Some thoughts on Hemingway for English 102
Known as one of America’s greatest gothic writers, Ernest Hemingway was a well-traveled man, serving in Italy in the First World War, living in Paris in his younger years, and eventually moving to Cuba. Often, this mosaic of cultures appears clearly in his writing, both through his colorful worlds and his interpretations of that which is most important in a man’s life. In “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” which is set in a small café in what is assumed to be Spain, Hemingway describes two waiters – one young and one old – and a regular customer, an elderly man who is deaf and drunk. Through his characteristically simplistic dialogue between the two waiters, Hemingway explores both the idea of nothing and, more importantly, the different ways in which the three characters react to it.
The effect of “nothingness” is first seen in the café patron. The reader learns from the waiters’ conversation that the man has recently attempted suicide. One waiter states that the man tried to kill himself because was “in despair [about] nothing” (Hemingway 158). The man has “plenty of money” and is cared for by his niece; he obviously is not the typical bum, alone and burdened by debts (Hemingway 159). “Nothing,” instead, must refer to something beyond that which can be counted or touched. According to Steven K Hoffman, nada, Hemingway’s term for nothingness, is “an umbrella term that subsumes all of the irrational, unforeseeable, existential forces that tend to infringe upon the human self.” Nada is seen by each man as that which is most frightening to him; it is the inescapable thoughts that every soul faces and with which each person must cope.
The old customer, worn down by time, has clearly seen the effects of nada throughout his life, and although we do not know what specifically he fears, this has led him to his despair. He has lost his wife, his hearing, and perhaps some of his sanity, and all to nada, the invisible monster that lurks behind every moment of life, waiting to scare him. He seeks his refuge in the café, where his brandy gently numbs his awareness of his despair.
In the title of the story, Hemingway suggests the best response to nada is to embrace both cleanliness and light. To be clean in the context of these three characters is to have a sense of order or “a firm hold on the self with which one can meet any contingency” (Hoffman). Light exposes the characters, making them open, allowing the reader and the world to see both the faults and goodness within each; it also exposes the absolute truth of nada to the characters. In clear light, each character is able to see nada clearly, and must deal fittingly with it. According to the older waiter, “the old man is clean,” but despite the older waiter’s generous description of the man, the old man still walks “unsteadily” as he leaves the café, obviously intoxicated (Hemingway 160). Although he appears to have an order to his life, symbolized by his careful drinking, it becomes apparent that he is only projecting this image; he does not spill as he drinks, but he cannot walk steadily away from the café when he is through. The customer has seen nada clearly before, but is not willing to sit fully in the light of the café; he chooses instead to sit “in the shadow of the leaves of the tree made against the electric light” each night, shielding himself somewhat from the glaring reality of nada that he would have to face in direct light (Hemingway 158). The brandy and the shadows show the old man’s refusal to acknowledge nada directly, and this state of denial leads to the man’s alcoholism, despair, and suicide attempt.
The young waiter lacks sympathy for both the old man and the older waiter, and complains throughout the story, hurrying to get home. “I never get into bed before three o’clock,” he states as the old man continues to drink well into the early morning, adding cruelly that the old man “should have killed himself last week” (Hemingway 159). The younger waiter is facing nada as well; he, however, is too young and secure to realize this. The older waiter seems to understand the young man’s disregard for what he will inevitably face over the decades, and perhaps seems jealous of his blind disillusionment. The old waiter points out that the young man has “youth, confidence, and a job… everything” (Hemingway 160). The young man, in a typical youthful response, tells the old waiter to “stop taking nonsense” (Hemingway 161).
Because he has not considered the effects of nada in his own life, the young man seems ignorant to the importance of light, which the customer fears and the old waiter embraces. Instead of offering a light to those who need it, the young waiter would rather be in his bed, and although he acknowledges that drinking at home is not the same as drinking in a well-lighted place, he seems indifferent to this fact, hurrying the older waiter as they close the café. The young waiter has a disregard for cleanliness, as well, allowing the old man’s brandy to spill from the glass and later cleaning wiping the table down; this act symbolizes the ability of the young man to procrastinate, fixing his earlier mistakes only when he is ready to leave. The young waiter bases his self-worth on things beyond his control, like his “youth, confidence, and a job,” because he has never considered the importance of nada or light or cleanliness. “His vision is so clouded by putative ‘confidence’ that he fails to see… the underlying darkness in his own life” (Hoffman).
Hemingway’s subtle protagonist, the older waiter, feels sympathy toward the old customer, because he, too, is struggling against the ever-present time clock. This man would keep the café open all night for “all those who do not want to go to bed… all those who need a light for the night” (Hemingway 161). In her article, “Survival through Irony,” Annette Benert describes the old waiter as having a “sensitivity to places which make dignity possible” and states that this proves that “his life is one of survival with dignity.” He has seen nada and is well acquainted with it; as the narrator follows this man home, he describes the man’s thoughts. “Some lived in it and never felt it but he knew it all was nada y pues nada y nada y pues nada,” or nothing and then nothing and nothing and then nothing (Hemingway 161). This man, unlike the young waiter, has lived in it and felt it. He realizes it, or life, is all nothing and does not fear this fact. The older waiter stops in a small bar and finds it well-lighted, but not clean, and then continues home, where he lies awake until daylight, waiting to confront nada before he sleeps. Hemingway implies that this is a nightly ritual for the old waiter, calling it insomnia and rationalizing that “many must suffer from it” (Hemingway 161).
The old waiter is not confident and not young; yet he understands that which the other two characters are either too frightened or too blind to see. Through his pursuit of that clean, well-lighted place, “the older waiter actively demonstrates that life against nada is achieved by awareness, sensitivity, human solidarity, ritual (verbal and physical), humor, and courage” (Benert). Unlike the young waiter, he sees nada, and unlike the old man, he confronts it nightly without fear or despair, demonstrating that which Hemingway wanted to share with his reader. Nada is something that every man must face throughout his life. The exact reasons or causes for such a force are not of importance; instead, how each man responds to it is a defining point of each man’s character. A man who can stand on the edge of the abyss and make order of that which is around him has found the secret key to that clean, well-lighted place.
Works Cited
Benert, Annette. “Survival through Irony: Hemingway’s ‘A Clean, Well-Lighted Place.’” Studies In Short Fiction. 11.2 (Spring 1974): 181-87. Literature Resource Center Galenet. Somerset Community Coll. Lib. 29 March 2004 .
Hemingway, Ernest. “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. New York: Longman, 2002.
Hoffman, Steven K. “‘Nada’ and the Clean Well-Lighted Place.” Essays In Literature. 6.1 (Spring 1979): 91-110. Literature Resource Center Galenet. Somerset Community Coll. Lib. 29 March 2004 .