A Clean Well-Lighted Place Response

Every person in the world, whether you have encountered them on the street, at a restaurant, or at a cafe, will suffer the same fate in the end: death. Ernest Hemingway’s short story “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” depicts a tale of two waiters who were working late at night in a cafe, and their responses to the final customer—a lonely, deaf old man getting drunk. As I delved further into the story, I was able to understand the deeper meanings of Hemingway’s characters and the overall significance of the narrative. One of my reactions to Hemingway’s short story was its characters. The younger waiter, who is seemingly inconsiderable of others, wishes that the old man would leave while the older waiter is more sympathetic towards the old man, and defends the old man. My initial reaction to the character of the younger waiter was that he was very impolite and egocentric—only wishing to leave because the old man staying behind was wasting his valuable free time. Without fully grasping the old man’s situation, the younger waiter says “I'm sleepy now. I never get into bed before three o’clock. He should have killed himself last week” (Hemingway 152). The younger waiter wishes, the old man
The message that Hemingway attempts to convey was that the only end to life is death. Hemingway’s grim message is to simply tell readers that the death comes to us all, and that we must accept it as the older waiter did. My initial reaction is that the younger waiter was disrespectful and egotistical, who had no regard for others, but I soon realized that his opinions and motivations were fueled by his hatred and denial of the fact that he and the old man were the same. The significance of the “Nada” is Hemingway’s representation and commentary that life is meaningless and futile. No matter how we live our lives, whether we are wealthy or not or how loved we are by our partners, we all meet the same fate in the