PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DE MINAS GERAIS

LITERATURAS DE LÍNGUA INGLESA:

NOVAS PERSPECTIVAS
Profa. Priscila Campello

Larissa Machado
Leandro Martins
A CLEAN, WELL-LIGHTED PLACE
A short story by Ernest Hemingway
Plot
An old deaf man drinking in a café late at night;

There are two waiters who keep eyes on him;

We find out that the old man tried to commit suicide

recently;

The waiters start discussing the possible reason for the

man's attempt;

The old man keeps asking for another drink while the
young waiter keeps complaining about being awake
until late at night;
 Plot
The waiter "who was in a hurry" refuses to pour
another drink to the old man and he leaves the café;

The two waiters start arguing about the situation;

The older waiter identifies with the old man and he

starts a reflection upon the meaning of that place for
them, their feelings and fears.
Plot

Adaptation and production of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago Video Department and
Rita and Robert Morton
 Characters
The old man
He is deaf and he likes to go to the café late at night
because it's quiet. He could feel the difference.

He was always drunk, he was in despair, he tried to

commit suicide, and he was lonely.

People (except the older waiter) don't understand

him and his feelings. They are considered "nothing".

He suffers prejudice because of his condition (being

old and deaf). The young waiter says bad things to
him and about him like he was "nothing".
 Characters

The younger waiter

Just thinks about himself. Doesn't care about the old man and his feelings.

Judges other people's feelings.

Is rude and immature. Has no consideration toward human life.

Assures that he is not lonely; is filled with confidence; is always in a hurry; is

eager to go home.
The older waiter
Characters
Questions the younger waiter's perceptions about the old man.

"He was in despair." "He had a wife once too."

"What about?" "A wife would be no good to him now."
"Nothing." "You can't tell. He might be better with a wife."
"How do you know it was nothing?" (HEMINGWAY, [N.D] ,p. 30)
(HEMINGWAY, [N.D] , p. 29)

Is patient; has empathy with the old man.

"Why didn't you let him stay and drink.?" the unhurried waiter asked. They were putting up
the shutters. "It is not half-past two." (HEMINGWAY, [N.D] , p. 31)
 Characters
The older waiter

Likes to stay late at cafés like the old man.

Is aware that he is not young and confident.

Understands the old man and why he liked to stay in that café: it is "a clean and
well-lighted place"

Do not want to close the café because of the old man, but also because of
himself.

Knows the feeling of "nada"; is alone too; can't sleep at night.

 Characters
A girl and a soldier
A barman
 Point of View
A third-person narrator (starts omniscient, but then changes - limited to the
older waiter)

“[...] and the old man liked to sit late because he was deaf and now at night it was quiet and he felt the
difference. The two waiters inside the cafe knew that the old man was a little drunk, and while he was a
good client they knew that if he became too drunk he would leave without paying, so they kept watch on
him.” (HEMINGWAY, [N.D] , p. 29)

“He did not wish to be unjust. He was only in a hurry.” (HEMINGWAY, [N.D] , p. 31)

“He disliked bars and bodegas. A clean, well-lighted cafe was a very different thing. Now, without thinking
further, he would go home to his room. He would lie in the bed and finally, with daylight, he would go to
sleep. After all, he said to himself, it's probably only insomnia. Many must have it.” (HEMINGWAY, [N.D] ,
p. 33)
 Setting
The short story takes place in a clean, well-
lighted, and pleasant Spanish café located on a
street that was dusty during the day, and the dew
settled the dust at night.

The story is set late at night when the café is

quiet.

There is also an unpolished bar, although it is

well-lit and pleasant, that contrasts to the café.
 Title

The title of the short story is related

to the café, which represents a brief
escape from “nada” (nothing) for both
the old man and the older waiter.
 Themes
Life as Nothingness
The Struggle to Deal with Despair
Loneliness
 Symbols
The Café

The old man and the older waiter

→ the café represents order, refuge

and a place to distract them from
the emptiness of the night.

