A Critical Analysis of Hemingway's A Clean, Well-lighted Place - Essay Example

? A Critical Analysis of Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-lighted Place” Life sometimes leaves us victorious or defeated. Like in a battle, we are warriorswho try to live and fight for different reasons and purposes, and for most of the warriors, as they get weary and old, they usually back off for a moment and find a clean, well-lighted place. Ernest Hemingway’s 1954 Nobel Prize winner “A Clean, Well-lighted Place” effectively illustrates human beings’ different answers of the mostly asked question: “What is the meaning of life?” From toddlerhood to late adulthood, as people grow mature, their response to this question gets influenced with their life’s experiences whether good or bad. They either turn out to be hopeful amidst life adversities or become cynical of life’s real meaning. In a much closer look, Hemingway’s work undoubtedly reflects his own experiences (Ernest Hemingway). He himself has committed suicide in the year 1961(Redouane, Abouddahab, 2). And as a result, most critical analyses of his works become mostly biographical in nature. Hemingway’s work undoubtedly reflects a considerable amount of his life’s experiences as a soldier, writer, and reporter. It can be also noted that most of the criticism of Hemingway’s works is ideologically based and is greatly influenced by the accumulated facts about his life and work. His works usually present male personas whose characters evolve around the themes on “losing hope and faith” (Ernest Hemingway). This short story “A Clean, Well-lighted Place” somehow progresses on the same theme: of losing hope and faith to live, and of nursing the moments of despair to finding that something that will push one to continue living. These themes were well illustrated by three characters of different walks of life, three people who see life in different perspectives: the young waiter, the old waiter and the old-drunk man. They have different stories to tell and only in the clean, well-lighted cafe that their mind-sets get exposed to the readers’ critical scrutiny. In Erickson’s Psychosocial Theory, he pointed out that in each stage of a person’s life one experiences psychosocial crisis represented by two opposing dispositions also termed by Erickson as “contrary dispositions”. If one can successfully manage each stage, he/she can get through the rest of the stages. On the other hand, If one failed, he may develop “reduced ability to complete further stages” (Saul McLeod). In relation to this, the young waiter represents those in the young adulthood stage, the sixth stage of Erickson’s Psychosocial Theory of Human Development, who views life with much positivity and idealism while the old-drunk man and the old waiter who sympathizes with the former represent those in the late adulthood stage, the last stage of Erickson’s Psychosocial Theory. They are the ones who are caught between developing ego integrity and wallowing up the feeling of despair. The story, set in a clean, well-lighted cafe somewhere in Spain, opens with an old man drinking brandy and sitting on his favourite spot in the cafe, “in the shadow of the leaves of the tree made against the electric light”. The two waiters in the cafe were talking about the old-drunk man as he drowns himself with his liquor. Their conversation wound up with the latter’s attempted suicide to the significance of a clean, well-lighted cafe of which young waiter finds no difference with other bars and bodegas. The young waiter who seems oblivious of the old-drunk man’s personal issues finds the attempt ridiculous because for him the latter “has plenty of money” and that there’s no reason why should the old man try to end his life. On one hand, the old waiter feels what the old man was exactly feeling as he understands what “it” feels like. He confesses that, he himself needs a clean, well-lighted place once in a while. As the story progresses, the young and old waiter, both representations of two different generations, demonstrate the different worldviews of the youth and the once-youth. Their dialogue and the old waiter’s present a clearer view as to how life gets complicated yet more meaningful in the course of time. For the young man, life’s purpose is determined by having lots and lots of money, having a wife, and having enough sleep. He sees life in a different light. When he told the old-drunk man “You should have killed yourself last week”, it exemplifies that he has no idea what the old-drunk man was going through because he’s too young to understand. The young waiter also took notice of the striking contrast of the old man’s life and his. He blatantly pointed out that the old man is a “lonely man” because he has no wife who will wait for him in bed while he has a loving wife whom he shares the bed with. He thought that even a wife will no longer be good for the former. At this stage of the young man’s life, he has all confidence that life will be nice to him. And because he’s young, he perceives that he has all confidence and all the time in the world to make a bright future ahead of him. He detests old man or old age per se because being old for him is a nasty thing. This mind-set