Clean Well Light Place
A Clean Well Lighted Place Earnest Hemmingway Analysis The conversation starts out with the narrator setting up the story and the scene, as most do. An indication is made about the setting in the café with the leaves giving a shadow and hence telling us that the story was taking place on a patio or street of the café. An old man that was deaf and seems to be on hard times, which he was, especially after finding out that he had recently tried to commit suicide. One of the waiters who’s table the old man was sitting at began to get impatient with him just sitting there taking up his time, that he felt was better suited for sleep since three-o-clock in the morning was too late for bedtime.
This was one indicator of the waiter’s age, his impatience was most likely derived from his youthfulness and preoccupation with a young family at home. Several statements made by the younger waiter like, “You’ll be drunk” and “You should have killed yourself last week”, began to encourage the older waiter to take up for the old man and let his true feelings out instead of being passive and courteous as he had been in previous conversation. As the ensuing conversation takes place between the waiters we begin to realize each one’s priorities and what relationship that the old man plays in their lives. The older waiter began to recognize himself in the old man, not mentioning anything about a family of his own at home. Another reason the older waiter sympathized with...
In Hemingway’s “A Clean Well-Lighted Place”, the old wealthy man keeps ordering drinks. One of the employees of that restaurant mention...
The former, a product of the human empathy and responsible for the preference of seeing no harm come to other living creatures so long at the latter is maintained. Together these maxims form the basis of the savage man’s natural state and, by extension, his tenancy of gentleness towards his fellow man (121). The civilised man, in contrast, comes to be as a result of “perfectibility”. Perfectibility, according to Rousseau is an innate human attribute to want to learn and better oneself, particularly to overcome obstacles in one’s environment. Rousseau’s description of perfectibility implies that the conditions of one’s environment have a direct influence over their character and that one can therefore deduce that regardless of man’s natural gentleness, he can develop the capacity to be cruel if so prompted by elements in his environment. Such a prompt comes as man looks to collaborate with others out of mutual self-interest. Rousseau notes that, “their connections become more intimate and extensive … there arose on one side vanity and contempt, on the other envy and shame … Men no sooner began to set a value upon each other, and know what esteem was, than each laid claim to it … It
Using the detail,“Dinner threw me deeper into despair,” conveys the painful feelings caused by her family at dinner (Paragraph 5). This detail indicates that Tan was continuingly losing hope that the night would get better. Tan reveals these agonizing feelings to make the reader feel compunctious. In making the reader feel sorry for her, Tan knows she can continue to misreport details in the passage without being questioned. The detail,“What would he think of our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners,” emblematizes the dishonor Tan feels towards her relatives and cultural background (Paragraph 2). This detail implies that due to Tan’s attraction to Robert, she will detract her feelings of others to better her relationship with Robert. Tan used this detail to reveal that if Tan cannot better her relationship with Robert, she will become despondent. As a result of distorting details, the passage illustrates Tan’s dishonorable feelings towards her cultural
At the end of the story, the boy decides to finally eat. Though he still has no money to pay for food he decides to go to a restaurant and leave without paying. The narrator says, “He did not dare to look at her: it seemed to him that if he did so she would become aware of his frame of mind and his shameful intentions” (1158). The boy’s plan to eat the food and leave without paying starts to make him feel guilty. Even though he still feels too embarrassed to look at the waitress, he puts his need to eat before his feelings. After that moment the boy starts to cry in front of the waitress. She brings another plate of cookies to the boy and he eats them. The narrator says, “He ate slowly, without thinking about anything, as if nothing had happened, as if he were in his own house and his mother were that lady behind the counter” (1158). In this moment, the boy eats and does not think about himself crying. He eats the cookies and is comfortable because he feels like he is at home. He also feels comfort because he imagines the waitress is his mother. The boy relating the woman to his mother shows the reason why he must eat, because his mother is important to
The husband was also selfish in his actions. With good intentions, the wife had planned a surprise for him, but he was not pleased. “Instead, he was hotly embarrassed, and indignant at his wife for embarrassing him” (13). When the narrator describes the husband at the beginning, he has a “self-satisfied face” (3). Embarrassment is a result of feeling self-conscious. Because of his self-conscious nature, he assesses first how the few people in the restaurant will view him because of his wife’s actions. He does not prioritize appreciation for his wife’s effort and care, but rather sees the worst in her misguided actions. The husband’s selfishness causes him to be prideful, which in turn causes him to destroy his relationship with his wife through his actions.
Kennedy, X. J., and Dana Gioia. ""A Clean, Well-Lighted Place"" Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. 12th ed. Vol. 1. New York: Pearson Longman, 2007. 167-70. Print.
