A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

By Ernest Hemingway
Short biography
• Nobel Prize winner Ernest Hemingway is seen as one of the great American 20th century
novelists.

• Born on July 21, 1899, in Cicero (now in Oak Park), Illinois, Ernest Hemingway served in
World War I and worked in journalism before publishing his story collection In Our Time.

• He was renowned for novels like The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell
Tolls, and The Old Man and the Sea, which won the 1953 Pulitzer.

• In 1954, Hemingway won the Nobel Prize.

• He committed suicide on July 2, 1961, in Ketchum, Idaho.

Biography, books and facts

• Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961).

• Ernest Hemingway was an American journalist

and author.

• His writing style is machine-like in its precision

and austerity, giving his work its own peculiar
beauty and power, but he also wrote passionately
about love and life, war and work. He used his life
experiences as inspirations for many of his books.
Hemingway in uniform in Milan, 1918. He drove
ambulances for two months until he was wounded.
• Born in Oak Park, Illinois, started his career as a writer in a newspaper office in Kansas City at the
age of seventeen.

• After the United States entered the First World War, he joined a volunteer ambulance unit in the
Italian army. Serving at the front, he was wounded, was decorated by the Italian Government, and
spent considerable time in hospitals.

• After his return to the United States, he became a reporter for Canadian and American newspapers
and was soon sent back to Europe to cover such events as the Greek Revolution.

• During the twenties, Hemingway became a member of the group of expatriate Americans in Paris
called “a Lost Generation”, which he described in his first important work, The Sun Also Rises
(1926), a novel that captures the attitudes of a hard-drinking, fast-living set of disillusioned young
expatriates in postwar Paris.
• The term stems from a remark made by Gertrude Stein to Ernest Hemingway,
“You are all a lost generation.”
• Hemingway volunteered to fight in the First World War but was rejected
because of poor eyesight. Instead, he drove a Red Cross ambulance on the
Italian front, where he was wounded in 1918 by a mortar shell. While
recovering in a hospital, Hemingway fell in love with Agnes von Kurowsky, a
nurse seven years his senior. She did not reciprocate his passion, however, and
rejected his marriage proposal five months after their first meeting.
• Hemingway used his experiences as a reporter during the civil war in Spain as
the background for his most ambitious novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940).
Among his later works, the most outstanding is the short novel, The Old Man
and the Sea (1952).
• The Hemingway
House in Key West,
Florida, where he lived
between 1931 and 1939
and where he wrote To
Have and Have Not
Ernest hemmingway’s favorute pastimes and grand adventures

• Ernest Hemingway had a passion for adventure and the great outdoors.

• The vast knowledge and experiences he gained on his travels abroad are reflected in his many stories and
characters. Hemingway traveled the world pursuing his passions. He traveled extensively throughout Europe
in time of war and peace. Hemingway traveled to such places as Key West for fishing, Africa for hunting, and
Spain for bullfighting.

• Drawing from his unique personal experiences, he wrote such works as For Whom the Bell Tolls, Death in
the Afternoon, and The Green Hills of Africa. Hemingway absolutely loved bullfighting, perceiving it as a
true test for manhood. Hemingway's love for boxing was unmatched by his other passions. "My writing is
nothing," Ernest Hemingway once opined. "My boxing is everything." Men Without Women is an early
Hemingway collection. This early collection also addresses the themes of World War I, bullfighting, and
boxing.
Hemingway in Africa
• The legendary American writer Ernest Miller Hemingway (1899-1961) was
probably the one introducing the Swahili word "safari" to the English
language.
• Hemingway traveled in East Africa two times in his life and the experiences
gave him material for several short stories and novels. The remarkable
personality of Hemingway also contributed to the image of the Great White
Hunter.
• Hemingway's two extended African safaris, the first in the 1930s and the
second in the 1950s, gave rise to two of his best-known stories ("The Snows of
Kilimanjaro" and "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber"), a
considerable amount of journalism and correspondence, and two nonfiction
books, Green Hills of Africa (1935), about the first safari, and True at First
Light (1999; longer version, Under Kilimanjaro 2005), about the second.
• A walking street named
Ernest Hemingway,
Ronda, Spain
• Hemingway liked to portray soldiers, hunters, bullfighters - tough, at times
primitive people whose courage and honesty are set against the brutal ways of
modern society, and who in this confrontation lose hope and faith.

