...Jorge Tapia ENC 1102 Prof. Dawn 11/06/12 A Clean, Well-Lighted Place By Ernest Hemingway Does one's purpose in life diminish after there is nothing left in life to look forward to? Ernest Hemingway's short story "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" addresses this question through the character of the older waiter, a man pondering the meaning of life. The older waiter observes the old man and comes to the conclusion that without a motivation to live, one wanders in a world of nothingness. I am going to discuss the analysis of the major characters in the story “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place.” First of all, there are three main characters: The older waiter, the younger waiter, and the old man. I believe Hemingway is attempting to make the characters show different ideas in which he conveys different personalities in the characters. Furthermore each character represents the ideas that Hemingway had about the youth, mid-age, and the old. The first main character in the short story is the young waiter; seems like a cocky and uncaring man he cheerfully admits that he isn’t lonely and is anxious to return home where his wife is. He doesn’t care that the people in the café use it as a refuge for those who feel alone. The young waiter is rude to the old man because he wants to close the café early. He doesn’t seem to realize that he won’t be young forever. In addition to the story the young waiter represents the youth that is at conflict with the older generations. The young waiter...
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...Human Perception People are self-centered, but deep down no one wants to admit it because it’s offensive and looked down upon in today’s modern society. For that reason, people tend to ignore it, do not question, or stop to have second thoughts of what is around them. Ernest Hemingway in his short story, “A Clean Well-Lighted Place” has exposed readers to be queried to how people treat one another within a society. Hemingway generates thought-provoking individuals in his short story to show how people tend to be in their natural default-setting, and how apprehensive they are to their surroundings. In fact, David Foster Wallace in “This is Water” discloses that people do not stop and think about who, and what to pay attention to. Which results...
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...In “A Clean and Well-Lighted Place” there isn’t much of a story. There isn’t a looming conflict that requires the attention of its characters, there’s really not even a protagonist and an antagonist, there’s just nothingness and how its characters relate to it. There are a mere three real characters in the entire story, the younger waiter, the older waiter, and an old man. The younger waiter and older waiter, and how they relate to that nothingness is the main theme of the story, with the old man being the subject of their conversations. While the younger waiter attacks the old man in his talk with the older waiter, the older waiter doesn’t attack the old man, instead he defends him, because he can sympathize with him. The older waiter knows loneliness and despair, which is what separates these two characters. The story opens with the two waiters speaking to one another about an old man who’s drinking brandy at the cafe which they work. It’s learned through the waiters’ conversation that the old man attempted to commit suicide by hanging himself but his niece cut him down. It’s said that she cut him down for “fear for his soul.” It was as though they don’t even care about his current life, but his life after death. The younger waiter cannot comprehend the reason for suicide when you have money, like the old man does. To the young waiter, money can and will solve all problems. The young waiter is incapable of comprehending the idea of committing suicide over the despair...
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...learn what happened to his wife. He drinks alone late into the night, getting drunk in cafés. The older waiter, too, is lonely. He lives alone and makes a habit of staying out late rather than going home to bed. But there is more to the older waiter’s “insomnia,” as he calls it, than just loneliness. An unnamed, unspecified malaise seems to grip him. This malaise is not “a fear or dread,” as the older waiter clarifies to himself, but an overwhelming feeling of nothingness—an existential angst about his place in the universe and an uncertainty about the meaning of life. Whereas other people find meaning and comfort in religion, the older waiter dismisses religion as “nada”—nothing. The older waiter finds solace only in clean, well-lit cafés. There, life seems to make sense. The older waiter recognizes himself in the old man and sees his own future. He stands up for the old man against the younger waiter’s criticisms, pointing out that the old man might benefit from a wife and is clean and neat when he drinks. The older waiter has no real reason to take the old man’s side. In fact, the old man sometimes leaves the café without paying. But the possible reason for his support becomes clear when the younger waiter tells the older waiter that he talks like an old man too. The older waiter is aware that he is not young or confident, and he knows that he may one day be just like the old man—unwanted, alone, and in...
