A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

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A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

In the above mentioned short story, Hemingway gives an obvious suggestion of the

insignificance underlying human life. He indicates that there is o meaning to life and human

beings are merely insignificant specks in a vast sea that does not bear any meaning. He boldly

demystifies the notion that most people hold claiming that life is precious and should be treated

as such. He drives his point home when he states. “It's all nothing, and so man has nothing too

(Hemingway).” There are several aspects of life that most humans hold dear to them and they

are the exact ones that the author chose to indulge in order to prove how wrong they give value

to things that have nothing at all. Hemingway is succinctly using the text to make people feel

insecure about the things and comfort that life has to offer (Gale).

Themes

Religion

In most states if not all of them, religion is a part of the country that the occupants of a

particular nation accord their respect. The reason behind it is unknown, but the reasons that

researchers have established have been based on their mere reasoning and a combination of the

outcomes of the speculations they get from time to time (McManus). This particular topic does

not have satisfactory answers to any question an individual would want to ask. This is largely

linked to the fact that nobody is aware of the underlying hard facts regarding the issue and each

question one decides to ask, there are either more questions that arise from the same or the

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answer just serves to cause more confusion. Hemingway uses this to his advantage by using it to

show the nothingness that is attached to it (Hemingway).

In the events of reciting his prayers, he uses the word nada. The latter is a Spanish word

which is used to mean nothing. He has transformed the actual prayer that is in the Bible into

another one altogether by including the Spanish word in places or rather the things he feels have

no meaning to him. The usual prayer that is in the Bible starts with the words, “Our Father who

art in heaven,” yet in his prayer sessions he recites “Our nada who art in nada (Hemingway).”

In so doing, he has done away with the concept of God and heaven in is prayer. The words he

has intentionally omitted bare a lot of weight to those who believe in religion but seemingly, in

this case, there is nothing that can change his mind about his perception about it as he seems

quite convinced.

The allusion that one gets when they read the title of the story is that there is a place of

comfort and serenity that is adequately lit and hygienic. Take the case of the Bible and its

teaching, such a place exists, and it is given the name heaven. Both the Quran and the Bible have

the same perception in the sense that there is a place that people would go after the end of the

world. People who subscribe to both Islam and Christianity, envision heaven when they read the

heading of this short story before pondering about its actual meaning. However, in this scenario

it is ironical that the author gives the readers the false thought that he is talking about heaven yet

in the text, he claims that the word or the place bears no meaning to him (McManus).

Dissatisfaction

The theme is broadly showcased in this literary appreciation and is persistent in most of

his articles. He tries to make the reader to see the world through an entirely different perspective

in which pessimism takes control of everything. He does this by giving the inclination that

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individuals who are happy and contented with the way they live their lives end up feeling let

down, downcast and lonely. In such circumstances, they feel the dissatisfaction that life has to

offer them taking charge of every aspect of their lives. Cleverly, Hemingway shows the three

stages that humans have to undergo; the young, the middle-aged and the elderly. In so doing, he

demonstrates the way in which life grows to become increasingly unsatisfactory as people go

through the stages (McManus). At the beginning of the story, the author presents an old man

drinking brandy alone in a café. The fact that the person is enjoying his time alone is not the

issue that he intended to show, but the fact that the man has in the recent past tried to take his

life. Apparently, this is clear indication of the individual was struggling with desperation

(Hemingway).

Mortality

Hemingway presents a situational conflict in which three characters choose to view time

differently. There are three characters involved; the young one who chooses to value time and all

that it has to offer while the rest who are older feel as though time has no meaning to them and

all they wish for is to stop living. There is a man who spends his time without any planning and

ends up dying. However, before he gets to his end, he tries to take his life just in a bid to hasten

to the process. The conflict that the author intended to portray is that people feel their mortality

the more they grow older as they come to the sudden realization that it does not have any

meaning to them.

The fact of the matter that the author is trying to show the reader is that human beings

may value their lives and have all the fun they can when they still have the opportunity to do so.

However, as time elapses, they will lose their confidence in life and time s they get older and will

finally die. Most stories may be uplifting as they encourage people on the best ways to have fun

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in their lives and the ways in which they can maintain a healthy living yet this text is far from

that. Hemingway is inclined to discourage people from all the things they take most of their time

doing and come to the realization that such things would not stop time and they will surely die

whether they want to or not.

Alcohol and Drugs

Writing a text without making an effort include one's traits in one or some of the

character is often impossible. This is the reason as to why Hemmingway decided to make a great

majority of the characters to be drunkards. He believes that there are those who drink responsibly

and on the other hand are those who drink without limits. The author intends to make the reader

have the perception that he may be a drinker, but then he falls into the category of the good

drinkers who enjoy their time in a manner that is responsible. The main intention that

Hemingway has in making most of his casts drunk is to assist them to escape the reality of life.