• His straightforward prose, his spare dialogue, and his predilection for
understatement are particularly effective in his short stories, some of which
are collected in Men Without Women (1927) and The Fifth Column and the First
Forty-Nine Stories (1938). Hemingway died in Idaho in 1961.
• Hemingway working on
his book For Whom the
Bell Tolls at the Sun
Valley Lodge, Idaho, in
December 1939
• Hemingway in the cabin
of his boat Pilar, off the
coast of Cuba, c. 1950
Introduction
• A clean, well lighted place is a short story written by Ernest Hemmingway. It was first published in
1926, and later included in his 1933 collection, Winner Take Nothing. Hemmingway always writes
in a very simple , clear style, usually with a lot of dialogue, and with a deep and complex meaning
hidden underneath. He wants us to understand what he wants to say by the dialogues of the
character. This unique style of writing may bore us when we read it at first, but if we take a deep
analysis it will be interesting.

• Not much happens in this story - only a brief conversation between two waiters in a Spanish café.
They talk about a client who is sitting by himself and drinking brandy, just before closing time. Yet
the impact of the story, for all its brevity and simplicity, is tremendous. Here is a glimpse into rather
than at life which jars the reader into somber thoughts about the stark tragedy of loneliness.
Character List

• The Old Man: About 80 years old and deaf, the old man is drinking
brandy in the very early hours of the morning in a Spanish cafe.

• The Young Waiter: Impatient to close the cafe and go home to his
wife, he insults the deaf old man, who, of course, can't hear him.

• The Old Waiter: An old man, like the deaf old man, he lives alone and
is sympathetic to the old man's drinking until he is drunk.
SUMMARY
In the late hours of night, at a clean well-lighted cafe, two waiters one young and another old, while attending
upon their lone last customer, an old deaf man of eighty, intermittently talk about his recently attempted suicide.
The two waiters are contrasts.

The young waiter wants to go home to his wife early, is indifferent towards the old customer and curses him for
not leaving the cafe early. While the old waiter says he likes to stay late at the cafe with all those who do not
want to go to bed and who need light for the night. He is reluctant to close up each night because he thinks there
maybe someone who needs the cafe.

When the old man finally leaves the cafe, they pull down the shutters and go home. But the old waiter continues
the conversation with himself and reflects on the concept of ‘nada’. Despite his dislike towards bars and
bodegas, he goes to a bar for a drink and later heads towards home. He is unable to sleep but will go to sleep
with daylight and he says to himself ‘it is probably only insomnia. Many must have it’.
PLOT
1. The story starts with an old man sitting in
a café.
“Last week he tried to commit suicide”
2. His plan to stay longer in the café was
interrupted by the impatient young waiter.
“He’s lonely. I’m not lonely. I have a wife
waiting in bed for me.”
3. The old man pays and leaves the café.
4. The café closes.
“It was not a fear or derad. It was a nothing
that he knows too well.”
5. The old waiter goes to the bodega.
“Hail nothing, full of nothing, nothing is
with thee.”
6. The older waiter goes home.
“After all, he said to himself. It’s probably
only insomnia. Many must have it.”

“Each night I am recluant to close up

because there may be someone who needs
the café.”
A clean, well-lighted place

Title -> Setting of the story

The story takes place somewhere where it’s clean with
good lighting.
It also suggests the setting is the only place that’s clean
and can’t trust anything outside of the world.
Analysis 1
• Hemingway emphasizes the pleasant

It was very late and everyone had left the café except atmosphere of the café through his
an old man who sat in the shadow the leaves of the
description of the shadows of the leaves and
tree made against the electric light. In the day time the
street was dusty, but at night the dew settled the dust by noting that even a deaf man can feel the
and the old man liked to sit late because he was deaf
difference between this quiet café and
and now at night it was quiet and he felt the difference.
The two waiters inside the cafe knew that the old man others.
was a little drunk, and while he was a good client they
knew that if he became too drunk he would leave
• That the old man is drunk and prone to
without paying, so they kept watch on him. leaving without paying suggests that he
might be troubled.
Analysis 2 • While the young waiter tries to account for the old
drunk’s despair by blaming external factors (money
"Last week he tried to commit suicide," one waiter said.

"Why?" or loneliness), the older waiter knows better.

"He was in despair."

"What about?" • When he says “nothing,” what he means is that he

"Nothing."
"How do you know it was nothing?" believes that the old man is struggling with life’s
"He has plenty of money."
They sat together at a table that was close against the wall near the door of the café meaninglessness, not life’s challenges.
and looked at the terrace where the tables were 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 • Instead of inquiring further, the young waiter ignores
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. the older waiter, which suggests that his world is
"The guard will pick him up," one waiter said.

