It's More Than What is on the Surface

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It’s More than What’s on the Surface

After reading Ernest Hemingway’s “A Clean Well-Lighted Place” for the first time, on the surface, it seems to be uncomplicated, detached, cold and there is not much action in the story. But, once you read the story and then come to love it, you realize it has heart and soul and a very touching, affective meaning. Ernest Hemingway’s articulation in expressing the story takes his audience into a world of darkness, loneliness but in actuality, he is conveying what real life is actually all about, human nature and the need of human interaction.
One premise of the story surrounds an old man and an older waiter that works at the very clean and immaculate cafe. These men consider the café that is so well-lit as a safe haven or a sanctuary of sorts, to escape their fears and other insecurities. “You do not understand. This is a clean and pleasant café. It is well lighted. The light is very good and also, now, there are shadows of the leaves” (Hemingway).
These two men share many things in common from emptiness, complete isolation, hopelessness and the fear of being nothingness “nada”. As they go to this place of safety each day it is only a brief moment of happiness that this café offers them. “The concepts of a safe haven and a secure base form an elegant partnership; secure attachment and not only provides a feeling of emotional connection but also promotes individual autonomy by encouraging
Chism 2 exploration of the wide world” (Coping with Depression 65). It is a mask to cover what is really going on in their lives if only for a fleeting moment. This place of comfort gives them only momentary happiness and cannot overcome the desperateness and sadness that they have in ...

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...ng. The old man is full of life when he is in the café and he believes this because of the well-kept condition and the lights in the café that draws him to this place so often to work. The story delivers to the audience what the ambiance of the café is like as quoted several times in the story “old man who sat in the shadow of the leaves of the tree.” (Hemingway). Again, this is a display of the loneliness the old man suffers and his desire to be in the café to have human interaction.
Hemingway gives the readers very little to nothing “nada” to understand what the characters are truly feeling and an approach to go into their world and experience the raw emotions and feelings that they have. Whether you love or hate the story, it leaves you with a sense of feeling sorry for the old man and the older waiter and in the end you can feel their complete loneliness.

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