How would a day understand the dark of the night? How would a young man understand being old? How would person understand a world that they are not in it? After I read Hemingway’s story “A clean Well Lighted Place”, these questions all come to fill my head. Hemingway just throws these entire problems out without any solutions. There are many conflicts in this story, however when I think the conflicts between youth and old; the conflict between go home to sleep and stay outside; the conflict between “a clean, well lighted coffer shop” and bar or bodegas, those are the most interested parts for me. Through Hemingway’s simple and easy dialogs, I realize being old and lonely are universal problems. We can only understand them how it feels until we are old. Hemingway doesn’t give us any solution, and he doesn’t blame the world is unfair to the old men either. He knows this is a progress that everyone will go through it, not matter he is rich or poor. …show more content…
The young waiter mentions several times about go back to home and go to sleep. However the old waiter and the old deaf man avoid staying at home by themselves. The old waiter says that there is nothing around him, and he gets nothing but a job. From this I can see the reason that the old deaf man tries to kill himself is loneliness. They don’t have a place to put their heart in. The house for them is like a prison. The old waiter understands how old deaf man’s feeling because after his work done, he does the same thing just like the old man does. I could see that he is suffered with loneliness too. However, he can’t find a nice clean café shop either. He can only feel better when he thinks that lots of people have “insomnia” too just like he does. I think this conflict shows us how author thinks about the world himself. After all these years’ hard work and pursuit of happiness, he realizes that even we could own everything we want, indeed we are still
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.
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...
Hemingway refuses to romanticize his character. Being “tough” people, such as boxers, bullfighters, gangsters, and soldiers, they are depicted as leading a life more or less without thought. The world is full of such people, and it is unrealistic to put sublime thoughts into their heads.
of the world. Yet, there would come the day when he would be known as
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.
Hemingway packed plenty of theme, symbolism, and overall meaning into this short story. However, the story would not have been nearly as meaningful had it been written from another point of view.
Every work in literature is open to interpretation, and every person is entitled to their opinion. In a story shorter than 1,500 words, less than that of this paper, Ernest Hemingway’s A Clean, Well-Lighted Place has garnered serious debate and criticism. Written and published in 1933, Hemingway’s story containing a theme about nothing in several contexts has definitely given many critics something to talk about, but not about the usual theme, irony, or symbolism. For the past 55 years, the critics continue to debate the conflicting dialogue between the two main characters, and whether the inconsistency was intended by Hemingway or a mistake by the original typesetter.
Hemingway has a very simple and straightforward writing style however his story lacks emotion. He makes the reader figure out the characters’ feelings by using dialogue. “...
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
...is story, Hemingway brings the readers back the war and see what it caused to human as well as shows that how the war can change a man's life forever. We think that just people who have been exposed to the war can deeply understand the unfortunates, tolls, and devastates of the war. He also shared and deeply sympathized sorrows of who took part in the war; the soldiers because they were not only put aside the combat, the war also keeps them away from community; people hated them as known they are officers and often shouted " down with officers" as they passing. We have found any blue and mournful tone in this story but we feel something bitter, a bitter sarcasm. As the war passing, the soldiers would not themselves any more, they became another ones; hunting hawks, emotionless. They lost everything that a normal man can have in the life. the war rob all they have.
Ernest Hemingway’s short story “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” describes the story of two waiters in a café waiting for their last customer to leave before they can close for the night. A regular customer, an old deaf man who attempted suicide the week earlier, is drinking himself slowly into a state of inebriation. According to the short story “A Clean Well-Lighted Place”, as an individual grows older, they must grasp the fact that their life is entirely devoid of meaning. In the passage where the younger waiter serves the old man another brandy he tells the old man that “[he] should have killed [him]self last week” (154) it demonstrates the young waiter’s unsympathetic and selfish nature.
Poignant circumstances surrounded the composition of this novel, which bring out many of the above points. It is widely recognized that Hemingway was possessed of a turbulent personality and suffered from emotional depression. This was despite the fact that he enjoyed much critical acclaim. The Old Man and the Sea was written after a ten-year hiatus of public and critical approval. This period saw much of his work receive negative criticism in literary and journalistic circles. This affected Hemingway adversely and very deeply (Carey 9). Therefore, Hemingway's personal battle with seeming failure in his life's work and society's attendant criticism parallel Santiago's stoic resolve in the face of his neighbors' disdain. The author's struggles symbolically match those of Santiago and set the stage for the writing of this novel.
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 ...
Hemingway has a way of making his readers believe that the feats and strengths that his characters obtain in his novels are actually possible. Although this statement may be too critical, and maybe there is a man out there, somewhere on the coast of Cuba who at this very moment is setting out to the open sea to catch a marlin of his own. The struggle many readers have is believing the story of Santiago’s physical powers and his strength against temptation bring forward the question of whether or not The Old Man and the Sea is worthy to be called a classic. Hemingway’s Santiago brought Faulkner and millions of other readers on their knees, while to some, believed Hemingway had swung his third strike. As we look further into Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, we can analyze the criticism and complications of the character Santiago. He is portrayed as a faulty Jesus, an unrealistic and inhuman man, and again still a hero to those who cannot find happiness in their life.
The young waiter seems selfish and inconsiderate of anyone else. In the beginning of the story, he's confused why the old man tried to kill himself. "He has plenty of money," he says, as if that's the only thing anyone needs for happiness. When the old man orders another drink, the younger waiter warns him that he'll get drunk, as if to waver his own responsibility rather than to warn the old man for his sake.