Hemingway presents two kinds of characters, those unaware of the emptiness of life and those that are privy to it. The younger waiter is oblivious to what this life has in store for him; he is only concerned abou

The older waiter, ‘imbue with a dry humor,” as Nathan Kotas describes him, uses subtle verbal irony; understanding this is essential to understanding the main theme of the story. In the first set of dialogue when the young waiter inquires what it is that the old man was “in despair” over. The older waiter replies “nothing.” At first, it seems as though the older waiter is insensitive about the attempted suicide, but once his view on “nada” is understood, you realize that is untrue. By “nothing,” he actually means emptiness and is empathizing with the old man. Inwardly, the older waiter says to himself his own little prayer: “Our nada who art in nada, nada be thy name…” Instead of being distraught with the world around him, he is able to stand at the bar and smile at the cleverness of his inner thoughts. He knows “the world and himself, even his prayer (is) ‘nothing’ and by that act of awareness (can) sur

Some topics in this essay:
Nathan Kotas, Waiters’ Characters”, Place” Hemingway, Lighted Place”, Lighted Café”, verbal irony, café arms woman, , “a clean, characterization verbal irony, café arms, characterization verbal, arms woman, theme story, benert 185, nathan kotas, lighted place”, clean well-lighted,