often affects the youth’s opinion of getting and being old. And because of this unenthusiastic attitude of embracing the getting-old stage, most women hide their golden age with the most celebrated anti-ageing cream. Or some men still want to prove their virility by dating girls half their age. And because the society embraces the no-to-old-age paradigm, the youth gets blinded as what getting old or being old must be like. And in turn, the young waiter cannot empathize as what the old-drunk man needs at the moment, not just the brandy or being alone but the clean, well-lighted cafe. The old man, plagued with the late adulthood stage’s crises, seems to have a difficulty facing life as it is. The manifestation of despair was obviously depicted by the old man’s, first, attempted suicide. The old man no longer finds meaning with his life and in the act of despair, tried to cut off that sense of meaninglessness by hanging himself to no avail; second, he is at the stage now where he is slowly detaching himself from society. This was well emphasized as he sat in the cafe alone sipping his brandy, contemplating, maybe, of his meaningless existence. Most old men, just like the old-drunk man, detach themselves from the sense of usefulness and so they find it difficult to adjust from the work-related hullabaloos to boring retirement. Some even find their egos shattered because their skills and expertise are no longer required or requested. Moreover, the sense of biological uselessness often depresses old men and women. For instance, women endure the insecurities during the menopausal stage while men get frustrated when they can no longer rise to the occasion. With this sense of despair some old people look back to their past with youth-worshipping attitude and with bitterness and regret. Some older people get stuck up with the memories of their young better days.. As we may interpret, the old drunk man might have been experiencing this late-adulthood crises. And as he gets depressed for the lack of meaning of his life, he tried to end it. But with luck or God’s grace, he lived. That might make it more depressing for him. When he wanted to end his life because he finds living as a mere routine, he was given another chance. For whatever reason, he might not have any single clue. And so, he gets drunk in a clean, well-lighted cafe to numb himself and to escape from the Nada (Spanish word; sense of nothingness) and from the darkness that envelopes his existence (Gilbert, A.M.). Furthermore, this old-drunk man, who still drinks with poise and still stands with dignity, becomes the representation of the Adam’s machismo who still tries to stay upright, strong, and unwavering even if he’s already dying inside. We may say that Mr. old-drunk man must have belonged to the corporate world, lavished with the comforts of life but still finds no meaning and finds Nada in the midst of luxury and success but he still had that dignity and honourable air that sets him different from the other drunken patrons of the clean, well-lighted cafe. And just like the old-drunk man, the old waiter knows what it feels like of being lonely and in despair. So, he told the young waiter not to close yet for another one hour. He knows what the old-drunk man needs for the moment because he too is experiencing the same crises, the same moments of despair. He knows that the cafe is not just a cafe for people like him or for the former. It is a refuge for both of them. It is a sanctuary for their bothered souls. It is a place where only Nada exists, where peace calms the body, the mind and the soul. The old waiter’s irreverent version of Our Father and Hail Mary proves that he is not religious himself but on one hand it elucidates that he believes in something supreme and omnipotent. This obvious desecration to the Lord’s Prayer does not necessarily equate that he is a man without faith. He has faith actually; he has faith in the boundless sense of Nada. He finds salvation in the clean, well-lighted cafe, free of noise and litters. He finds a sense of meaning in Nada. And in living in the sense of Nada which happens to be his paradise, is already his faith (Gilbert, A.M.). Although he finds no meaning in his life, at least he is coming to terms with life; and in the process of coming to terms with life, he is also coming to terms with death. The only difference of the old waiter and the old-drunk man is their lifestyle. The former is an employee while the latter is more of an employer. But both find the clean, well-lighted place a place of salvation. They are both in the same stage of life. They both find the clean, well-lighted place significant as they cope with their life’s crises. Moreover, as they continue to nurse their life’s failures and despair, the old men failed to actually develop “ego integrity” at this stage of their lives. They are supposed to look back and accept the changes in their lives. They may have minimal amount of despair, but they should rise above the situation because at their prime age, they should already have that deep understanding of the real nature of things: that everything changes and that people eventually die and there’s nothing to fear. But they both fear something. This something keeps