Why Does the Old Man Attempt Suicide in A Clean, Well-Lighted Place?

Late at night, two waiters have to stay at work until the last customer leaves. They discuss his recent suicide attempt and the reasons why he does not want to go home. These two sentences suffice for a summary of the short story. The full text of A Clean, Well-Lighted...

Looking for A Clean, Well-Lighted Place summary and analysis? A short synopsis, an illustrated timeline, and a detailed summary & analysis of A Clean, Well-Lighted Place are below. The analysis of a literary work starts from reading its full text. We can read this short story in less than an...

Looking for A Clean, Well-Lighted Place character analysis? There are only three characters in the short story: the deaf old man, the older waiter, and the younger waiter. But who is the protagonist in A Clean, Well-Lighted Place? This article by Custom-Writing.org experts will answer this question, as well as...

Ernest Hemingway managed to fill this 990-word text with moral questions that deserve multiple-page analysis. The key themes of A Clean, Well-Lighted Place are nada (nothingness), alcohol addiction, anility, and existentialism. This article by Custom-Writing.org experts features a summary of these issues discussed from different points of view. ⚪️ Nada...

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place short story can be confusing because nothing special happens, but it has a lot of sub-text. The characters say one thing meaning another. The inner dialogue of the protagonist describes his moral conflict. Even the description of the café has underlying symbolism. Custom-Writing.org experts have prepared...

Hemingway wrote short (very short) stories where nothing special happens. Meanwhile, the works are a concentrated existentialist philosophy, as the writer saw it. There is a lot to say about every single line of A Clean, Well-Lighted Place. Literary analysis trains you to read between the lines and find meaning...

Despite its briefness, A Clean, Well-Lighted Place was one of Hemingway’s favorite short stories. It is depressing and sometimes painful to read. Nobody likes to hear that life has no supreme purpose and that religion is a weak measure to contradict it. But from time to time, it is beneficial...

In the short story, the central setting place is a clean and well-lit café. It is quiet there, as the reader may assume from several indirect phrases. There is no music because it is the best place to wipe off the helpless thoughts that bring the characters to despair. They...

Nothingness is the central theme of the short story. The action takes place in Spain, and the reader may assume that the waiters should talk in Spanish. Hemingway added local color to the narrative by introducing some Spanish words. But “nada” is a word with multiple meanings and sounds like...

The waiters are of different generations. No wonder their opinions about the late visitor differ. The younger waiter is irritated by the client. He does not understand why he does not want to go home. The older waiter sympathizes with the visitor, as he can relate to his depression. More...

The short story is told from the third-person omniscient point of view. But during the lengthy dialogues, it resembles a play in two actions (one inside the café and the other in the bar). This approach lets the readers see the expressed and unrepressed thoughts and feelings of the characters....

It may seem that Hemingway abstained from showing his opinion in the short story. But at a closer look, the author’s tone reveals itself in the characters’ dialogues, nature description, and a few events. The author lets the readers form their opinion about the text independently from what he believes....

The old man represents the depths of despair and depression a person could experience in a lifetime. His deafness makes him physically isolated from the rest of the world, as he is deprived of the pleasure of human conversation. He can still feel the difference between a noisy business day...

There are only four characters in the short story: two waiters, the old man, and the bartender at the bodega. The first three are equally important for the plot development. Still, the older waiter is the protagonist. He brings the reader to understand the story’s subtext and lives through all...

The old waiter’s interpretation of the prayer shows his depression and loss of faith. At a deeper level, it is a manifest of “nothingness” that waits for us at every corner. The protagonist realizes that religion offers little help in his fight with depression, but he does not know what...

The short story is only 990 words long. There is almost no action: we learn everything from the dialogue of the waiters. The reason for such a concise structure is the author’s purpose. Hemingway aimed to create an atmosphere of pointlessness and “nothingness.” He wanted his readers to feel what...

Even while staying at the clean, well-lighted café, the old man sits “in the shadow” of the trees. The shadow represents his depression and despair that never leaves him. Shadow is where light meets darkness, and they mingle. From this point of view, it symbolizes the transition from life to...

A clean, well-lighted place is a description of a Spanish café where the action of the short story takes place. It has a symbolic meaning that represents any place where one can feel comfort and security. It is where a person has nothing to fear and can put away their...

Hemingway wrote the story in 1933 as a part of his third and last collection of short stories, Winner Take Nothing. But the first publication went out in Scribner’s Magazine in the same year. It was Hemingway’s favorite piece, and James Joyce even called it “masterly.” More Information A Clean,...

It would be wrong to limit the short story to a single theme. Still, the central one would be the theme of nothingness. But loneliness, old age, meaning, and depression are also critical. They result from the feeling of emptiness that makes people seek the illusion of company and avoid...

The old waiter doesn’t want to go home because he is afraid of staying with his thoughts one-on-one. He has lost meaning in life, and religion doesn’t help him anymore. He mentions the fear of “nothing” that chases him. Thus, staying among other people distracts him from his depression. More...