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...its Effects Ernest Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-lighted Place” deals with the correlation between youth and age. Throughout the story, the symbolism and characterization prove that it’s not out of the ordinary to feel isolated and lonely with age. This is shown through the book by examining the two older men and the young waiter. The older men are represented as lonely, isolated humans; they feel no purpose in their lives. The two older characters share a sense of despair and it makes perfect sense for them to pursue a life in a direction where there is a clean well-lighted place. That clean well-lit place may be exactly what the two men need to have a meaning in their life. The younger waiter is a tad bit different in the sense that he is excited and impatient to move on with his life. The waiter being ready to move on shows no sympathy for the old man. Since the mindsets of the two characters are completely opposite, the waiter doesn’t respect the old man because he doesn’t understand his point of view. The only one who somewhat understands the old man is the older waiter. He provides the same mindset as the old man and can sympathize with him since he understands what his mind is going through. It is evident that the older men have a different approach to appreciating and comprehending the importance of life. Hemingway incorporates symbolism of the light and darkness to help understand the life of the characters in the story. The well-lit café has a deep value and meaning...
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...chosen to compare are “the Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, and “A Clean, Well-lighted Place” by Ernest Hemingway. These two short stories and authors are totally different, and touch on different walks of life. In the story “A Clean and Well-Lighted place,” the theme is centered around empathy, and despair. The author is economical with style in the short story. In the short story “The lottery,” the general theme is conformity, and irrational fear, and the narration of the story adds to the dark undertone, and distance to the reader as if they were looking in on a scene. Shirley Jackson wrote the story in a simple style, and straightforward manner. This is quite different to Ernest Hemingway’s short story “A Clean, Well-Lighted place,” because in contrast he concentrates on the dialogue between characters, and gives the reader a feeling of eves dropping a conversation in the café. I found some similarities between the stories, and the first is that there are no specific locations or period in time mentioned to set the scene. In “The Lottery,” the date of June 27th is mentioned, but no year is clear. In the story “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” Hemingway kept the focus of the story away from a specific date and location, and kept the center of interest on character dialogue. The reader is given some clues in both stories to draw their own conclusions as to the time period and location. Hemingway uses Spanish language in places, and mentions a soldier in the story, which leads the reader...
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...chosen to compare are “the Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, and “A Clean, Well-lighted Place” by Ernest Hemingway. These two short stories and authors are totally different, and touch on different walks of life. In the story “A Clean and Well-Lighted place,” the theme is centered around empathy, and despair. The author is economical with style in the short story. In the short story “The lottery,” the general theme is conformity, and irrational fear, and the narration of the story adds to the dark undertone, and distance to the reader as if they were looking in on a scene. Shirley Jackson wrote the story in a simple style, and straightforward manner. This is quite different to Ernest Hemingway’s short story “A Clean, Well-Lighted place,” because in contrast he concentrates on the dialogue between characters, and gives the reader a feeling of eves dropping a conversation in the café. I found some similarities between the stories, and the first is that there are no specific locations or period in time mentioned to set the scene. In “The Lottery,” the date of June 27th is mentioned, but no year is clear. In the story “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” Hemingway kept the focus of the story away from a specific date and location, and kept the center of interest on character dialogue. The reader is given some clues in both stories to draw their own conclusions as to the time period and location. Hemingway uses Spanish language in places, and mentions a soldier in the story, which leads the reader...
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...A Clean Well-Lighted Place Adianez Leon Composition III/Literature– ENG1300 Alan Green, PH.D. 5 September, 2014 South University Abstract The short story A Clean Well-Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway, deals mainly with the subject of loneliness, as many of Hemingway’s story usually do. The story is about two waiters waiting to close their café, one is old the other is young and the customer is old. The story deals with the two waiters different take on the customer need for a clean well-lighted place where he can have more than a few drinks. The younger waiter does not understand why the customer cannot just drink at home instead of inconveniencing them by staying up so late, while the older waiter understands the customer need for a place to drink, where he can try and escape the feeling of nothing less which in the end will come to all of us regardless of social status. This story shows the men who are at different stages of life and how they see the inevitable death in dissimilar ways. In the end as the saying goes the only things guaranteed are death and taxes, however you can only control the way you approach the death. A Clean Well-lighted Place Ernest Hemingway short story “A Clean Well-Lighted Place” is one of many short stories written by one of The 20th Centuries most celebrated authors. Hemingway was part of what they called the lost generation, the generation that served during the First World War, which later on came to be used for a group of expatriates...