Kroeger, F. P. “The Dialogue in ‘A Clean, Well-Lighted Place’.” College English. 20.5 (1959): 240-241. JSTOR. Web. 8 Feb. 2014.
Ernest Hemingway’s short story, A Clean, Well- Lighted Place is on the surface a tale of working men and their dialogue at work in a café. However, Hemingway was a great writer, and one who will always use the obvious, everyday happenings to delve deeper in the world. The reader of this story is able to find a deeper meaning and understanding of what can be looked at as meaningless conversation. He tends to leave some of the story in an open ended format, which can be quite disturbing for the reader looking for answers to the unanswered questions of a story, but it can also be fulfilling.
“It is the light of course but it is necessary that the place be clean and pleasant. You do not want music. Certainly you do not want music. Nor can you stand before a bar with dignity although that is all that is provided for these hours. What did he fear? It was not fear or dread. It was a nothing that he knew too well. 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. Some lived in it and never felt it but he knew it all was nada y pues nada y nada y pues
In it, fact meets fiction, revisiting history, revising previous texts, and resistance to traditional writing in the text. This is shown when religion is being acknowledged and repurposed for the story. In “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” Hemingway suggests that life has no meaning and that man is an insignificant speck in a great sea of nothingness. The older waiter makes this idea as clear as he can when he says, “It was all a nothing and man was a nothing too.” Rather than pray with the actual words, “Our Father who art in heaven,” the older waiter says, “Our nada who art in nada”—effectively wiping out both God and the idea of heaven in one breath. Not everyone is aware of the nothingness, however. For example, the younger waiter hurtles through his life hastily and happily, unaware of any reason why he should lament. For the old man, the older waiter, and the other people who need late-night cafés, however, the idea of nothingness is overwhelming and leads to despair. The young waiter reveals that there is absolutely no reason to commit suicide if one has money — which he's heard the old man has. For the young waiter, money solves all problems. For an old, rich man to try to commit suicide over the despair of confronting nothingness is beyond the young waiter's understanding. However, nothingness is the reason that the old man comes to the cafe every night and drinks until he is
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.
The young boy while tending to his mother also did the following things to try and help her get better because of how sick she was at the time. When he made her some tea and it was a little strong he agreed with her in a manner of almost trying to be equal saying that “”’Tis too strong,” I agreed cheerfully, remembering the patience of the saints in their many afflictions. “I’ll pour half of it out.”… “’Tis my fault,” I said, taking the cup. “I can never remember about tea.”” (207) When the young boy says this I feel that he is trying to act as if he is older than he really is because he is “the man of the house” and he is taking care of his sick mother. Also, while he has been taking care of his mother, he decides not to go to school today because taking care of his mother is much more important to him than going to school. After he turns down the bus ride to school he offers to go to the store to pick up a few things that his mother might want to get but is certainly unable being laid up in bed all day. So he offer to get eggs because ““What will I get for dinner? Eggs?” As hard boiled eggs were the only dish I could manage.”(207) I believe that in this exchange he denotes his young age because all he could make is a simple kind of dish that a lot of people and young people certainly know how to prepare.
Poverty is a major problem in the United States today. Social, economical, political, and cultural factors all contribute to poverty. Education and economic development are two major issues that will help prevent poverty. The United States Census Bureau defines poverty as an "economic condition in which people lack sufficient income to obtain basic needs for food, housing, clothing, health services and education." In other words, poverty is powerlessness, a lack of representation and freedom. Poverty is an issue that the world faces everyday.
The plot sets off with an elderly weak, retired man, named Mr. Woodifield making his weekly visit to the place where he had worked before he suffered a stroke. Mr. Woodifeld visits his old boss, who is a strong contrast to Mr. Woodifield. Even though the boss is five years older than Mr. Woodifield he is much stronger and much more fit. The two men enjoy each other’s company. Mr Woodifield enjoys the company because it reminds him of his youth. His youth that has been stolen from him by his stroke. His wife refuses to let him go out more than once a week. He chooses to go to his old office because this place reminds him of when he was still going strong, just like the boss is now. The protagonist, the boss, on the other hand enjoys the company, because of his ego. He loves showing his new office to Mr. Woodifield. An office that has just been refurbished which he is very proud of. Only one thing is different this time. After the two friends share a whiskey, Mr. Woodifield recollects something that he wanted to tell the boss.
Has anyone ever considered thinking about what the world is really going through? How many people don’t have the necessities in order to survive? If so, what are these people going through? Poverty is the state of one who lacks a standard or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions. Sometimes events occur that changes a person’s perspective on life. Poverty is one that can have a huge effect on not only one person, but also the people around him/her. Over half of the world is going through this tragedy and we, being the ones who created it, have the responsibility to end it.