Postmodernism In Hemingway's A Clean Well-Lighted Place

Hemingway’s story is postmodernism because of his minimalist writing, with only a few adverbs or adjectives, reporting dialogue cleanly and directly. Hemingway only includes the essential information in his story, omitting much of the background information. Therefore, his story is visible on the page, while the rest is left unsaid. The most descriptive line Hemingway gave the reader is the opening of the story, which, in fact, barely tells us any detail at all "It was late and every one had left the cafe except an old man who sat in the shadow the leaves of the tree made against the electric light". We don't see the café, nor do we know where it is or anything else about it – however, Hemingway manages to sketch out just enough of the scene

for us to create a feeling of the setting for us. This story is most likely based on Hemingway’s life experience. Hemingway fought in World War I and covered the Spanish Civil War and World War II as a war journalist as well. Later Hemingway dealt with depression and alcoholism, some themes in this depressing story relating to postmodern writing. Hemingway rarely specifies which waiter is speaking in the story because he has deemed it to be unnecessary because the core element is that two waiters are discussing a drunken old man. When the older waiter contemplates the idea of nothingness, Hemingway states with vague pronouns, never clarifying what they refer to: “It was all a nothing. . . . It was only that. . . . Some lived in it . . .” Although these lines are somewhat confusing, the confusion is the point. This nothingness can’t be defined clearly. Hemingway uses fewer words and lets the effect of his style speak for itself instead of writing in a traditional sense, and telling the reader exactly what is going on.
One common, but dominant theme in “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” is the omnipresent fear of nothingness. Each character shows different ways of how to deal with the fear of nothingness. However, only the older waiter is able to show a probable solution, establishing a safe place for desperate people who need to release their fears and emotions, and this is where the older waiter has found meaning and the ability to deal with his own fear. The older waiter believes that life does not need to come to an end in despair, as long as one keeps their dignity, and respect the dignity of others. The idea that an omnipresent fear of nothingness exists among humans drives them into despair, if one does not find a way to cope with this fear. Accordingly, they find their own way of dealing with the fear of nothingness, which is shown by each character of the story, but only the older waiter seems to be able to present a convincing possibility. On the basis that nothingness is not a specific threat, but a universal state, a certain uneasiness that shows different incarnations, which appear to every individual in different ways. One of the most fearsome incarnations of nothingness is death, which is present in the story in the death of the old man’s wife and his own attempted suicide. Death can occur to anyone at any time and is therefore a clear proof of the radical contingency and limitation of the human being.
Hemingway also shows rhetorical modes in “A Clean Well Lighted Place”.

In it, fact meets fiction, revisiting history, revising previous texts, and resistance to traditional writing in the text. This is shown when religion is being acknowledged and repurposed for the story. In “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” Hemingway suggests that life has no meaning and that man is an insignificant speck in a great sea of nothingness. The older waiter makes this idea as clear as he can when he says, “It was all a nothing and man was a nothing too.” Rather than pray with the actual words, “Our Father who art in heaven,” the older waiter says, “Our nada who art in nada”—effectively wiping out both God and the idea of heaven in one breath. Not everyone is aware of the nothingness, however. For example, the younger waiter hurtles through his life hastily and happily, unaware of any reason why he should lament. For the old man, the older waiter, and the other people who need late-night cafés, however, the idea of nothingness is overwhelming and leads to despair. The young waiter reveals that there is absolutely no reason to commit suicide if one has money — which he's heard the old man has. For the young waiter, money solves all problems. For an old, rich man to try to commit suicide over the despair of confronting nothingness is beyond the young waiter's understanding. However, nothingness is the reason that the old man comes to the cafe every night and drinks until he is

drunk.
In order to hold nothingness, darkness, nada at bay, we must have light, cleanliness, order, and dignity. If everything else has failed, man must have something to resort to or else the only option is suicide, which that is the ultimate end of everything: "It is all nothing that he knew too well. It was all nothing and a man was nothing. It was only that and light . . . and a certain cleanness and order." This story, however, lives up to the modernist name; it is an unconventional, short, psychological portrait of three characters. The inner monologue of the older waiter briefly dips into stream of consciousness mode. The story doesn't attempt to do anything we expect a short story to do; there is also no real conflict, and certainly no resolution. Rather, Hemingway simply depicts a series of moments in everyday life.