Ernest+Hemingway

Clean Well-Lighted Place By,Ernest Hemingway

Summary: In this short story there are three men sitting in a well lighted cafe, two being waiters, and the other, an old man, who was in the process of getting drunk. The old man beconed for more brandy and his glass was filled. The two waiters begin having a conversation about the old man. They talked about how he tried to commit suicide, but failed. They questioned why he tried to do this and had other small talk. The waiters then engaged in an argument about making the old man leave. The one waiter made the argument that they should wait to close the cafe and let the old man have his drinks and leave whenever he pleases, while the other waiter argued that the old man was being disrespectful by holding up the waiters and holding them up from closing the cafe. The older waiter won the argument and he forced the old man to leave. After the old man left the waiters continued their argument. The younger waiter said that the cafe should be open for all hours of the night for people like the old man, he says that some people need a well lighte place to stay up, not a bar or a club. On the other hand the older waiter states that the costumers should have respect for the waiters and should go home when the bar closes. The story ends when the waiters close down the cafe and the younger man goes into a bar and states that bars are no good and leaves the bar satisfied.

Correlation:

1.) Throughout the story words such as "hombre", "nada", and "bodegas" appear. The use of these words indicate that the story is taking place in a traditional Hispanic or Latin American country or sub section of a large American town or city.

2.) The under lying theme in this story seems to be respect for people and their habit when trying to clear their minds. This leads me to beleive that Ernest Hemingway has had struggles dealing with a situation in his personal life. Throughout the story people deal with attempted death or troubles of some kind, therefore leadong me to beleive that Ernest had one of these events occur in his life.

3.) In this story the two waiters are different ages and both have different opinions on what they should do to the the old man in the cafe. To me their opinions represent a generational difference. The older waiter was grumpy that the old man was there and holding up the closing of the cafe on time, while the young man wanted the elderly man to stay and allow him to deal with the pain he was feeling. This shows me the seperate trains of thought of the two generations.

Reflection: This was an interesting story for me. I liked the two waiters and seeing their opinions on what the should do with the old man. I also felt for the old man. He wanted to stay at the nice cafe and just needed a place to stay for part of the night but he was kicked out instead. This was a well written peice and I enjoyed reading about the two waiters opinions.