The younger waiter

→ the café is a place he wants to

get out of as soon as possible after
finishing work.
 Symbols
The shadow of the leaves

→ Throughout the short story, this symbol

appears 4 times.

→ At first, it could be interpreted as a

contrast between darkness and light. The
place is well-lighted, but the old man is
sitting in the dark produced by the shadows
of the leaves "The old man sitting in the
shadow" (HEMINGWAY, [N.D] , p. 29). Why
would he sit there?

Maybe because it reflects his inner state,

his fears, and his loneliness.
 Symbols
The shadow of the leaves

→ At a second look, the shadow of the

leaves can be interpreted as a good thing.

"The light is very good and also, now, there

are shadows of the leaves." (HEMINGWAY,
[N.D] , p. 32)

→ For the older waiter, the shadow of the

leaves is one of the aspects that differs the
café from the other places. It can be seen
as a refuge for him, like a tree in an Oasis.
 Symbols
The word "Nada"

→ The word "nada" means "nothing" in Spanish and it appears on the text
22 times while "nothing" appears 8 times.

→ "Nada" or "Nothing" in the story can be interpreted through different

perspectives.

→ For the younger waiter, "nothing" is the old man's feelings, his life, and
his death. Since the old man "has plenty of money", other things were
"nada".

"He was in despair."

"What about?"
"Nothing."
"How do you know it was nothing?"
"He has plenty of money." ( HEMINGWAY, [N.D] , p. 29)
 Symbols
The word "Nada"

→ For the older waiter, "nothing" is all our existence, which is

meaningless.

"It was a nothing that he knew too well. It was all a nothing and
a man was nothing too." (HEMINGWAY, [N.D] , p. 32)

→ According to the online learning platform "Course Hero", this

perception of life is related to the philosophical theory of
Existential Nihilism. For this theory, life is ultimately meaningless
and it has no purpose. Jean-Paul Sartre, one of the philosophers
of Existential Nihilism, believed that since life is meaningless, we
can just fight for dignity. A clean and well-lighted place was the
dignity that the old man and the waiter could fight for.
 Symbols
The word "Nada"

→ For the older waiter, spiritualism, the Christian tradition, and the
comfort they should bring to people also mean "nada". We can see
that when he says his versions of "The Lord's Prayer" and "The Hail
Mary".

→ To understand that, the historical context may be important. The

short story was published in 1933, but before that, according to the
online learning literary website "Licharts", the western world was
already in a lack of meaning, especially after Nietzsche’s
proclamation of the death of God. Besides that, it was a post-war
context, many people have died and people were facing the Great
Depression. It was hard to have hope and sustain faith with all these
bad things that happened. With that, Christianism meant "nada" for
the older waiter, probably for the old man who was in despair, and
maybe for many people by that time.
 Intertextuality with other works
In the short story, there is intertextuality with the Lord's Prayer and the Hail Mary.
"Our nada who art in nada, nada be thy name thy
kingdom nada thy will be nada in nada as it is in nada.
Give us this nada our daily nada and nada us our nada
as we nada our nadas and nada us not into nada but
deliver us from nada; pues nada." (p. 33)
Hail nothing full of nothing, nothing is with thee.”
(HEMINGWAY, [N.D] , p. 32 )
"Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy
kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.
Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as
we also have forgiven our debtors. And bring us not into
temptation, but deliver us from the evil [one.]." (Matthew 6: 9-
13)
"[...] Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord [is] with thee.
(Luke 1: 28)
Author’s biography
Ernest Hemingway

He was born in Oak Park, Illinois, on July 21, 1899.

In 1918, he volunteered for the American Red
Cross as an ambulance driver during World War I
(1914–18).
He was a heavy drinker who suffered from
depression and several chronic ailments, among
them liver disease and hypertension (high blood
pressure).
On July 2, 1961, Hemingway committed suicide,
like his father, sister, and brother before him.
Hemingway and nothingness
Hemingway was one of the writers known as the "Lost
Generation". According to Kate O'Connor (2012), the term was
coined by Gertrude Stein and Hemingway used it later as an
epigraph to his novel The Sun Also Rises (1926). The term
generally refers to the post-World War I generation who lacked
purpose after seeing many people die in the war. Many lost faith
in traditional values and some became aimless and reckless.

