Ashley Jones
Mrs. Aiken
English 1102-45
September 9, 2009
A Bright, Clean Place
Ernest Hemingway’s short story, “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” takes place at a clean café late one night, where two unidentified waiters-one old and the other young-are discussing an old man who comes in every night, sits alone, and drinks brandy until past closing time. The old, deaf man is facing a world that is meaningless, and he is unaccompanied in this sterile world. The old man is trying to avoid the darkness of nothingness. Hemingway’s short story is not only about the condition of the world, but the way that the old man and the old waiter feel and respond to this nothingness. Thus, Hemingway’s real subject matter is the feeling of man’s condition of nothingness, and not nothingness itself.
It was late and the young waiter was angry and wished that the old man would leave the café so that he and the older waiter could close the café and go home. He insults the deaf, old man and is painfully apathetic to the older waiter’s feelings when he states that, “An old man is a nasty thing” (Hemingway 89). When the young waiter says that old men are nasty, the old waiter does not deny the general truth of that statement, but he does defend the old man by pointing out that that particular old man is clean, even when drunk.
In Hemingway’s story, the waiter mentions that the old man tried to commit suicide that previous week. The old waiter realizes the man is lonely and that is why he tried to hang himself. The young waiter tells the older waiter that the old man was consumed by despair. The young waiter does not think the old man has a reason to commit suicide because he is rich. For an old, rich man to try to commit suicide over the despair of confronting nothingness is beyond the young waiter’s understanding. However, nothingness is the reason the man comes to the café every night and drinks until he is drunk.
In contrast to the young waiter, the old waiter understands what it is like to have a light for the night. The old waiter also knows fear. “It was not fear or dread,” Hemingway says of the older waiter, “it was a nothing that he knew too well. It was a nothing and a man was nothing too” (Hemingway 98). After the young waiter tells the old man to leave and that he can’t have anymore brandy, the old man finally gets up and depart. The old man leaves the café with dignity. In the face of the human condition of nothingness, Hemingway is saying sometimes that is all an individual has.
After closing, the older waiter walks to an all night bar thinking of the emptiness of the old man’s life and how he can relate to it. The older waiter orders a cup of nothing where the bartender just defines him as another crazy old man. Left alone, the old waiter is isolated with his knowledge that all is nothing. He is standing at an unclean, unrefined bar. He cannot achieve even the dignity that the old man at the café possessed; he also knows that he will not sleep. Perhaps he has insomnia, but we know better: The old waiter cannot sleep because he is afraid of the darkness, afraid of nothingness. In a sense, the old waiter is Hemingway’s spokesperson because he points out that the old man leaves the café with dignity and he affirms the cleanliness of the old man. Unlike the young waiter who is impulsive and has a wife to go home too, the old waiter is in no hurry because he has no one at home waiting for him. The older waiter is wiser, and more liberal than the young waiter. In Hemingway’s, “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” Hemingway is saying in order to hold nothingness, and darkness, we must have light, cleanliness, and dignity. If everything in life fails, then a man should have an alternative other than suicide.