Hemingway's "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" and His Life
Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21st, 1899. He was the son of Dr.
Clarence Edmonds and Grace Hall Hemingway. He grew up in a small town called
Oak Park, Illinois. Hemingway was brought up in a somewhat conservative household by his parents who pushed the value of politeness and religion. It wasn't until he began English classes in school that his writing talent began to shine. After he graduated from high school Hemingway turned his back on university and he decided to move to Kansas City. It was there where he got his first job as a writer. He was a reporter for the Kansas City Star. The Star was the first to introduce to him the news writing format which demands brief, to the point sentences and the smooth flowing of ideas. It seems that Hemingway adapted this style to his fiction writng. Hemingway demonstrates this talent in a short story called "A Clean Well-Lighted Place".
When he was 19 Hemingway enlisted in the army. He was rejected due to a defective left eye. He then turned to the Red Cross in which he became a second lieutenant. The Red Cross brought him to the front lines of the war in Italy.
It was here where he saw many disturbing sights which probably had a hand in shaping his character.
After extensive injuries from the war, Hemingway returned unhappily to
Oak Park...
moved to Chicago at the age of 5. Nobody liked him there, and he was in many
watching and looking at the things around him. He said that an enemy of his
Pittsburgh. He was fired by a man named Jim Carnegie, who now says that he was
joined the army in 1915 after a frustrating career in the post office. His mother died
In 1946 graduated from high school as a Valedictorian and joined the U.S. Army. He trained in engineering school at Fort Lewis, Washington. He served 18 months in occupational forces in Japan.
of the world. Yet, there would come the day when he would be known as
Is there a pattern for life? Maybe not, but in Ernest Hemingway’s short story “A Soldier’s Home”, the main character Harold Krebs finds that he needs to live his life through a series of patterns. In this story, the series of patterns associated to Krebs results in an explanation of his character’s desire for an uncomplicated life. The series of patterns can be found through Krebs’s involvement in college, the Marines, and even in his personal relationships.
Throughout the 20th century there were many influential pieces of literature that would not only tell a story or teach a lesson, but also let the reader into the author’s world. Allowing the reader to view both the positives and negatives in an author. Ernest Hemingway was one of these influential authors. Suffering through most of his life due to a disturbingly scarring childhood, he expresses his intense mental and emotional insecurities through subtle metaphors that bluntly show problems with commitment to women and proving his masculinity to others.
served in the First World War and was in a German gas attack. By the
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.
Existentialism is a philosophical term that comes from the 19th century and at the time used to describe philosophers such as Jean-Paul Sarte 's and Simone de Beauvoir 's writing themes. It is a term of many vague definitions but does not contain synonyms. It is a unique concept, but could define as one 's reaction to human existence as a whole, and the difficulty finding/lacking a purpose in the world. Without experience and walking in one another 's shoes, no one will ever fully understand someones complications or situations in life. "The Clean Well-Lighted Place" is a story that is not bias, and consists of the viewpoints of an existentialist and the opinion of
The word "war" is always horrible to man especially with who has been exposed to. It is destruction, death, and horrible suffers that has been with all man's life. In the short story "In Another Country", Ernest Hemingway shows us the physical and emotional tolls of the war as well as its long-term consequences on man's life. He also portrays the damaging effects that the war has on the lives of the Italians and even of the Americans.
Chicago because of a job he accepted as an MD at some University. His family
Ernest Hemingway's short story, "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," first published in 1933, is written in his characteristic terse, unembellished style. The definition of "Style" is "the characteristics of language in a particular story and . . . the same characteristics in a writer's complete works" (Gioa and Gwynn, "Style" 861). Short words and a curt tone are so characteristic of Hemingway's style that writers frequently parody them in "International Imitation Hemingway" contests (Gioa and Gwynn, "Style" 861). But Hemingway could only his express this story's theme -- that there is nothing beyond the here and now of daily existence, no God to embellish our lives -- in an unembellished style of writing. The somewhat empty style of this short story is not "Imitation Hemingway"; it's consistent with the story's theme of spiritual emptiness.
In 1933, Ernest Hemmingway wrote A Clean, Well-Lighted Place. It's a story of two waiters working late one night in a cafe. Their last customer, a lonely old man getting drunk, is their last customer. The younger waiter wishes the customer would leave while the other waiter is indifferent because he isn't in so much of a hurry. I had a definite, differentiated response to this piece of literature because in my occupation I can relate to both cafe workers.