Hemingway's short story, "A Clean Well-lighted Place", takes place at a cafe very late at night. Two waiters are watching their last, lingering customer, an old man, who is by now very drunk. The younger waiter's impatience and the older waiter's understanding toward the old man carry out the theme of the story: "It [life] was all a nothing and a man was a nothing too."(114) Man must consequently find something to distract himself from his horrible truth. For the old man and the older waiter, "a clean and well-lighted" cafe is such an escape.
The pervading metaphor in this story is predictably, the "clean well-lighted place." The story's image of the sea of dark nothingness perfectly symbolizes a world with no hope, no solace, but darkness of reality. The lighted cafe in the sea is such an escape from the darkness of the world.
It seems the old, wealthy, deaf gentleman drinks at the cafe every light, alone, to pass the time in a clean, well-lighted environment. The......
Join Now or Login to view the rest of this paper.
Approximate Word Count: 540
Approximate Pages: 3 (260 words per double-spaced page) |