Hemmingway

4 Pages 1075 Words

Ernest Hemingway’s “A Clean Well-Lighted Place” takes place after 2 a.m. in a Spanish café that employs two waiters, one old and one young. The only customer that is still in the café is an old deaf man that is a frequent customer and is quite drunk. In the night (or early morning) in which this story takes place, the young waiter is in a hurry to get home to his wife. Although the café is not closing, the young waiter lies to the old man saying that the café is closed, and forces the deaf man to leave early. Following this incident, the older waiter protest the younger waiter’s actions by explaining why the old man spends so many evenings alone in the café. After the old waiter’s explanation, he relates himself to the old man and he too lives his life in much the same way because he too is lonely. The character of the older waiter and his response to the younger waiter’s treatment of the old deaf man as well as his account of his loneliness are major contributors to this story’s theme: ‘with age comes loneliness’.
Although the characters of the deaf man and the young waiter are important parts of the story because they are personalities the older waiter uses to tell his account of his loneliness, the character of the older waiter contributes most to the overall theme. It is the older waiter whose point of view the narrator tells the story. By doing this, the old waiter’s deep feelings of loneliness become apparent.
Hemingway chose this character to tell his story because this man is the transitional character of the three men. He is not yet an old man that must resort to suicide to escape his loneliness and he is no longer a young man that has a new wife and an entire life ahead of him. This in an ironic position because the old waiter can see the past, present and future of the social interactions of men. In the beginning of manhood there is love and anticipation and in the end there is only dread and sor...