As reported by Robert Longley (2020), the struggles of this

generation were characterized in the works of a group of famous
American authors and poets including Ernest Hemingway,
Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and T. S. Eliot.
Hemingway and Spain

In "A clean, well-lighted place" there are some

elements of the Spanish culture, such as the
Spanish words "nada", "hombre", "otro loco mas",
"nada y pues nada", "copita", "bodegas", and the
Spanish money "peseta". We also assumed that
the café was a Spanish place. By that, it might be
relevant to say that Hemingway had a close
relation to Spain since he moved there to serve as
a war correspondent in the Spanish Civil War.
Also, according to the online learning literary
website "Licharts", this job in Spain inspired his
famous 1939 novel For Whom the Bell Tolls.
About the author's writing
Economic prose, that is, his writing is minimalist
and independent, with few adverbs or
adjectives.

"They sat together at a table that was close against the

wall near the door of the cafe and looked at the terrace
where the tableswere all empty except where the old
man sat in the shadow of the leaves of the tree that
moved slightly in the wind. A girl and a soldier went by
in the street. The street light shone on the brass
number on his collar. The girl wore no head covering
and hurried beside him." (HEMINGWAY, [N.D] , p. 29)
About the author's writing
Essential information and often omits background information,
transitions and dialogue tags.

The use of the pronouns without clear antecedents or the use of the
word without clarifying what it refers to.

"[...] The waiter took the bottle back inside the cafe. He sat down at the table
with his colleague again.
"He's drunk now," he said.
"He's drunk every night."
"What did he want to kill himself for?"
"How should I know."
"How did he do it?"
"He hung himself with a rope."
"Who cut him down?"
"His niece."
"Why did they do it?"
"Fear for his soul."
"How much money has he got?" "He's got plenty."
"He must be eighty years old." (HEMINGWAY, [N.D] , p. 30)
About the author's writing
“Iceberg principle”, that is, only the tip of the story is
visible on the page, while the rest is left underwater -
unsaid.

"You do not understand. This is a clean and pleasant

cafe. It is well lighted. [...]" (HEMINGWAY, [N.D] , p. 32)

"It is the light of course but it is necessary that the

place be clean and pleasant." (HEMINGWAY, [N.D] , p.
32)

"A clean, well-lighted cafe was a very different thing."

(HEMINGWAY, [N.D] , p. 33)
 Important passages

“Each night I am reluctant

to close up because there
may be some one who
needs the café.”
(HEMINGWAY, [N.D] , p.32)

Short film
 Bibliography
COURSE HERO. A Clean, Well-Lighted Place | Study Guide. Available on: https://www.coursehero.com/lit/A-Clean-Well-Lighted-
Place/. Access on: Aug 21st. 2021.

LITCHARTS. A Clean, Well-Lighted Place. Available on: https://www.litcharts.com/lit/a-clean-well-lighted-place. Access on: Aug 25th.
2021.

LONGLEY, Robert. The Lost Generation and the Writers Who Described Their World. Available on:
https://www.thoughtco.com/the-lost-generation-4159302. Access on: Aug 25th. 2021.

O'CONNOR, Kate. Lost Generation. Available on: https://writersinspire.org/content/lost-generation. Access on: Aug 25th. 2021.

SHMOOP. A Clean, Well-Lighted Place Narrator Point of View. Available on: https://www.shmoop.com/study-
guides/literature/clean-well-lighted-place/analysis/narrator-point-of-view. Access on: Aug 21st. 2021.

SPARKNOTES. A Clean, Well-Lighted Place. Available on: https://www.coursehero.com/lit/A-Clean-Well-Lighted-Place/author/.

Access on: Aug 21st. 2021.

STEVE, M. "A Clean Well-Lighted Place" by Ernest Hemingway. Youtube. Available on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=evJwLZvoCWo. Acess on Aug 22nd. 2021.