Hemingway's "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place"

“Hemingway’s ‘A Clean, Well-Lighted Place’”

While reading Earnest Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” the main focus can often be considered of the two biggest opposites in the story; two of the three main characters. The story itself contains very few characters, which are made by the drunken man, the old, and the young waiter. The story sets out in the café in which the two waiters work, where they are having a dialogue about the only customer – the old drunken man. The characters can easily be placed in order in a happiness scale, which is relevant because the feelings of the characters are the most important part of the story, as they underline it from beginning to end. The drunken man is a statement of despair; believing what the waiters are talking about, he recently tried to commit suicide in the story. As the younger waiter is the symbol for a sort of success, along with life-satisfaction; he doesn’t understand the old man at all, and just wants to go home to his wife. As the conversation goes on, it can be perceived as the older waiter works as a mediator for the two remaining characters; he have once felt happiness and understands the young waiter, at the same time as he is as lonely as the drunken man, and he says he “lacks everything but work.” (Hemingway,1933). He appears to be a man that can see why the younger waiter is being so arrogant towards the older man, and he can also understand why the older man doesn’t want to drink at home, Even if he works as a mediator between the two men, he himself is more similar to the older man; lonely, without any real meaning in life.

The man’s mentioning of “nada” could be related to the feelings that comes with lack of meaning, or his feelings about being just in-between the two characters. He’s not happy, nor dreadful or despaired, he understands both sides but personally feels “nothing for nothing”. He think the younger waiter should open up his mind, and seem to feel both pity but also a little bit...