A Clean, Well-Lighted Something In the short story “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” by Ernest Hemingway, we are introduced to an unnamed older waiter who, like Hemingway himself, is a part of the “Lost Generation” that survived World War I and suffered from a collective existentialist movement. This generation’s old spiritual and/or socio-political belief systems became obliterated by the War and they, in turn, ended up believing instead that life had no great purpose and that there were no higher beings, leaving them to find meaning in life for themselves individually. These individuals flocked mostly to bars late at night and into the early hours of the morning to sit out their existential crises. The waiter, however, would rather spend it …show more content…
The concept of dignity becomes important, as according to Charles E. May, “’A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,’ dramatizes modern man’s pursuit of dignity amid the destruction of the old values,” with May referring to the dissolution of the old religious, social and political boundaries of centuries before because of the Great War. The older waiter understands that the old man prefers to stay late at the café rather than go home or go to a bar because a café-while being like a bar in that they are temporary escapes from the depravity of the outside world-displays a certain degree of dignity and order that bars lack. That dignity is the last sort of “something” for the old man and the older waiter to cling to even as they feel life quietly unravel around them. Secondly, the older waiter understands that a clean, well-lit café could be a much-needed refuge for someone seeking to escape their problems. He understands that there really is no better place than in an orderly, bright and pleasant café to do so. He knows too, that he is one such person, saying that he is, “with those who like to stay late at the café…with all those who do not want to go to bed...with all those who need a light for the night” (Hemingway 155). The older waiter tries his hardest to keep the café open as long as possible, according …show more content…
Second, he himself needs the café, so he is reluctant to close it because he, like the old man and others, will then be without a place to sit and wait out the night. The general problem that afflicts him, the old man and the countless others who also spend the nights staying up late in cafés is described by SparkNotes Editors as “related to something huge, even infinite, something beyond what language can describe: the purpose and meaning of life.” For these people, a controlled, relaxed environment, especially something as mundane as a café, serves as a place where they can find meaningfulness in meaningless routine; a place to at least forget about their troubles, if only for a little while. Finally, the older waiter seems to realize, on a very deep level, that the café represents the polar opposite of the darkness, disappointment and despair that his fellow existentialists considered to be what the world and life itself consisted of. A clean, well-lit café is a symbol of order and clarity in an otherwise meaningless world (SparkNotes Editors). “It was all a nothing and a man was nothing too. It was only that and light was all it needed and a certain cleanness and order” (Hemingway 156), he says, the “it” in the sentence perhaps referring to life itself (SparkNotes Editors). Yet, despite the nada of it all-of life, of religion,
Published three years after his death in 1961, Ernest Hemingway’s memoir A Moveable Feast illuminates the author’s time spent as an expatriate in 1920s Paris. Though the chronicle was written in a time of great turmoil for Hemingway, (divorces, poor health, paranoia, and alcoholism plagued him for many years), he reflects on the time spent there with respect and fondness. Though the life of a expatriate author in Roaring Twenties Paris seems like a dream to many, Hemingway reveals that not all times were good, in fact, there were times he and his first wife, Hadley, could not afford three meals a day. Despite his hunger, Hemingway manages to use it as a driving force in his creative venture. Through alluring descriptions of fine foods, Hemingway uses this as a distraction
The main focus of A Clean, Well-Lighted Place is on the pain of old age suffered by a man that we meet in a cafe late one night. Hemingway contrasts light and dark to show the difference between this man and the young people around him, and uses his deafness as an image of his separation from the rest of the world.
In Hemingway’s “A Clean Well-Lighted Place”, the old wealthy man keeps ordering drinks. One of the employees of that restaurant mention...
With different historical and personal experiences, Hemingway holds the view that all the people end up in this existential angst and incertainty about the existence or meaning of life, while Carver illustrates the establishment and transformation of self-awareness with connection to the world in promoting the significance of life and human existence.
Throughout Preludes, the structural element of time is portrayed through images and sensations associated with daily actions. Points in time are made obvious through meaningless tasks; early mornings are defined by the raising of dingy shades and evenings by the "smells of steaks in passageways," (T.S.Eliot: The Complete Poems and Plays [CPP], 12) and the lighting of the lamps. As the initial stanza begins, we are aware that evening is upon us. The notion of scheduled action is made through the reference of, "Six o’clock," (CPP, 12). Images of poverty and lower class filth set the scene and allude to "the burnt-out ends of smoky days," (CPP, 12) painting a disgusting picture of society’s surroundings. Deepening the feeling of emptiness, there stands a "lonely cab-horse," (CPP, 12) the first notion of actual emotion on a street of meaningless leaves and newspaper.