Perhaps this explains the reason as to why Hemingway does not believe in a lot of things that

most people in their sane minds would choose to disagree with him. A clear indication in the text

is the old man who drinks on a daily basis to escape his lonely nature and also have the allusion

that he has escaped from himself.

The skillful portrayal of the loneliness and emptiness in people and how different people

choose to deal with the situation is the reason the author chose to include the above mentioned

theme. Case scenarios are the disgracing occurrences in which people get drunk in clubs and start

behaving as kids which is a clear indication that they do not have every aspect of their life in

control inclusive of their drinking habits (McManus). However, Hemingway gives an indication

that such people only behave so because they let themselves to be controlled or rather they let the

drinks they have taken take charge of them. The old man at the café does not have the desire to

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get home as he cannot have enough of the drinks. The most astounding part about it is that that

he drinks in a manner that is responsible as he does not spill it all over the place. Even though

most of the aspects of this story discourages people, this particular one seems to be emphasizing

on ethics.

Old Age

Hemingway as chosen to represent the theme of old age in a manner that is quite

astounding. In his perception, the youth have little issues to deal with in the daily course of their

lives as opposed to the middle-aged and the elderly. The latter are seen to get away from the

problems that strive to make their lives difficult in the due process thus making them resort to

ways to end them irrespective of whether it is painful or costly. Habitual drinking is often

associated with the elderly, and that is the same case that is in the text. He tries to alleviate the

issues making life unbearable away from the young and sways them to the elderly (Gale). The

intention was not to explain that the life of the youth is enjoyable but rather that the fun always

comes to an end.

One of the waiters in the café dreads old age. He boldly states, “I would not want to be as

old as that client. An old human being is a nasty thing (Hemingway).” The worst thing about a

human being is being referred to by a fellow being as a thing. It sounds quite belittling and may

make the people reading the story if at all they are at their old age to feel as though they are

unimportant and worthless. Instead of taking time to understand the old man, the waiter is

disgusted by him and feels that being with his wife is the best place. On the other hand, there is

another waiter who tries to understand the situation the old man is caught up in as opposed to his

colleague. He related the manner in which the old man is drinking to the darkness that is striving

to take control of him. In this context, the author successfully goes against the common

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knowledge that the elderly people are wiser than the young. He makes the young waiter appear

to be more prudent and comprehending as far as situational analysis is concerned, and it is the

reason he feels for the old man.

Wealth

In a glimpse of the conversation between the two waiters, we learn of the fact that the old

man busy drinking at one of their tables is rich. Most people believe that having money makes

problems in life come to a halt. Taking keen interest in the old man’s situation, he has money far

much more than he can spend on himself yet he tried to commit suicide. Dying means that he

would leave all that behind and so they would be of no use to him. Also, people have the

knowledge that having a lot of money means that one would live their lives in comfort. The issue

that Hemingway is that having money does not change the fact that life is full of problems

irrespective of their social status (Hemingway).

Additional Concepts

There is a lot of craftiness employed by Hemingway to drive the point home. He uses

symbolism when he makes the old man in his story deaf. It is an easy way to tell the reader that

the character has been disconnected from the rest of the world. Also, it emphasizes the fact that

he is lonely (Hemingway). The older waiter in the café realized that one of the counters was

unclean before making an effort to clean it. This gives the imminent suggestion that his life had

issues that were a prerequisite to be solved. The young waiter makes it sound like a joke when

telling his colleague that he resembles the old man. He does not know that in the same way, the

old man's life has issues; the waiter's life is in the same lane (Casey).

In attempts to reconnect to the world that he has lost connection to, the old man makes an

effort to stay with people. He may be sitting at the café all alone, but then the essence of it is that

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there are people always coming and going in the place and that alone is enough to comfort him.

As they converse, the elderly waiter makes it apparently clear that he would have let the old man

drink till he has had enough. This shows his ability to connect with those torn down by

desperation and loneliness in their lives. The story ends in the scene where the old man leaves

the café for his home. Before they leave, one of the waiters cleans the dirty table creating the

perception of “Clean” as portrayed by the title (Hemingway). On the same note, the old waiter

gives the presumption that making the place more lit would ease on the old man’s agony and

suffering which is also symbolic of the “well-lighted place” as stated in the name of the story

(Casey).

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Works Cited

Casey, John Douglass. An interpretative study of symbolism in selected works by Ernest

Hemingway. Diss. 2017.

Gale, Cengage Learning. A Study Guide for Ernest Hemingway's" A Clean, Well-Lighted Place."

Gale, Cengage Learning, 2016.

Hemingway, Ernest. The complete short stories of Ernest Hemingway. New Canadian Library,

2014.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: The Hemingway Library Edition.

Simon and Schuster, 2017.

McManus, Dermot. "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway." The Sitting Bee. The

Sitting Bee, 8 Feb. 2016. Web.

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