English115

Response Submission
Name: Usha Bin Farid
Section: 2 ID: 21103039
“Our nada who art in nada, nada be thy name thy kingdom nada thy will be nada” -Ernest
Hemingway, A Clean Well-Lighted Place
Imagine you have a favorite song that you listen to every day, and you find deep meaning in that
song. But, if you repeat it for a month you lose interest in the song, and you will fill that the
meaning it had before does not exist anymore. Just like that in our early stages of life, we have a
spark matched by no one. But when we are at the end of our life, our view to exist changes.
When we get old life feels empty and meaningless. We do not find meaning, value, or worth. In
the story “A Clean Well-Lighted Place” by Ernest Hemmingway we see an Old Waiter and an
Old man trying to find solace and peace in a well-lit café. According to the old waiter love,
family and even religion are unable to help them overcome this nothingness. So, by keeping this
in mind- In my response, I will try to interpret how at old age our life is filled with
nothingness and meaninglessness, how, “The Café” in “A Clean Well-Lighted Place” by
Ernest Hemingway is symbolized as a medium to escape this nothingness, and by using a
quote from the famous novel “Kafka on the Shore” written by Haruki Murakami I will
explain why I think that as we grow old the feeling of nothingness becomes inevitable.

Firstly, when a person reaches a certain point in life, the person has more or less seen everything.
But, the last pages of that person are filled with a sense of emptiness. He feels alone not because
he is lonely or poor, but because he feels hopeless and tired. He struggles with life. There are no
certain reasons behind it. In the story, we hear from the old waiter that "Last week he (old man)
tried to commit suicide.”(Hemmingway). When the young waiter asked why the old waiter
replied “He has plenty of money.”(Hemmingway). He is not alone, he lives with his niece. He
did it because he felt nothing. The old waiter felt what was going on with the deaf old man. Even
though he was not that old, he recognized the loneliness the deaf old man was going through.
The old waiter tells himself age brings wisdom and those who have passed the stage of youth
know that it won’t last forever. All this money and marriage disappear into a void of loneliness.
Makes me as a reader realize, time and youth will not be with us forever. At one point in time,
our life is all about waiting for its end. My Uncle is at the end stages of his life. I hold a very
close bond with my Uncle because he raised me for a certain period of time. My uncle told me
that, I am happy with the life I have. I have a big house, two grandsons who are always with us, a
stable life, and living with my wife and my daughter. But, you know ruham I still feel a certain
emptiness inside me. Every day when I go to sleep with a smile on my face, there’s a part of me
that stays empty. I feel tired, I feel like going into an infinite slumber. Now, here’s a funny thing
my uncle laughed and said, there is no reason behind it. You see as a 70-year-old man I have
seen everything in my life. Happiness, sadness, success, and failure. I enjoyed my life. I do not
need anything more in my life. But I still want to escape this emptiness. I try to escape from it
every day using my family but I just cannot do it. My life is meaningless and empty not because
I am lonely or poor it’s simply because I have nothing else to see or do. I am at the standpoint of
my life. For me, every happiness is temporary. When I read the story “A Well-Lighted-Place”
the words of my uncle hit me and makes me realize we humans do not know when to give up.
It’s an essential truth that at one point we will start feeling empty but till the end, somehow, we
will try to escape from it even though we cannot do it.

Now in my second point, the Café in A Clean, Well-Lighted Place is symbolized as a medium to
escape from this nothingness. In the story, the Old waiter tells the younger waiter that “Each
night I am reluctant to close up ... there may be someone who needs the
café.”(Hemmingway) Here we can see that the café is regarded as the opposite of loneliness and
emptiness. The old waiter every day, he hesitates to close down the café early as he understands
that people like the deaf old man need this café. The café is clean, bright, and has a sense of
comfort, unlike nothingness which is dark, depressing, confusing, and chaotic. Here, we can also
see how Ernest Hemmingway used the imaginative concept of light and darkness to differentiate
hope and emptiness. The brightness of this café works as a protection from all those dark
thoughts that derive from nothingness. Furthermore, the old waiter quoted “You do not
understand. This is a clean and pleasant café. It is well lit.”(Hemmingway) In this line, I
think the old waiter wanted to say that, unlike the bars that are loud and unclean, this café is
clean, pleasant, and well-lit. Unlike those bars, this Café works as a force that counters the
darkness and nothingness which is felt by those who are alone. Later on another contrast of light
and darkness. We see the old waiter talking to himself saying I am one of those who like to stay
late at the cafe," the older waiter said. "With all those who do not want to go to bed. With all
those who need a light for the night” (Hemmingway) this indicates that even the old waiter is
also suffering from this emptiness of everyday life. He thinks of the café as a momentary relief
and comfort. Even in the end, when the old waiter senses nothingness the well-lighted café
works as a brief escape from this nothingness. To conclude here, it can be said that the Café
throughout the story foreshadows the nature of humans. How even after feeling empty and
hopeless they are reluctant to find a way to escape from it.

Finally, after reading the whole story as a reader, I persona that as we grow old the feeling of
nothingness becomes inevitable. Firstly, at the end part of the story we see when the old waiter
comes out of the café he thinks, that the reason all these people want to stay in cafes so late is not
that they are afraid, the reason is something that is not clear, concrete or easily described.
Instead, the reason the old waiter and the old man spend sleepless at night is related to something
vast, even boundless, and beyond the scope of language: the purpose and meaning of existence.
Existential concerns like the meaning of life and existence make the night a scary, empty place
for those who dare to think about them. At the beginning of the story, we see the deaf old man
has plenty of money and lives with his niece but tries to commit suicide because of these
existential concerns. Furthermore. I would like to use a quote from the very famous novel
“Kafka on the Shore” by Haruki Murakami only to connect my final verdict. The quote that took
place in Hoshino’s mind when he was listening to foreigner flowing, dignified cello “Living
turned me into nothing. Weird... People are born in order to live, right? But the longer I've
lived, the more I've lost what's inside me—and ended up empty. And I bet the longer I live,
the emptier, the more worthless, I'll become. Something's wrong with this picture. Life isn't
supposed to turn out like this! Isn't it possible to shift direction, to change where I'm”
headed?”(Murakami). If we read the quote and the emphasis of the story “A Well-Lighted
Place” it can be interpreted that there is no escape to this nothingness. Our life passes through
several stages that give us several experiences. As time passes, we feel empty and tired. It’s
maybe because of the experiences we gain or maybe it’s because at one point the meaning of
existence starts to fade away. The reason is unknown. As if this is something that is destined to
happen. My mother struggled all her life and now she has everything she could imagine of. But
she spends restless nights after nights. The reason is unknown. This emptiness and nothingness is
something we can never escape from. It is an inevitable truth of life according to me.

I would like to finish my paper by saying that at one point, our life will be nothing but an empty
vessel that searches for the meaning of existence, as we look for mediums just like the waiter and
the deaf old man did by using the café to escape this nothingness, in the end, it is inevitable to
escape from it. So, Ernest Hemmingway's A Well-Lighted Place aims to teach us that everyone
has their own path and that our vision of the world changes through time. When a person grows
old, he loses the meaning of life and experiences emptiness. They seek a medium to escape from
this despair and everything in the world is temporary. Hemmingway attempts to explain how
people examine their life. As a reader, Hemmingway's story A Well-Lighted Place helped me
realize how complicated human life can be. It demonstrates that nothing lasts forever. Everything
in life will come to an end at some point. A truth that we all attempt to avoid, even though we
know it is a fact of life.

To conclude, I want to ask a question to all my readers, when we are old is death the only way to
escape this nothingness and find eternal peace?