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A Clean Well-Lighted Place Essay

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A Clean Well-Lighted Place Essay
Stubbornness against humbleness, the two terms have fought for centuries on whether or not the other was the better to describe people. Reflecting on the contrasts and differences in old age against youth, Earnest Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” portrays how the certain characteristics of the people illustrate the ways they see and deal with life. Through body language and atmospheric feelings, one can learn a lot from a person. The elderly man that awaits in the corner of the bar, though deaf, uses his sorrow as a powerful weapon in the story. As the old man hides in the shadows of the leaves, he seems to be recognizing a certain shortcoming in his life and is highly reflecting upon it. Apparent deafly and sad, he continues to ask …show more content…
In the second paragraph of the story, the older waiter informs the younger that the old man tried to commit suicide the week before his current visit. The old man is much diminished at his loneliness, the darkness of his life, his segregation from the world, and the nothingness that permeates his existence. Everything that piles upon him comes from his very deep emotions in life. He wants his rest, but it is slightly withheld from him. Even when he tries to take his own life, his niece had to cut him down from his noose. Such tranquility is far away from this man, and what little relief he will find is incomplete like the shining light of the cafe. He tries to drown himself in whiskey, but that also fails to bring him any type of resting satisfaction. The only hope he has left is that he is so intoxicated that may pass out when he arrives home. Falling in his sorrow, the old man walks himself into a lonely trance once again. He leaves his comfort of the well-lighted bar and heads out into the dark. This character in the story does have much despair in his life. Figuring out the contrast and comparing of light to darkness in his weary days of being the bar. Perhaps the terror of the narrators old age reflects upon the old mans. The sorrow of his deaf persona and deep emotions makes the old man’s character a very powerful

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