A Clean Well-Lighted Place
Adianez Leon
Composition III/Literature– ENG1300
Alan Green, PH.D.
5 September, 2014
South University

Abstract The short story A Clean Well-Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway, deals mainly with the subject of loneliness, as many of Hemingway’s story usually do. The story is about two waiters waiting to close their café, one is old the other is young and the customer is old. The story deals with the two waiters different take on the customer need for a clean well-lighted place where he can have more than a few drinks. The younger waiter does not understand why the customer cannot just drink at home instead of inconveniencing them by staying up so late, while the older waiter understands the customer need for a place to drink, where he can try and escape the feeling of nothing less which in the end will come to all of us regardless of social status. This story shows the men who are at different stages of life and how they see the inevitable death in dissimilar ways. In the end as the saying goes the only things guaranteed are death and taxes, however you can only control the way you approach the death.

A Clean Well-lighted Place Ernest Hemingway short story “A Clean Well-Lighted Place” is one of many short stories written by one of The 20th Centuries most celebrated authors. Hemingway was part of what they called the lost generation, the generation that served during the First World War, which later on came to be used for a group of expatriates who lived in Europe. He won the Pulitzer Prize for literacy for his book The Old Man and the Sea in 1954. Hemingway was wounded in Italy while serving with the American Red Cross during World War I. It was these experiences in war that provided the background for some of his works, Hemingway suffer from depression and it showed in his writing style. Throughout his life he suffer from depression and alcoholism, In a Clean Well-lighted Place you can make the assumption that the old drunk man was him.
The story is about two bartenders, one old and one young and the different ways in which they perceive the old drunk man. The younger man sees the old drunk customer as someone who is in the way of him finally being able to go home to his young wife who is waiting for him in bed; whereas the older waiter understands their customers need for a well-lighted café. The café represents a beacon in the darkness, a place where the old man can escape the darkness, and despair that is his life.
Many comparisons can be made between Hemingway and the customer in the café since they were both financially well off and even though Hemingway was married many times he might have felt alone because of his chronic battle with depression, depression can leave someone feeling like they are in a dark place, as the old waiter told the younger one that the old man tried to kill himself before but was saved by his niece, hence he choose to live the end of his life in a semi drunken state, however as dignified as possible. Both Old men have learned with experience and years that in the end it is all about nothingness that social status does not stop the despair that comes towards the end of life.
Hemingway was constantly looking for this well lighted café as he himself suffered from depression, Hemingway constantly traveled and moved never really settling down anywhere always looking for that well-lighted café. It is this search thought his life that took him all over the world from Europe covering the war, to Africa on Safari. He was considered a Man’s Man, He drank hard, fished, hunted, got in fights, and above all he loved many woman.
Hemingway was also always looking for that anchor in the darkness, the same way the old men in the story were also searching for a place to escape their own feeling of despair. He came to realize that everything he did in his life, and all the wealth that he accumulated was not enough to escape this feeling, not even religion, the old bartender replaces words in the Lord’s Prayer with the word “nada” (nothing). Nothing is nothing, “Nada es Nada”. The two old men have come to the same conclusion in the end there is nothing. Their fear of loneliness is what drives them both to stay up at night and avoid going home early or staying at home for that fact, even though being in the café past the closing time where there are no customers, it’s better than being at home alone at least in the café he has two bartenders that are tending to his needs whereas at home even though his niece takes care of him she most probably is not going to stay up all night with him while he drinks and tries to escape from his loneliness. Hemingway had a very peculiar way of writing in a way that most people easily understood what he was writing about, even in this short story it is easy to see why both old men wanted to avoid going home, and why the older waiter can relate to the old customer as he was also trying to find a place to go after he left from work. ultimately we will all suffered from this despair that is the end of owns life Hemingway’s writing where often based on his own life experience For example, he writes, “If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.” (The Life of Hemingway...Schmoop). This is the way that he though, because of his many life experience with the war, the death of his father, and two siblings (by suicide) and his own struggles with depression, alcoholism, and also because of his own dislike of the way his mother was towards him "Deep in Ernest, due to his mother, going back to the indestructible first memories of childhood, was mistrust and fear of women," wrote Martha Gellhorn. All of this life experience led him to have a unique way of writing and of constantly trying to prove his masculinity, “Hemingway then spent the rest of his life proving his masculinity to himself and everyone else in his orbit.” His friend, the writer John dos Passos, said (Schmoop).
In life we are all looking for an anchor in life, someone or something that can help us feel secure in a world where change is the only constant. Hemingway wrote extensively about this struggles in his many books and that may be why he is considered one of the greatest writers in the 20th century. He once said write about what you know, he certainly did this and along the way left us with many story’s that can very well be about any of us in our constant struggle to survive and connect with others

Citations
Ernest Miller Hemingway. (2014). The Biography.com website. Retrieved Aug 27, 2014, from http://www.biography.com/people/ernest-hemingway-9334498.

The Life of Ernest Hemingway. (2014). umich.edu website. Retrieved Aug 24, 2014, from http://www.umich.edu/~eng217/student_projects/nobel%20prize%20winners/hemingway.htm#

Ernest Hemingway Biography. (2014). Smoop.com website. Retrieved Aug, 24, 2014, from http://www.shmoop.com/ernest-hemingway/oak-park-childhood.html Literature an Intro… (2013). an Introduction to Drama. Pages 167-170.