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...the sun, the most basic source of food and thus survival, as a crucial source of light, warmth, and protection. With darkness comes coldness and a fear of the unknown. In the dark, man is reminded of how alone and insignificant a life is in the vast universe. Ernest Hemingway often employs darkness in his works to convey the meaningless of existence that looms over man. Not totally void of optimism, his stories also present rays of hope that reach the reader often through literal descriptions of light. Such is the case in Hemingway’s short story, “A Clean, Well-lighted Place,” which focuses on two waiters at a café. The young waiter impatiently hurries along the last customer, an old man drinking alone, while the older waiter sympathizes with the perceptibly forlorn man. What appears to be a tale of despair and loneliness actually offers hope and strength through a quiet hero. Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-lighted Place” focuses on the nothingness of existence and invokes in the reader a grim realization of the inevitable loneliness of life. However, hope accrues through a growing sense of solidarity among humans and the everyday heroism of the older waiter as he battles the nihilism that could easily consume him. The first conversation between the waiters subtly introduces the concept of “nothing” that permeates throughout the story. A plethora of critics state this “nothing” as existentialism, which critic Abby Werlock avers as a world where...
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..."A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" Two waiters in a café in Spain keep watch on their last customer of the evening, an old and wealthy man who is a regular at the café and drinks to excess. They discuss the fact that he tried to commit suicide the week before, but that it could not have been over anything important because he had plenty of money. The old man asks for another brandy and one of the waiters brings it to him. The two waiters discuss their customer further, saying his niece found him hanging himself and cut him down to save his soul, and that without a wife he must be lonely. One of the waiters is younger than his colleague is, and expresses impatience to close up the café and get home to his wife. The other one, a middle-aged man, defends the old man, saying that he stays so late at the café every night because he has no one to go home to. Finally, the young waiter refuses the old man’s order for another drink, and the man pays and leaves. The two waiters close up the café and the middle-aged one again rebukes the other, saying he should have let the old man stay. The middle-aged waiter says he understands the old man’s reluctance to leave, and that he is always hesitant to lock up because someone may “need” the cafe because it is clean, well lighted, and overshadowed by the leaves of trees. The young waiter boasts that he has everything: youth, confidence, and a job. The middle-aged waiter says he and his colleague are indeed different, and that he himself lacks...
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..."A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" is one of my favorite short stories by Hemingway. A story about three men at different states of their lives; two waiters of a cafe (one young, one older) and an old man as a customer. The old man is living in a state of despair and loneliness, having recently attempted suicide. The younger waiter is insensitive to this and just wants the old man to leave. He himself has "everything": youth, confidence, a job and a wife. He does not realize that not everybody has that because he is blinded by everything that he has. He does not realize that other people are searching for meaning, searching for a reason to go on living to the next day. Meanwhile, the older waiter sympathizes with the old man. He understands his loneliness; he knows how it feels to have nothing to go home to. In my opinion it is the older waiter that is the most tragic character in this story. We learn that he too suffers from loneliness and despair and he sees the old man in himself and he realizes that he, too, will become just like the old man. It is because of this that he wants to keep the cafe open because he knows that it is a clean, well-lighted place. It is clean and bright and can be a source of comfort to those like the old man and himself. It is not until they leave the building that we find the older waiter at a complete loss. He finds no comfort in religion anymore and even though he tries to go to another building, it is just not the same as the cafe holding light...
