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.
Ernest Hemingway does not feel the need to give much detail on the setting. The reader knows that it is late and that these men are in a café. The main character is sitting in the shadow and he is drinking brandy. Hemingway leaves out details from the setting but does make it clear that this café is, like the title suggest, clean and well-lighted. He only states important aspects of the setting demonstrating that details are nothing: nada. Through his writing Hemingway implies that this old man feels that little details in the world mean nothing. When the older waiter asks the younger waiter why this drunken man had tried to commit suicide a week before, the younger waiter simply answers “Nothing. He has plenty of money.” In the young waiters mind this old man has everything. Obviously, this old man feels that things like money are nothing and thus not worth living over. Ernest Hemingway, through the lack of deta...
Hemingway presents takes the several literary styles to present this short story. Hemingway’s use of Foreshadowing, Pathos, Imagery and Personification allows the reader to enter the true context of the frustration and struggle that the couples face. Although written in the 1920’s it the presents a modern day conflict of communication that millions of couples face. At first glance the beautiful landscape of the Barcelonian hillside in which Jig refers to frequently throughout the text appears to have taken the form of White Elephants. The Americans’ response to Jigs’ observation was less than enthusiastic as he provides a brief comment and continues on with his cerveza. This was but the first of the many verbal jousts to come between Jig and the American. The metaphorical inferences in those verbal confrontations slowly uncover the couple’s dilemma and why they may be on the waiting for the train to Madrid.
One observation that can be made on Hemingway’s narrative technique as shown in his short stories is his clipped, spare style, which aims to produce a sense of objectivity through highly selected details. Hemingway refuses to romanticize his characters. 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 s...
Meter, M. An Analysis of the Writing Style of Ernest Hemingway. Texas: Texas College of Arts and Industries, 2003.
In Hemingway’s “A Clean Well-Lighted Place”, the old wealthy man keeps ordering drinks. One of the employees of that restaurant mention...
In Ernest Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” and Sandra Cisneros’s “The House on Mango Street”, the authors describe their feelings towards the settings in a similar way. In Hemingway’s short story, two waiters at a café describe the differences in their lives and how they see life before them. In Cisneros’s short story, the narrator explains her past, present, and future places of residency and the impact it has in her life. Both settings in each story are different, but also very much alike, because of the people in the stories and the feeling of want and betterment that you get from both the waiters in “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” and the narrator in “The House on Mango Street”.
When a writer picks up their pen and paper, begins one of the most personal and cathartic experiences in their lives, and forms this creation, this seemingly incoherent sets of words and phrases that, read without any critical thinking, any form of analysis or reflexion, can be easily misconstrued as worthless or empty. When one reads an author’s work, in any shape or form, what floats off of the ink of the paper and implants itself in our minds is the author’s personality, their style. Reading any of the greats, many would be able to spot the minute details that separates each author from another; whether it be their use of dialogue, their complex descriptions, their syntax, or their tone. When reading an excerpt of Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast one could easily dissect the work, pick apart each significant moment from Hemingway’s life and analyze it in order to form their own idea of the author’s voice, of his identity. Ernest Hemingway’s writing immediately comes across as rather familiar in one sense. His vocabulary is not all that complicated, his layout is rather straightforward, and it is presented in a simplistic form. While he may meander into seemingly unnecessary detail, his work can be easily read. It is when one looks deeper into the work, examines the techniques Hemingway uses to create this comfortable aura surrounding his body of work, that one begins to lift much more complex thoughts and ideas. Hemingway’s tone is stark, unsympathetic, his details are precise and explored in depth, and he organizes his thoughts with clarity and focus. All of this is presented in A Moveable Feast with expertise every writer dreams to achieve. While Hemingway’s style may seem simplistic on the surface, what lies below is a layered...
There is a common exercise to evaluate one’s outlook on life: take a glass, fill it halfway and ask yourself, “Is this glass half empty or half full?” Decide on either one depending on how you see it, either half empty (hopelessness) or half full (optimism). We all see the centered brim of water differently based on our own personal circumstances. The old man in “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” would see the glass as half empty. Why? Emptiness is what fills his heart. There’s no gratification in having “plenty of money” and a family, but he finds indulgence in emptying a literal glass of brandy every night somewhere he finds safe, like the well-lit café (167). Even though the story is never clear about why this man is so distraught, the reader is able to understand how he is unable to leave the café. The same theme applies for the two waiters serving him – one has a life to live with his wife, and the other lacks confidence and is one to “stay late at the café”. One has found life, and the other has a lack of confidence and nothing to be proud of. Hemingway develops external symbolism through the setting in “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” like purity and light/ darkness, and also a contrasting theme of lifelong fulfillment and temporary fulfillment.
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 ...
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.
From the short story, ‘A clean, well-lighted place’, Hemingway has comprehensively used his theory of omission. The first part where this theory is used is in the definition of the characters present in the story. The old man, who is the first character, is brought out with lots of omissions regarding his details (Hemingway 1). The old man is only described as old and deaf. In addition, it is stated that he enjoyed coming out at night when it was quieter and could drink until the waiters became restless and ordered him out.
The Cambridge Companion to Ernest Hemingway; edited by Scott Donaldson; Cambridge U. P.; New York, NY; 1996
Ernest Hemingway captures the essence and origins of nihilistic thought in “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”, written in a time of religious and moral confusion shortly after The Great War. The ideas expressed in this short story represent the post World War 1 thinking of Hemingway, and the notoriously nihilistic Lost Generation in Paris, which was greatly influenced by the many traumas of war. Learning from his unnerving experiences in battle, Hemingway enforces the idea that all humans will inevitably fade into eternal nothingness and everything valued by humans is worthless. He develops this idea by creating a brilliant mockery of two coveted religious documents, revealing authority figures as typical, despicable, human beings, and reducing life into the most raw, simplistic, and frightening reality imaginable. He states that all humans will naturally die alone and literally be “in despair” about “nothing” (494), and that people will either seek a “calm and pleasant cafe” (496), or a self-inflicted death simply to escape despair. Undoubtedly, Hemingway destroys any existence of a higher meaning because, in reality “[life is] all a nothing, and a man [is] nothing too” (496). By viewing the actions of three different generations, Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” elaborates on the idea that life is not continual enlightenment and growth, but gradual despair, and an inevitable death into “nada” (497).
Earnest Hemingway’s work gives a glimpse of how people deal with their problems in society. He conveys his own characteristics through his simple and “iceberg” writing style, his male characters’ constant urge to prove their masculinity.
While we discussed “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” by Ernest Hemingway, I do not feel as though we talked about how to story was pointing out how was life means nothing. For example, the older waiter in the end makes this clear by stating, “It was all nothing and a man was nothing too,” (Hemingway pg. 154). Also when he says nada instead of the actual prayer Our Father, which to me means he is getting rid of the meaning of God and heaven entirely. In those statements he is just writing off the meaning of his life. He thinks he is nothing and living has truly no purpose in his life. Secondly, the younger waiter accelerates through life without batting an eye. He just wants to do things faster, so he doesn’t waste time in his already shortened
Ernest Hemingway left behind many impressive works, and his life forced its way deeply through his literary activity. His character’s conflicts and the setting of his short stories were influenced by what happened in his life. His involvement in World War I and his trip to Africa greatly affected his short story, “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”. Even his distinctive writing style was shaped during his time as a reporter. If anything tremendous had happened to him, he always found a way to represent it in his stories, just like in “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”.