"What does it matter if he gets what he's after?"

narrow and that he doesn’t have time for things he
"He had better get off the street now. The guard will get him. They went by five minutes
doesn’t understand.
ago."
Analysis 3
The old man sitting in the shadow rapped on his saucer with his glass. The
younger waiter went over to him. • The hurried attitude of the young waiter reveals his
"What do you want?"
The old man looked at him. "Another brandy," he said. posture toward life: he’s goal-oriented, rushed, and he
"You'll be drunk," the waiter said. The old man looked at him. The waiter went
away. finds meaning in the future rather than in the present.
"He'll stay all night," he said to his colleague. "I'm sleepy now. I never get
into bed before three o'clock. He should have killed himself last week." • Since the old drunk stands in the way of the young
The waiter took the brandy bottle and another saucer from the counter inside
the cafe and marched out to the old man's table. He put down the saucer and waiter’s desires, the young waiter behaves cruelly
poured the glass full of brandy.
"You should have killed yourself last week," he said to the deaf man. The old
towards the man, which (even though the old drunk
man motioned with his finger. "A little more," he said. The waiter poured on into
the glass so that the brandy slopped over and ran down the stem into the top
can’t hear the waiter’s comments) makes the reader
saucer of the pile. "Thank you," the old man said. The waiter took the bottle back
lose sympathy for the younger waiter working late.
inside the café. He sat down at the table with his colleague again.
Analysis 4
• "He's drunk now," he said.
"He's drunk every night." • According to the Catholic tradition, death by suicide
"What did he want to kill himself for?"
"How should I know." guarantees one’s damnation to hell. The old drunk’s
"How did he do it?"
"He hung himself with a rope." niece (who is young, just like the younger waiter)
"Who cut him down?"
"His niece." therefore shows that she thinks that the old man’s
"Why did they do it?"
"Fear for his soul." actions matter or have meaning when she cuts him
"How much money has he got?" down. The old drunk, however, believes that life is
• "He's got plenty."
meaningless, which drove him to suicide in the first
place. This hints at a generational gap in
understanding life.
Analysis 5
The old man looked from his glass across the
square, (1) then over at the waiters.
"Another brandy," he said, pointing to his glass. • Here, the young waiter behaves badly: he
The waiter who was in a hurry came over.
"Finished," he said, speaking with that omission selfishly kicks an old man out of the café
of syntax (2) stupid people employ when talking to
drunken people or foreigners. "No more tonight. before closing time, and he talks down to the
Close now."
"Another," said the old man.
"No. Finished." The waiter wiped the edge of the man, seemingly because the man is deaf. In
table with a towel and shook his head.
The old man stood up, slowly counted the contrast, the old drunk behaves kindly: he
saucers, (3) took a leather coin purse from his
pocket and paid for the drinks, leaving half a tips the waiter (despite his rudeness) and
peseta tip.
The waiter watched him go down the street, a very leaves with dignity, showing remarkable
old man walking unsteadily but with dignity.
self-possession in a difficult situation.
Analysis 6
• The young waiter thinks that his time is more
"Why didn't you let him stay and drink?" the unhurried waiter asked.
They were putting up the shutters.(4) "It is not half-past two." valuable than the old man’s because he fills it with
"I want to go home to bed."
"What is an hour?" work and family, while he assumes that the drunk
"More to me than to him."
"An hour is the same."
"You talk like an old man yourself. He can buy a bottle and drink at man’s life is pointless. This self-importance,
home."
"It's not the same."
"No, it is not," agreed the waiter with a wife. He did not wish to be
combined with his clear animosity towards old
unjust. He was only in a hurry.
"And you? You have no fear of going home before your usual people, suggests that his relative youth has made him
hour?"
"Are you trying to insult me?" (5)
"No, hombre,(6) only to make a joke."
callous and lacking in perspective. Since the young
"No," the waiter who was in a hurry said, rising from pulling down
the metal shutters. "I have confidence. I am all confidence." man has lost credibility through his cruelty and lack
"You have youth, confidence, and a job," the older waiter said.
"You have everything."
"And what do you lack?" of introspection, Hemingway’s association of the
"Everything but work."
"You have everything I have." young waiter with “confidence” is backhanded—
"No. I have never had confidence and I am not young."
"Come on. Stop talking nonsense and lock up."
perhaps this confidence provides a false sense of
security.
Analysis 7
• After locating the source of his anxiety and
• "I am one those who like to stay late at the café,” the elder waiter said. “
With all those who do not want to go to bed. With all those who need a light
for the night." despair, the old waiter grows critical of the
• "I want to go home and into bed."
"We are of two different kinds," the older waiter said. He was now dressed
to go home. "It is not only a question of youth and confidence although those
same Catholic tradition that the old drunk’s
things are very beautiful. Each night I am reluctant to close up because there
may be some one who needs the café."
"Hombre, there are bodegas (7) open all night long."
niece supported in saving her uncle from
"You do not understand. This is a clean and pleasant café. It is well
lighted. The light is very good and also, now, there are shadows of the
leaves." suicide. By reducing the value of the Lord’s
"Good night," said the younger waiter.
"Good night," the other said. Turning off the electric light he continued the
conversation with himself.(8) It was the light of course but it is necessary that Prayer to “nothing,” the old waiter punctures
the place be clean and pleasant. You do not want music. Certainly you do
not want music. Nor can you stand before a bar with dignity although that is
all that is provided for these hours. What did he fear? It was not a fear or
dread. It was a nothing that he knew too well. It was all a nothing and a
the meaning that prayer is supposed to offer.
man was a nothing too. It was only that and light was all it needed and a
certain cleanness and order. Some lived in it and never felt it but he knew it
all was nada y pues nada y nada y pues nada.(9) Our nada who art in nada,
For him, the meaning of life is nothing, so
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. (10) religious tradition should be replaced with
Hail nothing full of nothing, nothing is with thee.(11)