on haunting them when moments of despair strike. And when the haunting begins, this is when the escaping happens, when the brandy and the clean, well-lighted place give them refuge. They know that they both need a clean, well-lighted place just to get by. For without it, the sense of darkness will eat them whole. The sense of meaningless will push them towards the edge of life. That sense of void will swallow their littlest of hope. The old waiter knows exactly why the old man frequents the place. He knows that the clean, well-lighted cafe is not the same with any bars or bodegas. The cafe offers tranquillity in the hustle bustle of life. The cafe promises a sanctuary and that in an hour of their seemingly meaningless life, a little spark of light will illuminate their sense of living. And somehow the clean, well-lighted cafe will continue to remind them and its other patrons that there will always be an eye in each storm. Furthermore, there is underlying meaning for a very striking symbols used in this story. This very evident symbol which is also the central unit of this work of art is the clean, well-lighted place itself. The significance of the clean, well-lighted place in the lives of the old men can be interpreted as the belief in something Absolute. Hemingway’s work highlights religious belief as a fundamental theme in a protagonist’s struggle to reach happiness. The story emphasizes that “God or His equivalent is to be sought, and a world in which, if God is indeed dead, one must look for an Absolute which might fill the void of His loss” (qtd in Abouddahab 4). According to Hemingway, the story expresses that only in having faith in something that one can find meaning in life (Abouddahab 4). And in this case, the clean, well-lighted cafe becomes the source of the two old men’s faith when they sometimes or oftentimes swim against the tide of desolation. One more prominent trait of Hemingway’s works is his sense of chauvinism. In his works, his heroes were never females. And the female characters are often depicted as negative elements and not as source of inspiration for readers. Hemingway remarked that “‘politics, women, drink, money and ambition’ damage American writers” (qtd in Polkllas). In this story, Hemingway portrays an insignificant character presented in non-so-prominent lines: “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.” In these lines, and the following dialogue of the waiters, one can construe that a girl here is considered a hooker whose service is paid by the soldier. This also connotes the universal chauvinistic mind-set that men overshadow women. This was made evident with the line “The girl wore no head covering and hurried beside him.” This girl is supposed to hide her face and because she doesn’t have any “head covering” she resorted to hiding herself from the big built of the man who picked her up. Although the story does not want to sensationalize this theme of the story, it cannot be denied that Hemingway’s bigoted opinion to Eve’s race has still surfaced. In this particular scene, a hooker, the girl, is considered a mere object, to be used only when the need arises. But on the other hand, Hemingway also depicted men as natural weak people who seek comfort and strength in alcohol, women and drugs. In the story, the young waiter points out that he’s lucky that he has a loving wife that waits for him at home. And the older waiter recognizes the importance of women in the lives of men when he said, “He might be better off with a wife.” And in this light, there is balance as to how the female and male races complement each other to survive. And that even women can give that sense of meaning to the lives of our characters: the young waiter, the old waiter, and the old-drunk man. This still boils down that our existence can be defined by the people we love, the people who love us, and everything else which we think are the answers to fill that void of Nada. Human beings should therefore keep in mind, that just like in Hemingway’s “The Snows in Kilimanjaro”, our predicaments are oftentimes self-inflicted (Evans and Wang). And in order to become victorious in a seemingly meaningless battle, sit back for a moment, find a clean, well-lighted place, and afterwards continue fighting the good fight of faith. Works Cited "Ernest Hemingway - Biography". Nobelprize.org. 20 Apr 2012 Evans, Sara, and Wang, Bella ed. Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway Study Guide : Summary and Analysis of "The Snows of Kilimanjaro”. GradeSaver, 10 December 2010 Web. 20 April 2012. Gilbert, AM. Literary Analysis: A Clean, Well-lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway. Helium, 07 May 2011. Web. 20 April 2012. Pollklas, Stefan ed. “The Snows of Kilimanjaro-Editor's Note”. 2 February 1998. Web. 20 April 2012. Redouane, Abouddahab. “Introduction: Fiction, Criticism, and the Ideological Mirror”. Journal of the Short Story in English, 2007. Web. 20 Apr. 2012. McLeod, Saul. “Erik Erikson”. Simply Psychology, 2008. Web. 20 Apr. 2012 Hemingway, Ernest. “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” Prism: An Introduction to Literature. Tomeldan, Yolanda et al. eds. Mandaluyong City. National Bookstore, 2009. 92-95. Print Read More