Analysis of “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”

The setting of “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” is a café that, as the title may suggest, is well-lighted and clean. The story is set late at night at a quiet café with just one customer remaining. The café could be in a Spanish speaking country due to the use of nada, "Otro loco mas," and copita, which is the Spanish word for glass. But the location of the café does not really matter. It could be set anywhere, just so that it is a dark lonely night only being illuminated by light that casts a shadow of leaves. Our narrator does not speak much about the specific place where the character are and focuses more upon the argument the characters are having. The narrator is from the third person point of view. We hear both the actual words the characters are saying and also what they are thinking. And specifically the narrator focus on the words and thoughts of the older waiter. “Good night, the other said. Turning off the electric light he continued the conversation with himself, It was the light of course but it is necessary that the place be clean and pleasant. You do not want music.” In this quote the narrator shows the actual words the character says, and then what the character thinks.

In “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”, written by Ernest Hemingway, the plot focuses on two waiters watching an old, deaf man and discussing whether or not the old, deaf man should leave. The two waiters have differing views about the old man mainly because of the perspective of each of the waiters. One of the waiters is younger and want the old man to leave so they can close up the café. He wants to get home at a reasonable hour and says, “I'm sleepy now. I never get into bed before three o'clock.” On the other hand, the older waiter sympathizes with the m...

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...the older waiter. The older waiter is transitioning through the two stages of life that the younger waiter and the old man represent. The older waiter is in deep though and then closes the story with, “After all, he said to himself, it's probably only insomnia. Many must have it.” He just dismisses that he is growing older and lonelier and says that he just has insomnia. Our story’s antagonist is the younger waiter. Though he has a respect for the old man and the older waiter, he argues against the older waiter. He also tell the deaf man that, “You should have killed yourself last week.” Not the most sympathetic man, is he? He has not yet reached the part of his life where he will experience loneliness and is very naïve. He is not a villain in the story, but he does antagonize the older waiter.

Works Cited

Hemingway, Ernest. MrBauld.com. n.d. Web. 28 April 2014.