A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

Ernest Hemingway
Born in 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois, near Chicago, Ernest Hemingway was
the second of six children. His father, a doctor, loved hunting and fishing
and quickly taught these loves to young Hemingway. He gave
Hemingway his first gun when he was just ten. When Hemingway
finished high school, World War I was raging across Europe, and he
wanted to enlist in the army. His father forbade him from enlisting,
however, so Hemingway became a reporter for the Kansas City Star,
where he began to hone his writing skills. Eventually, he grew restless
and became an ambulance driver for the Red Cross in Italy. After being
injured, he recovered at a Milan hospital, where he had an affair with a
nurse. He returned home in 1919 but moved to Paris in 1921 to work as
a reporter for the Toronto Daily Star. There, he joined a group of
expatriate writers and artists who would come to define the Lost
Generation, men and women whose early adulthood was defined by
World War I. Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, and Pablo
Picasso were among his circle of friends and colleagues.
Hemingway moved back to the United States in 1928, setting up a
home in Key West, Florida, where he lived for more than ten years. In
1937, he went to Spain as a reporter to cover the Spanish Civil War for
the North American Newspaper Alliance and eventually published For
Whom the Bell Tolls (1940), a novel based on his experiences. In the
years that followed, he moved around a great deal, first to Havana,
Cuba, and then back to Europe to contribute to the war effort in World
War II.
Hemingway published his first novel, The Torrents of Spring, in 1925 and
The Sun Also Rises in 1926. The latter novel was his first literary success
and coincided with the end of his marriage to Hadley Richardson.
Hemingway went on to marry three more times and publish many more
novels, including A Farewell to Arms (1929), based on his experiences in
Italy during World War I, and The Old Man and the Sea (1952), for which
he won the Pulitzer Prize. He also published many collections of short
stories, including In Our Time (1925), Men Without Women (1927), and
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Winner Take Nothing (1933) in which A Clean, Well-Lighted Place first

appeared. The range, skill, and influence of Hemingways work won him
the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954.
A Clean, Well-Lighted Place is one of Hemingways most acclaimed
short stories, as much for its exquisitely sparse writing style as for its
expertly rendered existentialist themes. Existentialism is a philosophical
movement whose adherents believe that life has no higher purpose and
that no higher being exists to help us make sense of it. Instead, humans
are left alone to find meaning in the world and their lives. In A Clean,
Well-Lighted Place, the older waiter sums up the despair that drives him
and others to brightly lit cafs by saying simply, It is a nothing.
Despite his great literary successes, Hemingway struggled with
depression, alcoholism, and related health problems throughout his life.
In 1960, Hemingway and his fourth wife, Mary Welsh, moved to
Ketchum, Idaho, and Hemingway began treatments for depression. He
died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds in 1961 at age sixty-one.
An old man sits alone at night in a caf. He is deaf and likes
when the night grows still. Two waiters watch the old man
carefully because they know he wont pay if he gets too drunk.
One waiter tells the other that the old man tried to kill himself
because he was in despair. The other waiter asks why he felt
despair, and the first waiter says the reason was nothing
because the man has a lot of money.
The waiters look at the empty tables and the old
man, who sits in the shadow of a tree. They see a couple walk
by, a soldier with a girl. One of the waiters says the soldier had
better be careful about being out because the guards just went
by. The old man taps his glass against its saucer and asks the
younger waiter for a brandy. The younger waiter tells him hell
get drunk, then goes back and tells the older waiter that the old
man will stay all night. The younger waiter says he never goes
to bed earlier than 3 A.M. and that the old man should have
killed himself. He takes the old man his brandy. As he pours it,