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...Two Unique Mindsets of Being Alone Loneliness is a complicated and normally an unpleasant emotional response to isolation or lack of companionship. In the stories The Old Man and the Sea and “A Clean, Well- lighted Place”, Ernest Hemingway conveys the idea of loneliness and its corresponding effects. Characters from each text are alone in unique ways; Santiago is a elderly man who, although fishing alone, does not despair in his loneliness. In spite of the fact that he is in solitude, he does not mind being alone. Whereas the deaf man and the waiter attempt to find a way to avoid their loneliness by looking for a place to be so that they are not alone. While many elderly may be alone it does not necessarily mean they are lonely. In the novel The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago is an old man who fishes alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream. He is a widow who has no family and does not have much. Santiago has only one human companion, but in his opinion the sea creatures are his friends. Santiago finds it easy to relate to the fish when he reflects on the fish’s choice of staying far away from everything, “His choice had been to stay in the deep dark water far out beyond all snares and traps and treacheries. My choice was to go there to find him beyond all people. Beyond all people in the world. Now we are joined together and have been since noon. And no one to help either one of us” (Hemingway 50). Santiago’s solitude extends to the fish; they are in isolation from the rest of the...
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...Taiwo Kemisola English 28 March 17, 2015 A Clean Well-Lighted Place (1933) / Ernest Hemingway In “A clean Well-Lighted Place” by Ernest Hemingway we are introduced to three different characters and their perspectives on life. The first character in the story was the old man who was deaf and liked to stay late at night because he lost wife and lonely. He is rich and gets drunk every night to the extent of killing himself because he was in despair. As seen in the story he tried to commit suicide by hanging himself with a rope. The second character in the story was the younger waiter, he was impatient with the old man, for example when the old man request for more brandy, he said finished, no more tonight, close now. He was in hurry to close and meet his wife. The third character in the story was the older waiter, he was patient and empathetic to the old man because he knew he was granny old and lonely. He understand what the old man is passing through, he gives him drinks whenever he asked for more. He was not like the younger waiter who talked rudely to him and does not want to give him drinks. He was not in hurry to close, in the story he said each night I am reluctant to close up because there may be someone who need the café. He debate the old man to the younger waiter and tried to defend the old man when they were talking about him, because he understand him better than the younger waiter. In conclusion, age and experience...
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... 4. Walk through the school halls, the library, and the cafeteria. Look around and find out the facilities that the school has. Observation Report An Observation Guide to the CLASSROOM VISIT Be guided by these tasks as you do your observation. Then accomplish the matrix to record your data. 1. Look at the walls of the classroom. What are posted on the walls? What heroes, religious figures, visual aids, announcements, do you see posted? 2. Examine how the furniture is arranged. Where is the teacher’s table located? How are the tables and chairs/desks arranged? 3. What learning materials/equipments are present? 4. Observe the students. How many are occupying one room? 5. Is the room well-lighted and well-ventilated? CLASSROOM FACILITIES MATRIX Classroom Facilities Description (location, number, arrangement, condition) 1. Walls There are rooms which lacks picture displayed on the wall. But some rooms have many pictures posted on the wall. 2. Teacher’s Table The teacher’s table...
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...Shared Desolation in Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” Common among sensitive individuals, despair is overwhelming and challenging to deal with. Many people deal with their anguish through the assurance of religion, but how do others deal with these devastating feelings once their faith has vanished? Both the dignified old man and the older waiter in Ernest Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” share despair and have found methods to cope with their unhappiness. Both characters feel alone and in order to cope, they stay up late at the café. In addition, their unhappiness is caused by the loss of devotion in a country that is inspired by its religion. The older waiter and the timeworn man feel alone in a country consumed by people and religion. In the short story the younger waiters says, “He’s lonely. I’m not lonely. I have a wife waiting in bed for me.” (97) while the older waiter responds, “He had a wife once too.”(97). These lines cause me to believe that the old man once had a lover to go home to, and now that she’s gone, he only looks forward to staying up late at the café. The older waiter similarly feels the same solitude as the old man does. Hemingway states, “… he would go home to his room. He would lie in bed…” (99), this sentence indicates to me that the waiter also has no partner because it never states that he lies in bed with someone else. Thus causing the older waiter to be desolate as well as the old man. The two characters also share another trait...
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