The Ululation of Age

“A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” starts off by introducing the antagonist, the deaf old man. He is immediately described in a sad sympathetic tone, “while he was a good client they knew that if he became too drunk he would leave without paying, so they kept a watch on him.” (149). The old man had recently tried to commit suicide, he is deaf, lonely, and has nothing else to live for. “Last week he tried to commit suicide” one waiter said. / “Why?” / “He was in despair.” / “What about?” / “Nothing.” / “How do you know it was nothing?” / “He has plenty of money.” (149). As an old man, his age is depicted as a tragedy. His life is meaningless, all he can do is sit and wait for his e

“An old man is a nasty thing.” / “Not always. This old man is clean. He drinks with out spilling. Even now, drunk.” (151). The old man is specifically given this merit by the author so that the old man has something of value. He can be respected by people closer to his age because of this. The line, “a very old man walking unsteadily but with dignity.” (151) is climatic to Hemingway’s expression of the old man. This idea is reflected in “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”. It is first expressed when Pelayo through him into the chicken coupe, “His only supernatural virtue seemed to be patience. Especially during the first days, when the hens pecked at him” (363). Little by little the author give the old man back his dignity. Though people through stuff at the old man, he calmly sits in the corner, doing his own thing. When the onlookers burned him with a hot iron, he yelled in pain for a bit and then went back to drying his wings. With all of this abhorrence to old men and the bitter repugnance expressed by the people who must deal with them, there is still a very specific area left by the authors that depicts the one thing that tired old men still have. That is the quite underlying dignity they posses in profusion.

This Paper is the Property of Harry Roy McLaughlin

Some topics in this essay:
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