Essay on The Presence of an Iceberg in A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

In “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” the narrator describes the importance of the cafe compared to all the other places that are open to convey the idea of loneliness and despair. Through the use of imagery, symbolism, point of view and, allegory Ernest Hemingway establishes a connection between the older waiter and the deaf guy, as he illustrates the significance the well-lit cafe brings to their lonely night. As the waiters discuss their thoughts on being open so late, the older waiter claims to be one of those who enjoy the aura of the cafe being open so late compared to other places. “With all those who do not want to go to bed. With all those who need a light for the night.“ The role the cafe plays to diminish loneliness and despair does not go unrecognized by the older waiter and deaf guy who find their escape in that clean well-lit cafe. Loneliness screams louder at night for those who walk through it by themselves. They look to find comfort in a well-lit place with a calm and pleasant aura. The feeling displayed between the old deaf man and older waiter does not register with the younger waiter who does not understand the search of finding peace found in the cafe. The younger waiter has a wife to go home to as the older deaf man and older waiter have nothing and that is their escape from their dark loneliness, the cafe. Since it is clear that Ernest Hemingway has established that the old deaf man

When entering the main dining room, whether by design or by custom, there is a definite pecking order involved in the seating arrangements.  The first table on the left, presided over by an elderly gentleman with Basset Hound eyes, belongs to the old men of the town.  The table sits in front of one of two large windows; the old men can see and are able to comment on the "doins of them young 'uns running the town these days."  It is amusing to discover that the average age of the people under discussion is at least fifty and they took over their businesses from the same old men looking over them now.

The younger waiter believes he has “no regard for those who have to work.” On the contrary the older waiter also doesn’t belong to a family and attempts to explain “he stays up because he likes it” “it’s clean and well lighted” the light acting as a metaphorical parallel to the comfort the café offers in his otherwise dark life. Seeing as the older waiter understands him he does his best to make the customer feel he belongs and build a relationship with him. He realises that not everyone shares the same perspective realising “it’s not only a question of youth” but in this case a question of lack of relationships allowing sympathy and explaining his actions.

There is an apparent unity seen between the old man and the older waiter. Opposite from the young waiter, the older waiter and old man seem devastatingly lonely and worn out by life. While the young waiter is rude and insistently talks down to the old man, the older waiter defends him. He too understands and appreciates a clean, well-lighted café opposed to a bar or bodega. The older men understand each other without there being any communication between them. In the final line the reader is able to truly understand the older waiters view of his own morality, “He disliked bars and bodegas. A clean, well-lighted café was a very different thing. Now, without thinking further, he went home to his room. He would lie in the bed and finally,

It can show fantasy, darkness and it is possible that the old man in the story never existed. It is the capacity of the narrator’s imagination which makes him creates the old man. It all seems that nothing that he says happens in real life. For instance, the old man eyes, heartbeat, the night, the police, and so on, are all fruits of his fantasy. The eyes could represent his psychological sin and guilt, and the old man depicts his own personality. He wants to get rid of the eyes because it has a darkness sin which does not allow him to have a good sanity. The narrator separates the old man’s personality to his eye, and in the end, he assumes by getting rid of the eyes he could still love the man and live in peace with his mental sanity. However, this strategy does not work out well and turned against him because does not only kill the eyes but also the old

We get the picture of the old man drinking and the two waiters observing him and understanding he was drunk. Unlike A Rose for Emily we find out a little more about the character when we find out that the old man is deaf and is a regular client at this café. We also get a better depiction of the scene, “…In the daytime the street was dusty, but at night the dew settled the dust…” Ernest Hemingway also sets up a time frame for us. He lets us know that it is late at night.

In “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” experience characterizes the older waiter because he empathizes with those around him, thereby proving that enduring hardships encourages greater acceptance of others. By explaining how he is different from the young waiter, the older waiter clarifies why he disagrees with the young waiter’s decision to force the deaf customer to leave: “I have never had confidence and I’m not young. … I am of those who like to stay late at the cafe. … With all those who do not want to go to bed. With all those who need a light for the night” (Hemingway 9). Without the overconfidence of the young waiter, the older waiter has humility, a trait that allows him to develop empathy through his life experience. Also, the waiter is older, so he persevered through more difficult situations than the young waiter. Since he undergoes the same sleeplessness that the deaf man faces, the older waiter willingly sacrifices his time because he notices the importance of his job at the cafe to other people. Furthermore, the older waiter acknowledges the importance of the cafe to those like him when he describes that “[e]ach night [he is] reluctant to close up because there may be some one who needs the cafe. … This is a clean and pleasant cafe. It is well lighted. The light is very good and also, now, there are shadows of the leaves” (Hemingway 9). Unlike

     The poem “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening”, by Robert Frost, is a short, yet intricate poem. What appears to be simple is not simple at all. What appears to be innocent is really not. The woods seem pristine and unimposing, however, they are described as being “dark and deep”, and it is the “darkest evening of the year”. He speaks of isolation, “between the woods and frozen lake” and of duty “But I have promises to keep”. And also, Frost’s usage of “sleep” easily implies death. Though this poem might come off at first to be nice and peaceful, however, that peace has an underlying menace.

