A CLEAN,WELL-LIGHTED PLACE Authors Background: • • • • • • • • • • • • The story a clean well lighted place is written by “ERNEAT HEMINGWAY”. He was one of the most widely-read and well known author of 20th century. He was born on 21st july 1899 in America and died on 1961. He lived most of his life in Spain and Paris. He was a world war 1 war veteran. He worked as an ambulance driver. He belonged to a group of expatriate, Lost Generation. His first fiction work, The sun also rises was published on 1926. He has published 7 novels, 6 short stories collection and 2 non-fiction works. He suffered from ddepression. He had an alcohol problem. He also won noble prize in literature in 1954. In 1964, he committed suicide. HEMINGWAY’S WRITING STYLE • • • • • • • • Hemingway ‘s writing style ia fun to read because of Hemingway’s simplicity and because he so often used the same themes in much of his work. A typical Hemingway story or novel is written in simple, direct and unadorned prose. Hemingway’s writing style is sometimes reffered as iceberg theory. Iceberg theory is stated as in which the writer should focus on a minimalistic style without stating underlying issues or themes. An excellent Hemingway’s writing style is found in The Clean,Well-lighted Place. In this story, there is no maudlin sentimentality. The plot is simple yet highly complex and difficult. Focusing on an old man and two waiters. Hemingway speaks as little as possible. He let the characters speak. And from them we learn the lonliness of two old men. Similarly in his story, Hills like white elephant. When the story opens two characters (a man and a woman) are sitting in a cafe of train station in Spain. But the hemingway tells us nothing about them. The only information we have about them is that we learn from their dialogues. His words are simple and vigorous, burnished and uniquely brilliant. In the story, A CLEAN, WELL-LIGHTED PLACE Hemingway’s style of writing is called minimalist because it is very brief and simple in every aspect of the story. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TITLE • • • • • The title A clean well lighted place symbolizes security, safety and dignity that the old man need to keep away the darkness, lonliness and despair that he feels. The title is significant as the old man and the waiter both have fear of nothingness around them. The older waiter thinks that there is no meaning to life but he still wants to cling to his dignity. Hemingway has written this story in a very depressing and isolated manner. The reader feels empathy for both old man and old waiter. In this title, Well lighted place, light is a man made symbol of man's attempt to hold darkness (not permanently but as late as possible). In the title, the place means the cafe which represents the opposite of nothingness Its cleanliness and good lighting suggest order and clarity whereas nothingness is chaotic, confusing and dark. AUTHOR’S PURPOSE The author’s purpose to write this story was to let people realiza and accept that we all will reach that point where we will feel empty, lonliness and losing purposes as we aged. CHARACTER SYMBOLISM OLD MAN: rich, deaf, lonely. DEAFNESS: he liked to sit late because he was deaf and now at night it was quiet and he feels the difference. He is not literally deaf but deaf from the world. LONELINESS: he once had a wife. He tries to commit suicide to escape from the meaningless life .he was hopeless and to deal with it, he had to sit quietly for hours in well lighted café. RICHNESS: he is a rich man. People say money can buy happiness, but he couldn’t get the desire of happiness. No matter how much money we have, or how successful we have been in life, we are all ultimately end up as lonely individuals. In this loneliness, what matters above all is simply to have some means of escape from this loneliness, whether that’s suicide, drunkenness, or simply a clean, well-lighted place to sit and still feel like part of the world. YOUNGER WAITER: Impatient, Insensitive, immature. IMMATURENESS: His immatureness represents he cannot understand old man’s despair due to his youth and the young waiter thinks he’s invincible, and that the universal problems of old age and death can’t touch him. He does not realize that someday he will be an old man too. IMPATIENT: His time is valuable for him, he doesn’t want to work late at night because he has a family who’s waiting for him at home and he can’t wait to get back to her after work. In his view, every hour is precious and ripe with promise. INSENSITIVE: HE is unsympathetic to the loneliness and despair of the old man; as a young guy, he doesn’t feel his own mortality yet, and can’t comprehend