Yearning for Peace in Hemingway's A Clean, Well-Lighted Place
While Hemingway's short story "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" is usually interpreted as an intensely poetic description of despair, it can with equal validity be seen instead as mankind's never ending yearning to find spiritual peace. Hemingway's short story displayed this emotional journey in many different ways. First, the title itself is a symbol for man's desire to find a state of tranquillity, safety, and comfort. Hemingway also showed this in the story's setting, which was used as a symbol for a sense of order, for it was late, the cafe was empty, and the men there were at ease. Finally, Hemingway showed this desire in the contrasting actions between the young and the old to show the effects that time plays in man's search for peace.
An added appreciation for this short story, however, can be gained through some background concerning its origins and its relationship to the author's preoccupations. Hemingway was married four times, won the Nobel Prize in 1954, and in 1960, when he became ill, killed himself following in his father's footsteps. Hemingway had to deal with despair, depression, and desperation for most of his life, and these feelings could be felt in most of his writings.
One of the major elements in defining man's true desire for peace in "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" is the central role that is played by despair. Despair is commonly defined as a sense of hopelessness, and it is displayed in the actions of the older waiter, and in the behavior of the deaf man. The older waiter makes an astonishing revelation or epiphany with regards to the idea of despair, when he makes the statement that "I am of those who like to ...
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..., because the Lord's prayer is meant to give one hope, purpose, and a sense that everything is not all in vain. But by removing words, and replacing them with others the waiter was reaffirming his feelings of hopelessness.
One of the biggest examples of understatement that Hemingway used is when the waiter said, "After all ... it is probably only insomnia. Many must have it" (383). Here Hemingway was referring to fear. Man has an inner fear or a feeling of anxiety that he may never find the peace that he is searching for. Many of us wander through life searching, longing, and seeking for a place or state of being where we will feel comfortable. Many of us long for a safe haven or "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place."
Works Cited
Hemingway, Ernest. "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place." The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway. New York: Scribners, 1966.
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.
After the American Revolution, drinking was on the rise. To combat this, a number of societies were organized as part of a new Temperance movement which attempted to dissuade people from becoming intoxicated. At first, these organizations pushed moderation, but after several decades, the movement's focus changed to complete prohibition of alcohol consumption. (Brayton)
In The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Volume II. Edited by Paul Lauter et al. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath and Company, 1991: 1208-1209. Hemingway, Ernest. A.
... scarred as a child, that he lived in fear of women all of his life. He feared commitment and feared being dubbed a coward by most. Almost as if he was brainwashed, he pushed himself to the brink of depression to prove his masculinity to others. However, the truth is that he was actually trying to prove this notion to himself, hoping that it would one day reverse the effects of his traumatic childhood experience. Eventually, He drinks himself into a stupor and at the age of 61, and on July 2nd commits suicide. His fears, his depression, and a severe addiction to alcohol all had gotten ahold of him, and eventually made him believe that he had nothing else to live for (Biography Channel 1). Ernest Hemingway was one of the most influential authors of his time. Whose literature and life was swayed by a traumatic childhood, a dreadful mother, and a manipulated mentality.
Levine, H.G. (1995).“The Good Creature of God and the Demon Rum,” International Handbook on Alcohol and Culture. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Prohibition is the legal ban on the manufacture and sale of intoxicating drink (“Temperance, Prohibition, Alcoholism” 1). The term also denotes those periods in history when such bans have been in force, as well as the political and social movements condoning them. This method of liquor control was most often aimed at preventing alcoholism and thus removing a social, physical, and economic harm from society.
Most people point to wars, Presidents or the economy when asked to describe the history of the United States, but what about alcohol. Social history in general has always taken a back seat to political and economic history, mostly because many aspects of social history are not exactly bright spots from the past. Alcohol, for example, is actually a much bigger aspect of our history than one may expect. As a matter of fact, early America was centered around drinking as a kind of social event. William Rorabaugh’s book Alcoholic Republic outlines how prevalent drinking really was during the years after the Revolutionary War. Rorabaugh argues that post-colonial Americans should be considered alcoholics. However, the evidence Rorabaugh uses
"Young People's Drinking." International Center for Alcohol Policies Meetings & News Press Releases Welcome to ICAP. 2011. Web. 22 Mar. 2011. .
In the US alcohol has been consumed ever since the days of the pilgrims and some say that they had wine and beer on their ships. Since milk and water were scarce and coffee and tea were expensive, settlers turned to beer and cider as their everyday beverages (“Historical Background of Alcohol in the United States”). During these times though, alcohol was consumed responsibly and there was no room for immod...
Alcohol is a large part of American culture. All over the United States drinking is not only acceptable but a social norm from teenagers to adults. This is not only the case in the U.S., but all over the world, where some drinking ages are 18 and 19 years of age. In America specifically, alcohol has been around for centuries and is a large part of many social gatherings. Although this is the case now, in the early 1900’s during the prohibition period, all alcohol was banned and deemed illegal to possess. Even though illegal, the task was just too heavy and alcohol was too much a common practice for most Americans. As time went on the prohibition period ended and the laws were revoked, making it legal again to possess alcohol. The drinking related problems that were around during prohibition pale in comparison to the problems alcohol has caused since then.
Youngerman, Barry. The Truth about Alcohol. Ed. Mark J. Kittleson. New York: Facts on File, 2005. Print.
Kroeger, F. P. “The Dialogue in ‘A Clean, Well-Lighted Place’.” College English. 20.5 (1959): 240-241. JSTOR. Web. 8 Feb. 2014.
Employee turnover costs are very costly to a company. Turnover not only affects the bottom line but also affects the company’s morale. We are analyzing the problems within our company that are causing our employees to become unsatisfied with their job. Then we are going to find solutions. And then do the cost estimates of the turnover costs and the turnover savings after our solutions are implemented.
...ugh, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them.’ Hemingway was not big on self-analysis; he said upon receiving his Nobel Prize that "a writer should write what he has to say and not speak it." But the facts of his life are important, for Hemingway he believed that a good writer ought to draw always upon personal experience for his material. He wrecked his body in pursuit of a macho ideal. He wrecked his relationships in pursuit of… well, who knows what exactly he was after. After a lifetime of celebrating striving and stoicism, Hemingway ended his life wracked in mental and physical pain. Whatever his personal challenges, Hemingway's professional legacy is clear. American prose is different because of him, and his unique style has influenced art, film and countless other writers. We can only imagine that Papa would be proud
The young waiter seems selfish and inconsiderate of anyone else. In the beginning of the story, he's confused why the old man tried to kill himself. "He has plenty of money," he says, as if that's the only thing anyone needs for happiness. When the old man orders another drink, the younger waiter warns him that he'll get drunk, as if to waver his own responsibility rather than to warn the old man for his sake.