The older waiter is much more understanding of the old man’s situation. He knows what it feels like to be lonely. He knows the desire to stay in the light that staves off the darkness, a darkness that brings thoughts of how lonely you really are. There is an emptiness in him can only be filled with the cleanliness and light of the café. He feels that this is the same for the old man.

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place is my favorite Hemingway story, so I wrote a parody mocking Hemingway’s masterful dialogue in the piece and other Hemingway characteristics. I took a careful look at the story and remembered a quote by Hemingway describing his writing process at a café in France. The quote reads “It was a pleasant cafe, warm and clean and friendly, and I hung up my old water-proof on the coat rack to dry and put my worn and weathered felt hat on the rack above the bench and ordered a cafe au lait. The waiter brought it and I took out a notebook from the pocket of the coat and a pencil and started to write”. This quote inspired the old man in my parody to be Hemingway at his favorite café engaged in his writing process. The story of my parody is essentially a story of an elderly Hemingway seated late in his favorite cafe writing while the two waiters gather the courage to ask him to leave.

Upon reading this internal monologue, one’s natural inclination may be to dismiss the older waiter, and perhaps by extension Hemingway, as merely depressed, or lonely, or haunted by some unspoken tragedy. However, such an interpretation of the above passage, and thus the story’s theme, would be an egregious oversimplification. Instead, it would be far more accurate to regard the older waiter’s worldview as something akin to existential nihilism, which is the belief that, essentially, life has no intrinsic meaning, that humanity’s very existence means nada. And as one comes to this realization, one truly grasps the theme of life’s meaninglessness that “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” exhibits.

Hemingway puts effort in the simplicity of word and sentence structure, but he does this in a certain technique, which adds on to the meaning of the story “It was late and everyone had left the café except an old man who sat in the shadow of the leaves of the tree made against the electric light” (157). Hemingway uses everyday words and begins his story with the simplicity of observation. Hemingway sets his story up chronologically, making his story flow. The story is written in third person, which emphasizes how the narrator doesn’t matter to

      Hemingway's second portrayal of symbolism that a reader may distinguish is the café itself.  The café represents a sanctuary of the evilness of the world.  The namesake of the short story is a clue for the reader to see that the café would represent some form of an asylum not only from the elements of nature, but also safety from evil.  An example of the usefulness of this sanctuary is how the deaf old man uses the café as a safe-haven to be to himself after the incident where he almost succeeded in committing suicide and enjoys the comfort the café gives.  The old waiter represents in the café the kindness and caring that the café should provide; whereas the younger waiter is more of a materialistic character.  He clearly displays shallowness and selfishness.  Arthur Waldhorn writes that the older waiter helps keep the light on a little longer at the café for those, who like himself, 'do not want to go to bed.' (P 28)  The younger waiter is a protagonist in attitude of the older waiter.  The philosophy of Nihilism is brought into this theme when the older man recites the Lord's Prayer but substitutes the word "nada" for every noun in it.  Nihilism is brought onto a larger scale because it is very evident that there is nothing to believe in, even as a

This story was written by Hemingway in 1933. It details an evening's interaction between two waiters, and their differing perspectives of life. Hemingway uses an old man as a patron to demonstrate the waiter's philosophies. Hemingway is also visible in the story as the old man, someone who society says should be content, but has a significant empty feeling inside. What follows is a line-by-line analysis, putting emphasis on the philosophies of the waiters.

Furthermore, the setting contributes to the structure of the story, like cartilages in a human body. The café can be viewed as a workplace and also as a place of peaceful socialization. Each person deals with despair differently. Having the setting at a café where it was mentioned that it was quiet help structure the story that it is neither a depressing story nor, a happy story. The two waiters who were gossiping about the old man mentioned that he had committed suicide but, he was saved. Being in a café is different than rather being in a bar or anywhere else. The café signifies a place for space or time, depending on the person. The old man is not trying to cure his despair but rather subdue it. The setting could have taken place anywhere but it also could have affected the structure of the story differently. For example, when the older waiter was out trying to kill time due to insomnia, he went to a bar but, it was not soothing; therefore, he went home. This proves how the setting was able to support its main structure of having a café rather than a different place.