The story ‘A clean well lighted place’ written by Hemingway is a story discussing an old man who is a regular customer in a café. The story revolves around the conversation between two waiters in the presence of the old deaf man. The old man sits down drinking his brandy as the waiters discuss him and life in general. One of the waiters is impatient and wants to leave the café to join his wife in bed. He dislikes going home late. The other waiter seems to sympathize with the old man. The old man then leaves after the impatient waiter refuses to sell him any more brandy and demands that they have to close the café. The old man walks away, and the waiters close the café. One waiter goes home to his wife while the other goes to drink. The waiter who goes to a bar to drink expresses his dislike for bars as he walks out to sleep. This paper will discuss the main theme of the story which is despair. It will bring out the instances in which despair is shown in the essay and how different characters view their lives. The essay will also discuss how despair progresses in people of different ages making reference to the characters in the story.
The introduction to the story describes the scenery and the despair found in it. It gives the reader a feeling of the café in which the old man is sitting. The only soul present in the café is the old man. He is sitting in “the shadow the leaves of the tree made against the electric light”. The man sits in the shadows as if he is hiding from something. He seems to have given up in life and coils into a place where no one can see him any longer. The shadows are a good place for him to seem invisible from life. The old man prefers to come out at night. The narrator says that it is dusty and noisy in the day time. For this reason, the old man had better com out in the night. In the night, the dew settles the dust. Though deaf, the old man still feels the difference between these two worlds. Dusty and noisy represent the turmoil present as people struggle with their daily routine. The old man distances himself from the labors of the day. He feels that there is nothing meaningful for him to contribute. Instead, he comes out in the night when the world is as empty as he feels inside. The lonely night is symbolism of a situation when the world has also lost hope.
The old man comes to the café to drink. He drinks in the well lighted café because he is afraid of remaining alone which would remind him of his despair. In drinking, the old man hopes that he can drown his sorrows. The man drinks every day. The narrator says that the old man is a good customer which implies that he visits the café regularly. This shows that even after drinking, the sorrows come back. When drinking in the café, the light gives an illusion to the man that the darkness in his heart is no more. That is why he does not want to leave the café until the closing hour arrives. He knows that once he is out of the café the darkness will remind him of his despair. He only leaves after the impatient waiter refuses to sell him more brandy.
The old man wished to commit suicide to end his despair. One of the waiters confines to the other that the old man attempted to take his life the previous week. Asked why he wanted to do it, the waiter says “he was in despair”. Death is the final destination of life. Once a person dies, he struggles no more. The world around no longer sees the dead person struggling. Therefore, what is removed from people’s sight may not be true but it is a strong perception. The old man has no hope let for him. He is already advanced in years and feels that nothing else is left for him. Therefore, he decides that it is time he took his life. This advances the theme of despair which is discussed throughout the story. Suicide is an escape from despair according to the old man.
The despair of the old man has no solution. The waiter admits to the other that the old man has a lot of money. He thus wonders what the source of despair for the old man could be. He concludes that there is no source for the old man’s despair. From the waiter’s point of view, money is a solution to everything. Money should heal despair that may exist in a man. The old man has all the money that he would need yet despair still remains in his heart. From the waiters’ view, it is evident that money can no longer be a way of healing despair. As the old man continues drinking, one of the waiters suggests that the old man could be saved by having a wife. The other waiter tells him “a wife would be no good to him”. He reminds his colleague that the man has a niece, yet he remains in despair. Therefore, even a companion seems not enough for a person to solve his desperation.
The older waiter observes that everything is equal to nothing. According to the story, despair seems to be catching up with him. When they are in the café, the older waiter observes that he is in the group that hates to go to sleep in the night. The problem with sleep is that, in sleep, one reflects his or her life and realizes the emptiness in it. The older man makes a distinction between the café and bars to the younger waiter. He says “The light is very good and also, now, there are shadows of the leaves”. He is afraid of the dark. However, he would prefer to retrieve into the shadows of the leaves. When he leaves, he goes on to pray and in his prayer he replaces most words with “nada” which is Spanish for nothingness. This shows the height of despair. He denounces religion as a place to find solace. He feels that, like everything else, religion is also doomed to fail in consoling a person and getting rid of loneliness.
Despair seems to come with age. The story shows three characters whose ages are different. There is the young waiter, the older waiter and the old man. The young waiter does not show any signs of despair. He even wonders why the old man would prefer to drink in the café while he could do it in the comfort of his home. He is, in a hurry, to leave as he wishes to go home, and be with his wife. The older waiter sympathizes with the old man. He seems to understand him. He is even ready to wait for the old man to finish before waiting. He knows that soon, he will be as old as the man. He reflects the goodness of being youthful. He tells the younger waiter "It is not only a question of youth and confidence although those things are very beautiful”. The old man is a symbol of despair in the story. He is rich, but the wealth dos not seem to solve his desperation. Even companionship is no match to his desperation. He tries to suppress his desperation by drinking. When that does not work, he attempts to take his life. From the story, it is clear that as the ages of the characters advance, so does the level of their despair.
The flow of the story and the characterization has developed the theme of despair right from the beginning to the end. The story began with describing the scenery and a desperate old man. It ended with the older waiter wishing that all that happened was simply insomnia and points out that it is common. This is to prove that despair is in very many souls of the earth.
Works Cited
Hermingway, Ernest. "A Clean Well Lighted Place." Kennedy, X J and Dana Gioia. Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Saddie River: Pearson, 2012. 142-144.
