Summary:
"A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" by Ernest Hemingway is a powerful and depressing investigation of the meaning of life. Everyone, at one time or another, has asked this fundamental question of why have we been put on this planet. The older waiter represents all who do not understand their purpose. One's life is nothingness if it is without a purpose.
Does one's purpose in life diminish after there is nothing left in life to look forward to? Ernest Hemingway's short story "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" addresses this question through the character of the older waiter, a man pondering the meaning of life. The older waiter observes the old man and comes to the conclusion that without a motivation to live, one wanders in a world of nothingness.
There are three main characters in "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," and each represents a different view on the meaning of life. The young waiter naively believes that his life has purpose, in the form of his marriage and job. In contrast to the young waiter, there is the old man who has nothing left to live for. The older waiter plays the part of an unbiased observer who is able to relate to both of these two extremes. As the short story progresses, the older waiter identifies with the old man. He begins to understand the reason for this man's despair and realizes that he is not much different himself. This realization begins as the young waiter is describing the old man's attempted suicide.
The young waiter, who does not understand why the old man would want to die, says that the man has nothing to be in despair about. It is at this point that the older waiter wonders if the old man has anything to be happy about either. The older waiter senses that, as well as having nothing about which to be depressed, the old man has nothing to look forward to either. It is this nothingness that the older waiter begins to fear.
As the night wears on, the older waiter becomes aware that he is not much different that the old man. The older waiter admits to himself that he too has begun to feel the nothingness that has engulfed the old man.
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.
The old man and the older waiter seem to be in similar predicaments. Most of their lives have passed them by and now there is nothing more to live for. The older waiter, like the old man, escapes the loneliness of nighttime by spending time in the café and in bodegas that are open all night long.
While at a bodega, the older waiter tries to find comfort in the fact that there is heaven to look forward to in the future. He then accepts the possibility that there may not be a god or a heaven. The waiter concludes that if there is no God, life has no inherent meaning.
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 nada and nada
us not into nada but deliver us from nada; pues nada. Hail
nothing full of nothing, nothing is with thee.
If one's ultimate goal, to come closer to God, is impossible then his life has been without
purpose.
"A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" by Ernest Hemingway is a powerful and depressing investigation of the meaning of life. Everyone, at one time or another, has asked this fundamental question. Why have we been put on this planet? The older waiter represents all who do not understand their purpose. One's life is nothingness if it is without a purpose.
This is the complete article, containing 593 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page).