he tells the old man that he should have killed himself, but the
old man just indicates that he wants more brandy in the glass.
The younger waiter tells the older waiter that the old man is
drunk, then asks again why he tried to kill himself. The older
waiter says he doesnt know. The younger waiter asks how he
did it. The older waiter says he tried to hang himself and his
niece found him and got him down. The younger waiter asks
why she got him down, and the older waiter says they were
concerned about his soul. The waiters speculate on how much
money the old man has and decide hes probably age eighty.
The younger waiter says he wishes the old man would leave so
that he can go home and go to bed with his wife. The older
waiter says that the old man was married at one time. The
younger waiter says a wife wouldnt do him any good, but the
older waiter disagrees. The younger waiter points out that the
old man has his niece, then says he doesnt want to be an old
man. The older waiter points out that the old man is clean and
drinks neatly. The younger waiter says again that he wishes the
old man would leave.
The old man indicates that he wants another brandy, but the
younger waiter tells him theyre closing. The old man pays and
walks away. The older waiter asks the younger waiter why he
didnt let him drink more because its not even 3 A.M. yet, and
the younger waiter says he wants to go home. The older waiter
says an hour doesnt make much difference. The younger waiter
says that the old man can just drink at home, but the older
waiter says its different. The younger waiter agrees.
The older waiter jokingly asks if the younger waiter is afraid to
go home early. The younger waiter says he has confidence. The
older waiter points out that he also has youth and a job,
whereas the older waiter has only a job. The older waiter says
that he likes to stay at cafs very late with the others who are
reluctant to go home and who need light during the nighttime.
The younger waiter says he wants to go home, and the older
waiter remarks that they are very different. The older waiter
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says he doesnt like to close the caf in case someone needs it.
The younger waiter says there are bars to go to, but the older
waiter says that the caf is clean and well lit. They wish each
other good night.
The older waiter continues thinking to himself about how
important it is for a caf to be clean and well lit. He thinks that
music is never good to have at a caf and that standing at a bar
isnt good either. He wonders what hes afraid of, deciding its
not fear but just a familiar nothing. He says two prayers but
substitutes nada (Spanish for nothing) for most of the
words. When he arrives at a bar, he orders a drink and tells the
bartender that the bar isnt clean. The bartender offers another
drink, but the waiter leaves. He doesnt like bars, preferring
cafs. He knows that he will now go home and fall asleep when
the sun comes up. He thinks he just has insomnia, a common
problem.
The Old Man - A deaf man who likes to drink at the caf late
into the night. The old man likes the shadows of the leaves on
the well-lit caf terrace. Rumor has it that he tried to hang
himself, he was once married, he has a lot of money, and his
niece takes care of him. He often gets drunk at the caf and
leaves without paying.
The Older Waiter - A compassionate man who
understands why the old man may want to stay late at the caf.
The older waiter enjoys staying late at cafs as well. He thinks
its very important for a caf to be clean and well lit, and he
sees the caf as a refuge from despair. Rather than admit that
he is lonely, he tells himself that he has insomnia.
The Older Waiter
Like the old man, the older waiter likes to stay late at cafs, and
he understands on a deep level why they are both reluctant to
go home at night. He tries to explain it to the younger waiter by
saying, He stays up because he likes it, but the younger

waiter dismisses this and says that the old man is lonely.
Indeed, both the old man and the older waiter are lonely. The
old man lives alone with only a niece to look after him, and we
never learn what happened to his wife. He drinks alone late into
the night, getting drunk in cafs. The older waiter, too, is lonely.
He lives alone and makes a habit of staying out late rather than
going home to bed. But there is more to the older waiters
insomnia, as he calls it, than just loneliness. An unnamed,
unspecified malaise seems to grip him. This malaise is not a
fear or dread, as the older waiter clarifies to himself, but an
overwhelming feeling of nothingnessan existential angst
about his place in the universe and an uncertainty about the
meaning of life. Whereas other people find meaning and
comfort in religion, the older waiter dismisses religion as
nadanothing. The older waiter finds solace only in clean,
well-lit cafs. There, life seems to make sense.
The older waiter recognizes himself in the old
man and sees his own future. He stands up for the old man
against the younger waiters criticisms, pointing out that the old
man might benefit from a wife and is clean and neat when he
drinks. The older waiter has no real reason to take the old
mans side. In fact, the old man sometimes leaves the caf
without paying. But the possible reason for his support becomes
clear when the younger waiter tells the older waiter that he
talks like an old man too. The older waiter is aware that he is
not young or confident, and he knows that he may one day be
just like the old manunwanted, alone, and in despair.
Ultimately, the older waiter is reluctant to close the caf as
much for the old mans sake as for his own because someday
hell need someone to keep a caf open late for him.
The Younger Waiter
Brash and insensitive, the younger waiter cant see beyond
himself. He readily admits that he isnt lonely and is eager to
return home where his wife is waiting for him. He doesnt seem
to care that others cant say the same and doesnt recognize
that the caf is a refuge for those who are lonely. The younger

