A Clean Well Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway.
The short story "A Clean Well Lighted Place- by Ernest Hemingway focuses on .
the existential crisis, the search for meaning that faces human beings. To truly get a .
deeper understanding of this story, one must have some knowledge about the authors .
life. Hemingway was married four times and won the Nobel Prize for literature. When he .
became ill, he ended his life the same way as did his father, he committed suicide. .
Hemingway was dealing with despair, depression and desperation for much of his life. .
He struggled throughout, to find true meaning and purpose. Hemingway's theory .
proposes that life is naturally meaningless. This doesn't mean that life has to be .
meaningless, rather that one must find what the purpose of life is. One has to set .
standards for oneself and conform to them with dignity, thus not falling into despair. .
This theory can be found in this short story and throughout Hemingway's` .
writings. .
The short story "A Clean Well Lighted Place- is almost entirely based on a .
conversation between two waiters, who work in a Spanish café. They are discussing one .
of the regulars, an old deaf man, who recently attempted suicide. This old man, who has .
plenty of money, comes in every night drinking till late. The younger waiter is very .
frustrated with the old man, since he stays late every night. He doesn't understand .
what could cause a financially secure person to drink night after night? The older waiter .
has a different understanding of the old, deaf man. He sees an old man, who has .
no reason to live, nobody to go home to, whose only comfort is this Café. Therefore the .
older waiter gets upset with the young one, when he insults the old man. He tries to .
explain to the young waiter, that having youth, confidence and a job is everything.
After the two waiters depart for the night, the older waiter feels a sense of emptiness that .
he many times experiences.
