A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

"A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" is a short story by American author Ernest Hemingway, first published in 1926. It was later included in his 1933 collection, Winner Take Nothing.

Plot synopsis

The waiters are chatting about the old man who tried to commit suicide last week. The young waiter has no idea why he wanted to kill himself: "He was in despair ... He has plenty of money". The subject and a level of confusion in the phrasing of dialogue within the story has been a contentious issue, in regard to which waiter knows about the old man trying to kill himself, with two revisions existing, as outlined in the scholary article by Warren Bennett in "The characterization and the dialogue problem in Hemingway's “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place".

Afterwards in the café, both waiters are talking about the reasons that some old people commit suicide. From this conversation, the reader can gather that the old man who was there last week hanged himself with a rope, and that it was his niece that cut him down. The young waiter again states that the old man who is there tonight should go home because he, the young waiter, wants to go home to his wife.

Both waiters are pulling the shutter, only this time they are talking about a matter of being lonely, feeling no fear about going home before usual hours. Young man: "I'm confidence. I am all confidence." Then he says that the older waiter has the same things as he, but the older waiter says "No. I have never had confidence and I am not young ... I am of those who like to stay late at the café ... With all those who do not want to go to bed. With all those who need a light for the night." The young waiter seems not to comprehend the idea of a well-lighted and clean place where the old can escape from loneliness, "there are shadows of the leaves" - the older waiter says. Well-lighted is a contrast with the darkness of death and bad thoughts. The darkness must be avoided because in the darkness everything is a "nada" (Spanish: 'nothing'). The older waiter stays in case someone needs a lighted cafe in the night, in contrast with a bodega or a bar, which may not be lighted or clean and thus will only increase the loneliness.

The young waiter leaves the scene, and after 'good night,' the older waiter begins a monologue in which "nada [nothing]" replaces words in the Lord's Prayer, and the first line in the Hail Mary prayer.

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 nadas and nada us not into nada but deliver us from nada; pues nada [then nothing]. Hail nothing full of nothing, nothing is with thee.

Interpretation

Some have argued that Hemingway contrasts light and shadow to differentiate the old man and the young people around him, and uses the deafness of the old man as a symbol for his separation from the rest of the world.^{[citation needed]}

In "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" Hemingway uses the waiters to judge the old man and portray his views toward the type of drinker he is.^{[citation needed]} As a clean drunk, the man does not spill a drop as he drinks and walks "unsteadily but with dignity" when he finally leaves the café. The waiters talk between themselves as the young waiter asks the old waiter the man’s story.

Another way to analyze the relationships between the men is to compare them as one person. The young waiter complains about having to stick around the café waiting for the man to finish drinking. He claims that he has a wife to go home to and he would rather be in bed than in the café. The old waiter defends the drinking man because he can relate and even see himself in the man. He sympathizes knowing that he, too, prefers a clean well lighted place to drink and will later appreciate such a place in his old drinking age. The old man is in his final years of life and the old waiter recognizes that he soon will have the same fate as the old man. A progression of age is seen among the characters demonstrating the transition from being young and social to aging and feeling lonely. In "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," Hemingway portrays a difference in age, experience, and opinion of drinking through the unique characters that could represent a progression of alcoholism.^{[citation needed]}

Historical reaction by other authors

James Joyce once remarked: "He [Hemingway] has reduced the veil between literature and life, which is what every writer strives to do. Have you read 'A Clean Well-Lighted Place'?...It is masterly. Indeed, it is one of the best short stories ever written..."