waiter is immature and says rude things to the old man because
he wants to close the caf early. He seems unaware that he
wont be young forever or that he may need a place to find
solace later in life too. Unlike the older waiter, who thinks
deeplyperhaps too deeplyabout life and those who struggle
to face it, the younger waiter demonstrates a dismissive
attitude toward human life in general. For example, he says the
old man should have just gone ahead and killed himself and
says that he wouldnt want to be that old. He himself has
reason to live, and his whole life is ahead of him. You have
everything, the older waiter tells him. The younger waiter,
immersed in happiness, doesnt really understand that he is
lucky, and he therefore has little compassion or understanding
for those who are lonely and still searching for meaning in their
lives.
Themes
Life as Nothingness
In A Clean, Well-Lighted Place, Hemingway suggests that life
has no meaning and that man is an insignificant speck in a
great sea of nothingness. The older waiter makes this idea as
clear as he can when he says, It was all a nothing and man
was a nothing too. When he substitutes the Spanish word nada
(nothing) into the prayers he recites, he indicates that religion,
to which many people turn to find meaning and purpose, is also
just nothingness. Rather than pray with the actual words, Our
Father who art in heaven, the older waiter says, Our nada who
art in nadaeffectively wiping out both God and the idea of
heaven in one breath. Not everyone is aware of the
nothingness, however. For example, the younger waiter hurtles
through his life hastily and happily, unaware of any reason why
he should lament. For the old man, the older waiter, and the
other people who need late-night cafs, however, the idea of
nothingness is overwhelming and leads to despair.
The Struggle to Deal with Despair

The old man and older waiter in A Clean, WellLighted Place struggle to find a way to deal with their despair,
but even their best method simply subdues the despair rather
than cures it. The old man has tried to stave off despair in
several unsuccessful ways. We learn that he has money, but
money has not helped. We learn that he was once married, but
he no longer has a wife. We also learn that he has
unsuccessfully tried to commit suicide in a desperate attempt to
quell the despair for good. The only way the old man can deal
with his despair now is to sit for hours in a clean, well-lit caf.
Deaf, he can feel the quietness of the nighttime and the caf,
and although he is essentially in his own private world, sitting
by himself in the caf is not the same as being alone.
The older waiter, in his mocking prayers filled with the word
nada, shows that religion is not a viable method of dealing with
despair, and his solution is the same as the old mans: he waits
out the nighttime in cafs. He is particular about the type of
caf he likes: the caf must be well lit and clean. Bars and
bodegas, although many are open all night, do not lessen
despair because they are not clean, and patrons often must
stand at the bar rather than sit at a table. The old man and the
older waiter also glean solace from routine. The ritualistic cafsitting and drinking help them deal with despair because it
makes life predictable. Routine is something they can control
and manage, unlike the vast nothingness that surrounds them.
Motifs
Loneliness
Loneliness pervades A Clean, Well-Lighted Place and suggests
that even though there are many people struggling with
despair, everyone must struggle alone. The deaf old man, with
no wife and only a niece to care for him, is visibly lonely. The
younger waiter, frustrated that the old man wont go home,
defines himself and the old man in opposites: Hes lonely. Im
not lonely. Loneliness, for the younger waiter, is a key
difference between them, but he gives no thought to why the
old man might be lonely and doesnt consider the possibility
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that he may one day be lonely too. The older waiter, although
he doesnt say explicitly that he is lonely, is so similar to the old
man in his habit of sitting in cafs late at night that we can
assume that he too suffers from loneliness. The older waiter
goes home to his room and lies in bed alone, telling himself that
he merely suffers from sleeplessness. Even in this claim,
however, he instinctively reaches out for company, adding,
Many must have it. The thought that he is not alone in having
insomnia or being lonely comforts him.
Symbols
The Caf
The caf represents the opposite of nothingness: its cleanliness
and good lighting suggest order and clarity, whereas
nothingness is chaotic, confusing, and dark. Because the caf is
so different from the nothingness the older waiter describes, it
serves as a natural refuge from the despair felt by those who
are acutely aware of the nothingness. In a clean, brightly lit
caf, despair can be controlled and even temporarily forgotten.
When the older waiter describes the nothingness that is life, he
says, It was only that and light was all it needed and a certain
cleanness and order. The it in the sentence is never defined,
but we can speculate about the waiters meaning: although life
and man are nothing, light, clealiness, and order can serve as
substance. They can help stave off the despair that comes from
feeling completely unanchored to anyone or anything. As long
as a clean, well-lighted caf exists, despair can be kept in
check.
Hemingways Economy of Style

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place is arguably not only one of

Hemingways best short stories but also a story that clearly
demonstrates the techniques of Hemingways signature writing
style. Hemingway is known for his economic prosehis writing
is minimalist and sparse, with few adverbs or adjectives. He
includes only essential information, often omitting background
information, transitions, and dialogue tags such as he said or
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she said. He often uses pronouns without clear antecedents,

such as using the word it without clarifying what it refers to.
Hemingway applies the iceberg principle to his stories: only
the tip of the story is visible on the page, while the rest is left
underwaterunsaid. Hemingway also rarely specifies which
waiter is speaking in the story because he has deemed such
clarification unnecessary. The essential element is that two
waiters are discussing a drunk old manthe rest can be
omitted according to Hemingways economy of style. When the
older waiter contemplates the idea of nothingness, Hemingway
loads the sentences with vague pronouns, never clarifying what
they refer to: It was all a nothing. . . . It was only that. . . .
Some lived in it . . . Although these lines are somewhat
confusing, the confusion is the point. This nothingness cant be
defined clearly, no matter how many words are used.
Hemingway uses fewer words and lets the effect of his style
speak for itself.
The Deceptive Pacing of the Story

