a new historicist and how it applies to my piece that I have chose. I tend to think that knowing more about Hemingway and the life he led might give me a better understanding of his reasons for writing A Clean Well-Lighted Place. The meaning of Hemingways piece also will differ greatly across cultures and how it is a particular society looks at the differences in age and communication factors. .

Work Cited

Hemingway, Ernest. A Clean Well-Lighted Place Literature Reading and Writing The human Experience. Donna Erickson. New York: St. Martins press, 1998. 115

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