the nothingness that both the old man and the older waiter seem to feel. While the younger waiter is quite rude. He’s naïve and ignorant of the true nature of the world. OLD WAITER: Kind, dignified, wise. Wise in his belief that since life is meaningless and a person should prioritize his dignity and his comfort zone. He is a kind person because the café is the refuge for old man and that’s the only service, he is providing to those people who went through a lot. The older waiter understands that and values the importance of small pleasures of old man. IRONY SITUATIONAL IRONY: it is represented in lord prayers, where reader’s expectations fall when reader thought that the old man is going through depression and he will also do prayer to his god but he uses the word ‘nada’ instead of ‘god’. VERBAL IRONY: old waiter replies to barman “nada”. DRAMATIC IRONY: when young waiter said to old waiter that “you have everything I have”. Theme of story A clean Well lighted place In “A clean well lighted place” Hemingway suggest that life has no meaning and a man is insignificant speck in a great sea of nothingness. The central idea of this story is meaninglessness and nothingness inherent in existence. This can be seen differently in every character. • Youth and Age The older waiter and the old drunk man share the perspective that, since life is meaningless, people should seek comfort, dignity, and enjoyment. The younger waiter, by contrast, is always too hurried to enjoy the present moment—he seems to think that he can impose meaning on his life through work or family. • The second theme of the story is old age. Both the old man and the waiter are confronted with trying to make meaning from life as they gradually lose the things that make life meaningful and move closer to death. The old man has tried to commit suicide by hanging himself but was saved by his niece. • The struggle to deal with despair the old man and the old waiter in a clean well lighted place struggle to find a way to deal with despair The old man has tried to stave off despair on several unsuccessful ways we learn that he has money but money did mot helped him ! Once he was married but he no longer has a wife .we also learn that he tried to commit suicide in despair .the only way to deal with his despair is to sit IN A CLEAN WELL LIGHTED PLACE. In this story Darkness show the fear and loneliness , Light represent the comfort and Shadow represent the embodiment of dark side of human nature. Symbolism Café: The café represents the opposite of nothingness: its cleanliness and good lighting suggest order and clarity, whereas nothingness is chaotic, confusing, and dark. Because the café is so different from the nothingness the older waiter describes, it serves as a natural refuge from the despair felt by those who are acutely aware of the nothingness. In a clean, brightly lit café, despair can be controlled and even temporarily forgotten. When the older waiter describes the nothingness that is life, he says, “It was only that and light was all it needed and a certain cleanness and order.” The it in the sentence is never defined, but we can speculate about the waiter’s meaning: although life and man are nothing, light, cleanliness, and order can serve as substance. They can help avoid the despair that comes from feeling completely unaware from anyone or anything. As long as a clean, well-lighted café exists, despair can be kept in check. Nada’s prayer: The nada prayer expresses the older waiter’s belief that life is meaningless. He mocks the prayer because he thinks that religion can never comforts, he recites the most famous Spanish prayer and replaced words with nada in such a way he represents that religion means nothing . so, the actual prayer is “our father who art in heaven” the waiter said “our nada who in nada ”he ruins the idea of God and heaven just with one sentence. This uttering of pray also shows that the old waiter is dealing with depression, he is trying to escape from the wreck of nada, that comes from depression. Meanwhile, the author makes it clear that nothingness chases all of us. The difference is only in the extent to which the person is ready to open to a “nada.” Some build an illusion of meaning. Others look for a clean place to preserve dignity or suicidal thoughts. Alcohol: Alcohol serves as an anesthetic in “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” allowing the old man to dull the pain of a meaningless existence. The author suggests that feeling of numb drunkenness can helps us to avoid harsh reality that we are nothings. Drinking at a café, in Hemingway’s story, is a way of participating in society, even if one drinks alone there.