Hemingway does not waste words on changing scenes or

marking the passage of time, leaving it up to us to keep track of
whats happening and the storys pacing. For example, only a
brief conversation between the waiters takes place between the
time when the younger waiter serves the old man a brandy and
the time when the old man asks for another. Hemingway is not
suggesting that the old man has slugged back the brandy
quickly. In fact, the old man stays in the caf for a long time.
Time has lapsed here, but Hemingway leaves it up to us to
follow the pace of the story. The pace of A Clean, Well-Lighted
Place may seem swift, but the action of the story actually
stretches out for much longer than it appears to. The sitting,
drinking, and contemplating that take place are languid actions.
We may read the story quickly, but the scenes themselves are
not quick.
Just as Hemingway doesnt waste words by trying to slow down
his scenes, he also refrains from including unnecessary
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transitions. For example, when the older waiter leaves the caf
and mulls over the idea of nothingness, he finishes his parody
of prayer and, without any transition that suggests that he was
walking, we suddenly find him standing at a bar. Hemingway
lets the waiters thoughts serve as the transition. When he
writes, He smiled and stood before a bar, were meant to
understand that the waiter had been walking and moving as he
was thinking to himself. And when the waiter orders a drink at
the bar, the bartender offers him another just two sentences
later. Again, Hemingway is not suggesting that the waiter gulps
his drink. Instead, he conveys only the most essential
information in the scene.
Existentialism and the Lost Generation

The term Lost Generation refers to the writers and artists living
in Paris after World War I. The violence of World War I, also
called the Great War, was unprecedented and invalidated
previous ideas about faith, life, and death. Traditional values
that focused on God, love, and manhood dissolved, leaving Lost
Generation writers adrift. They struggled with moral and
psychological aimlessness as they searched for the meaning of
life in a changed world. This search for meaning and these
feelings of emptiness and aimlessness reflect some of the
principle ideas behind existentialism. Existentialism is a
philosophical movement rooted in the work of the Danish
philosopher Sren Kierkegaard, who lived in the mid-1800s. The
movement gained popularity in the mid-1900s thanks to the
work of the French intellectuals Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de
Beauvoir, and Albert Camus, including Sartres Being and
Nothingness (1943). According to existentialists, life has no
purpose, the universe is indifferent to human beings, and
humans must look to their own actions to create meaning, if it
is possible to create meaning at all. Existentialists consider
questions of personal freedom and responsibility. Although
Hemingway was writing years before existentialism became a
prominent cultural idea, his questioning of life and his
experiences as a searching member of the Lost Generation
gave his work existentialist overtones.

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1. Each night I am reluctant to close up because there may be

some one who needs the caf.
The older waiter makes this comment near the end of the story
when he and the younger waiter are about to leave the caf,
and it reveals his own loneliness and despair. Until this point,
the old man seemed to be the only one who wanted to stay at
the caf, but now the older waiter seems to need the caf as
well. A few lines before this, he reveals that he is someone who
likes to stay at cafs late into the night, so his reluctance has
two meanings. First, he understands why the old man and
others may want or need to stay late, and he keeps the caf
open as a gesture of kindness and generosity. Second, he
himself needs the caf, so he is reluctant to close it because he,
like the old man and others, will then be without a place to sit
and wait out the night. While the younger waiter is rushing to
get home, the older waiter leaves the caf sadly, once again
displaced and alone.
2. What did he fear? It was not fear or dread, It was a nothing
that he knew too well. It was all a nothing and a man was
nothing too. It was only that and light was all it needed and a
certain cleanness and order.
This quotation appears near the end of the story, just after the
older waiter leaves the caf, and it explains the nature of what
afflicts the older waiter and the old man, as well as all those
people who want to stay in cafs late at night. We learn that
this affliction is not fear or dread, and from the way the older
waiter phrases his thoughts, we know that the affliction is not
something that is clear, concrete, or easily described.
Hemingway fills this passage with the vague pronouns it and
that, never clarifying exactly what it and that refer to. We learn
only that the affliction is a nothing. The older waiter repeats
nothing over and over again, emphasizing the idea.

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