A Clean Well Lighted Place Essay Research

Paper

A Clean Well Lighted Place

Earnest Hemmingway

Analysis

The conversation starts out with the narrator setting up the story and the scene, as most do. An indication is made about the setting in the caf? with the leaves giving a shadow and hence telling us that the story was taking place on a patio or street of the caf?. An old man that was deaf and seems to be on hard times, which he was, especially after finding out that he had recently tried to commit suicide. One of the waiters who?s table the old man was sitting at began to get impatient with him just sitting there taking up his time, that he felt was better suited for sleep since three-o-clock in the morning was too late for bedtime. This was one indicator of the waiter?s age, his impatience was most likely derived from his youthfulness and preoccupation with a young family at home.

Several statements made by the younger waiter like, ?You?ll be drunk? and ?You should have killed yourself last week?, began to encourage the older waiter to take up for the old man and let his true feelings out instead of being passive and courteous as he had been in previous conversation. As the ensuing conversation takes place between the waiters we begin to realize each one?s priorities and what relationship that the old man plays in their lives. The older waiter began to recognize himself in the old man, not mentioning anything about a family of his own at home. Another reason the older waiter sympathized with

him was the fact of his own age and could see why the old man did the things that he did. Loneliness seemed to be a common factor for both of the older men.

When the younger waiter had left and the bartender came into play, it reminded me of the same scenario that had just played out between the younger waiter and the old man. This time it was the bartender somewhat being the young waiter and the older waiter being the old man. When he said the Lords Prayer replacing words with ?nada? he was giving the inclination that no one really gave a damn, and he might as well play out the cards life is dealing him. He also continued to talk about the lighting in the place as if he and the old man felt safe because of it, almost a kind of phobia about the dark. Safe in the shadow of the leaves of the trees, yet he could see everything and everyone around him. At the end when he was going to bed and the sun was coming up he said that he must have insomnia, and made it expectable by believing that a lot of people have it, so nothing was wrong with him.

The older waiter and the old man seem to both be suffering from depression, however, the older man was in a far more advanced state of the problem. The older waiter could see that his life of loneliness would eventually perpetuate into what he had experience that night during his visit with the other waiter and how the old man had been treated. I think that as we get older we also realize that life can take turns for the worse and true realization of what could happen to us is more believable. When we are younger everyone likes to believe that they are invincible.