The story is set in the 1920ies in what has been termed The Jazz Age in which individualism was on the rise. The time period was also characterised by a post-war emptiness and cynicism. As such, the story deals with loss of meaningful life, with the sterility and vacuity of the modern world and with the crucial necessity of taking responsibility for the quality of one's own life (Yanling, p 108). The nature of the story’s dialogue tangibly represents the above mentioned time period emptiness and
The subway cart setting is an example of American symbolism. The eerie underground cart is an element of the play’s title; the flying Dutchman’s haunted ship, however, it can also be seen as the illustration of American society. The subway cart is a representation of an enclosed space where people are forced to interact. Regardless of race, gender and social class the urban subway cart is an area of social stimulation. Passengers often enter and ride anonymously, we see in the list of characters “Riders of Coach, white and black” are included in the dynamics of the subway cart set. It is a tight and confined space trapped with a random sampling of people at any given time. Baraka uses this setting as the perfect environment for two strangers to openly interact. A perfectly natural place to meet someone new, like Clay and Lula. A ...
Hemingway has created a situation where she is forced to depend on him because she is a young, immature, girl in an adult situation. It is when the American tells jig that “we will be fine afterward. Just like we were before, it is the only thing that bothers us. It’s the only thing that’s made us unhappy” that she realizes nothing will ever be the same no matter what he says. During one discussion she says “we could have everything” the man agrees, then she says “no we can’t it isn’t ours anymore and once they take it away, you can never get it back.” He says “But they haven’t taken it away” and her response is “we’ll wait and see.” The American doesn’t realize that at this point she has discovered that if he cannot love her and be happy while she is pregnant how he will ever truly love her as much as she loves him. According to Robert Barron many critics believe that the couple’s relationship has a bleak and ultimately poor ending (Barron). The older waiter in “A clean, Well-Lighted Place” is dealing with a similar situation when a wealthy old man who is a regular at the café he works at comes in after a failed suicide
Although the book is set in the early forties it possesses a taste of eternity as the reader watches the characters struggle through questions of morality, ethics, and traditions. (The answer of which shape their behavior.) This is all perceived through the eyes of the ageless alley, which is witnessed with total indifference. Thus, inhancing the feeling of eternity within which the circle of life is forever revolving.
	Lastly, there is the old waiter. He is some where around the age of the old man that sat at the table. He definitely feels for the man at the table because he knows what it is like to be old and lonely. The waiter says, "I am of those who like to stay late at the café, with all those who do not want to go to bed. With all those who need a light for the night." The waiter knows that the café/bar is a very nice place for people at night, especially the old, because it is clean and well lit. He says, "Each night I am reluctant to close up because there may be someone who needs the café.
Hemingway joined the “Lost Generation” crowd during his hardships. During these years people spent time aimlessly walking around. They didn’t think there was a purpose to their lives. In the book, the characters wandered together through an “endless, drunken procession of parties, cafes, and sexual affairs,” in a desperate search for meaning to their lives. Some of the story Jake tells the reader lies between the lines in the book, possibly symbolizing the absence of meaning in the characters’ lives.
The old man pays and leaves the cafe drunk but with respect and orderly. After the old man has left, the two waiters are still arguing about the old man and how people like him need a cafe to stay open for them.... ... middle of paper ... ...
...tow upon him the humanity we so brutally robbed him of the previous night. The counter clerk replied that he came into the restaurant often, ordered a cup of coffee, sat at the same booth in the dark corner, and slowly sipped the hot contents as if savoring every last drop of the civilization it provided.
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.
In T.S Eliot's poem, Portrait of a Lady, he gives a glimpse into the upper class of post war society- something rather dispirited and forlorn. It is filled with people from the higher social standings and they are as soulless and empty as the lady in the poem. The upper class was also represented by the main character himself, who is truly unable to connect as a whole to his surroundings. He initially describes the world in the poem as dark, covered in smoke and haze – the scene that is in and of itself a mere half life, the individuality of the characters already swallowed by the abyss of ritual that has devoid of meaning. The truly shocking part that links this poem to the author’s previous poems is the underlying brokenness and the soullessness that the characters seem to inhabit. The main character of t...