“A clean, well- lighted place” by Ernest Hemingway describes an old man that is obviously very lonely. It seems as if though he has lost all his love of life. The old man drinks night after night until he is drunk. Drinking is a way to deal with the meaninglessness of life or escape from his loneliness and whatever else he might be feeling b

The old man is not able to transcend the meaninglessness of life in my opinion. He does not argue with the waiter much after the waiter does not allow the old man to keep drinking. “The old man stood up, slowly counted the saucers, took a leather coin purse from his pocket and paid for the drinks leaving a half a peseta tip”(Hemingway 106). The waiters were talking about how the old man had tried to commit suicide the week before his visit that night. But supposedly putting an end to his life, the old man does not surpass or transcend this meaninglessness of life into anything new for himself. Instead, he will only end his life, thus ending his problem but not solving it. Perhaps a good way of escaping his loneliness is to go play “bingo” instead of going to the café or after he is banished from the “clean, well lighted place” for the night. The only counteraction to his emptiness was visiting the café at night and even that was taken away from him.

Dee transcends the meaninglessness of life by doing everything in her power to find herself and try new things. Her main purpose was to try to learn more about her heritage as if her own mother didn’t know enough or was lying to her the whole time. Dee even changed her name to Wangero. “What happened to Dee? I wanted to know. She’s dead, Wangero said (Walker 720). Dee decides that a new education and a new identity will fill up her empty life. Her struggles with emptiness are also demonstrated in a conflict. Dee wants her grandmother�

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