emptiness.
Analysis 8
• After articulating life meaninglessness, the old waiter
• He smiled and stood before a bar with a shining steam adopts the same attitude of the old drunk (even
pressure coffee machine.
"What's yours?" asked the barman. inspiring derision from a bartender, just as the old
"Nada."
"Otro loco mas," (12) said the barman and turned drunk did). This bar, while well-lit, is dirty. Thus, the
away.
"A little cup," said the waiter. ambiance of the bar (in contrast to the café) fails to
The barman poured it for him.
"The light is very bright and pleasant but the bar is provide him with the necessary conditions for facing
unpolished, "the waiter said. The barman looked at him
but did not answer. It was too late at night for meaninglessness while maintaining his composure
conversation.
"You want another copita?" (13) the barman asked. and dignity. Realizing this, he leaves the bar and goes
"No, thank you," said the waiter and went out. He
disliked bars and bodegas. A clean, well-lighted café home.
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.
Theme

• The idea explored in this story is the nothingness of

life and the nothingness it ultimately results in.
Tone and style

• Tone: Told in a very depressing and isolated manner. The

reader feels emphathy for both the old man and the old
watier.
• Style: Style was in an objective point ot view (third
person). The reader has no idea what thoughts or feelings
the characters had. A “fly on the wall” technique.
The purpose of this method is to gain insights
about people or systems through observations.
Symbols

• Shadows symbolized the emptiness that the old waiter

felt along with the old man.
• Café represented well-being and a place of comfort.
• Bodega showed the lack of respect the old waiter had
for himself due to the feeling of loneliness.
• The Iceberg Theory (also known as the
"theory of omission") is a style of
writing coined by American writer Ernest
Hemingway.

• The theory is so named because, just

as only a small part of an iceberg is
visible above water, Hemingway's
stories presented only a small part of
what was actually happening.

• Most of the story is hidden. The

strongest part of a Hemingway story is
what is hidden from the reader and if
applicable, revealed later.
• 1. "Last week he tried to commit suicide," one waiter said.
"Why?"
"He was in despair."
"What about?"
"Nothing."
"How do you know it was nothing?"
"He has plenty of money."
a. poor health b. a sad state of mind c. financial trouble
• 2. The waiter took the bottle back inside the café. He sat down at the table
with his colleague again.
a. client b. boss c. co-worker
• 3. "Finished," he said, speaking with that omission of syntax stupid people employ when
talking to drunken people or foreigners. "No more tonight. Close now."
a. shortening of phrases b. strange accent c. blurred speech
• 4. "Are you trying to insult me?" (5)

"No, hombre, only to make a joke."

• a. a funny insult b. a word you say to a man c. the name of one of the waiters
• 5. 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.

