Earnest Hemingway's "A Clean Well-Lighted Place"
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Professor Kobeleva
English 1102
September 24, 2014
The Comfort of Light Disparity has no bounds of containment, no age limit, or any traditional style of management. It is usually dealt with privacy, which may lead to a lack of understanding from outsiders. There is no terminology that could clarify the viewpoint of a despaired man. In his famous quote, Albert Camus argued, “… one needs more courage to live than to kill himself” (goodreads.com). In Ernest Hemingway’s short story “A Clean Well Lighted Place,” the general message is conveyed through three main characters: the old man, the old waiter, and the young waiter. The old man and the old waiter struggle with disparity; despite this, the men are able to find a temporary sense of peace attending a café full of cleanliness and light.
The generation gap between the younger waiter and the older waiter had a significant influence on the story. The younger waiter had a wife to go home to and many aspirations in his life; yet, he had little sympathy for the despaired old men. As the story tells us, the old man was deaf, lonely, suicidal, and had little to live for; while, the older waiter could see his future rushing in the same direction. The younger waiter even stated that “he should killed himself . . . ” because, “ [he] never gets to bed before three o’clock . . .” (Hemingway 143). He truly had no way to relate to the two men; also, the old man was wealthy which only added to the younger character’s confusion. The old waiter’s level of disparity was distant from the severity of the old man’s, but he had a deep understanding
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why he was hesitant to go home at night. In his article “Character, Irony, and Resolution in “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” Warren Bennett declares, “ [the older waiter] cannot find anything to depend upon within or outside himself” (75). Humans are very social creatures, so the lack of companionships between the two older men may have been a contributing factor behind
Professor Kobeleva
English 1102
September 24, 2014
The Comfort of Light Disparity has no bounds of containment, no age limit, or any traditional style of management. It is usually dealt with privacy, which may lead to a lack of understanding from outsiders. There is no terminology that could clarify the viewpoint of a despaired man. In his famous quote, Albert Camus argued, “… one needs more courage to live than to kill himself” (goodreads.com). In Ernest Hemingway’s short story “A Clean Well Lighted Place,” the general message is conveyed through three main characters: the old man, the old waiter, and the young waiter. The old man and the old waiter struggle with disparity; despite this, the men are able to find a temporary sense of peace attending a café full of cleanliness and light.
The generation gap between the younger waiter and the older waiter had a significant influence on the story. The younger waiter had a wife to go home to and many aspirations in his life; yet, he had little sympathy for the despaired old men. As the story tells us, the old man was deaf, lonely, suicidal, and had little to live for; while, the older waiter could see his future rushing in the same direction. The younger waiter even stated that “he should killed himself . . . ” because, “ [he] never gets to bed before three o’clock . . .” (Hemingway 143). He truly had no way to relate to the two men; also, the old man was wealthy which only added to the younger character’s confusion. The old waiter’s level of disparity was distant from the severity of the old man’s, but he had a deep understanding
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why he was hesitant to go home at night. In his article “Character, Irony, and Resolution in “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” Warren Bennett declares, “ [the older waiter] cannot find anything to depend upon within or outside himself” (75). Humans are very social creatures, so the lack of companionships between the two older men may have been a contributing factor behind
Cited: Camus, Albert. “Quotes About Suicide.” Goodreads.com: n.pg. Web. 23 Sep. 2014. Pearson, 2012. 142-147. Print. Hoffman, Steven. “Nada and The Clean Well-Lighted Place.” Essays In literature 6.1 (spring 1979): 91-110 Stock, Ely. "Hassle: Nada in Hemingway 's "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place"" Midcontinent American Studies Journal 3.1 (1962): 53-57. JSTOR-Arts and Sciences Collections. Web. 9 Sept. 2014.