A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

The Meaning of Life by Hemmingway “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” “A Clean Well-Lighted Place" is a short story written by Ernest Hemmingway. The story is about two waiters having a conversation in their cafe, just before closing up. They cannot close up because there is a customer. The young waiter is nervous to get home to his wife, while the old waiter sympathizes with the old man sitting at the cafe. They are discussing about the meaning of life without realizing it I think that the story takes place in Spain between World War one and World War two because the story published on 1933. Also, the writer mention that a soldier in the story who is walking by the cafe with a girl, “A girl and a soldier went by in the street.” One of the waiters say that the guardian will pick them up shortly if they do not get off the street now. It is between 2:00 and 3:00 a.m. because the young waiter is in a hurry to get home and wants to close up the cafe early. The story has three main characters. The first character is the young waiter. He is egocentric, arrogant, reckless and impatient. He seems that he only thinks about himself and did not care about anyone else’s. According to David Gomes, “His absolute selfishness reaches cruelness when he wishes the old man had succeeded in trying to commit suicide just so he could have gone home earlier that night.” The young waiter tells the old man, “You should have killed yourself last week,” when he asks for another brandy. The young waiter thinks that the old man has no respect for the waiters. The young waiter knows that the old deaf man is solitary. He is also scared of getting old, he says, “I wouldn’t want to be that old. An old man is a nasty thing.” The older waiter seems that he understand the old man’s situation. The old waiter knows how it feels like to be alone. He knows how it feels when the old man stay in the shadow of the tree. There is an emptiness in him.

Cited: David Cameira Gomes. “A LOOK INTO NOTHINGNESS IN HEMINGWAY’S “A CLEAN, WELL- LIGHTED PLACE,” “IN ANOTHER COUNTRY,” “SOLDIER’S HOME,” AND “NOW I LAY ME””. University of Copenhagen. Spring 2013 Baarchana. ‘A Clean Well-Lighted Place’ is included in Hemingway’s short story collection ‘Winner Take Nothing’. http://www.humanities360.com/index.php/a-clean-well-lighted-place-analysis-21937/