• a. a serious illness b. severe nervous breakdown c. the inability to sleep

Setting

• Time:

• Place: clean Spanish cafe

• Atmosphere:
Questions
1. Neither of the two waiters in the story is named, and their dialogue is written
without the usual identification of the speaker. They are distinguished chiefly by the
difference in their attitude toward the old man drinking his brandy. What is that
difference? What other differences are there between them? What phrases can you
find in the story that distinguish them?
The young waiter The old waiter
• Insensitive, neglecful, immature, • Understadning and
self-centered compassionate, kind,

• Have a wife, a job, young, and sympathetic

confidence • Lack everything but work, old

"You should have killed yourself last week,"
"Not always. This old man is clean. He drinks without
"I wouldn't want to be that old. An old man is a
spilling. Even now, drunk. Look at him."
nasty thing."
"We are of two different kinds,"
• Hemmingway depicts the older waiter as kind, dignified, and wise in
his belief that, since life is meaningless, one must priotize being
comfortable and dignified above all else.
Questions
2. What few facts are you told about the old man that make him an object of interest
to the two waiters?
A deaf man who likes to drink at the café late into the night.
The old man likes the shadows of the leaves on the well-lit café 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.
Questions

3. The two waiters lead different kinds of lives which are responsible for
the different attitudes they have toward the old man. What kind of life
does each waiter lead? What kind of home does each waiter have?
3. The two waiters lead different kinds of lives which are responsible for the different attitudes they
have toward the old man. What kind of life does each waiter lead? What kind of home does each
waiter have?

• The younger waiter is just your typical young guy.

• He has a wife waiting at home, and he can't wait to get back to her after work.

• He values time highly – in his view, every hour is precious and ripe with promise.

• Unlike the older waiter and the old man, he thinks that life is full of value.

• To him, old age is pathetic and revolting, an attitude reflected in his

condescending attitude towards the old man.
3. The two waiters lead different kinds of lives which are responsible for the different attitudes they
have toward the old man. What kind of life does each waiter lead? What kind of home does each
waiter have?

• The older waiter 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 waiter’s “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 nothingness.
• Whereas other people find meaning and comfort in religion, the older waiter dismisses
religion as “nada”—nothing.

• The older waiter finds solace only in clean, well-lit cafés. There, life seems to make
sense.
4. What is the difference in the attitude of the two men toward the café? By what
signs can you tell?

• The young waiter doesn’t recognize that the café 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 café early.

• Unlike the older waiter, who thinks deeply about life and those who struggle to
face it. He realizes the café is refuge from despair.

"I am one those who like to stay late at the café,” the elder waiter
said. “With all those who do not want to go to bed. With all those
who need a light for the night."
5. What do you think is the significance of the title of the story? Find the
lines in the story that reveal it. How?

It tells about a place of comfort with bright lights. The outside world is a
dark, lonely and unhappy place.
6. Why is the younger waiter unsympathetic to the old man's plight?

• plight (n): a dangerous, difficult, and unfortunate situation

• The younger waiter is unsympathetic to the loneliness and despair of the old
man.

• As a young guy, he doesn't feel his own mortality yet, and can't comprehend
the nothingness that both the old man and the older waiter seem to feel.

• While the younger waiter is quite rude, we don't get the feeling that he's a bad
guy – rather, he's naive and ignorant of the true nature of the world.
7. According to the old waiter, why is it different to drink alone in a café than to drink

alone at home?

• Drinking at a café, in Hemingway's story, is a way of participating in society, even if

one drinks alone there.

• The older waiter and the old man both want to remain at the café late into the night,

which shows that they’ve accepted that they can’t give their lives larger meaning, so

their time is best spent making themselves as comfortable as possible.

8. "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" is a short story centering on a man who believes

life has no meaning and purpose. Because he does not believe in God, religion

offers him no solace. He gains a small measure of relief by working as a waiter in a

clean, pleasant café with bright lights. Find words to show the old waiter’s belief.

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

lighted. The light is very good and also, now, there are shadows of
the leaves."

It was the light of course but it is necessary that the place be clean
and pleasant.
9. Hemingway’s style is brief and simple, characteristic of that of the press.
However, through his economical style of writing he makes his name as a writer of
violent conflicts, which have a tremendous impact on the reader. Find the conflicts
in "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”.

• The young waiter wants the old man to leave so he can go home to his wife.

• The old waiter and the old man don’t want to go home because they would be
lonely there.

• The conflict is emotional.