Study Guide
- 'A Clean Well-Lighted Place' Review
- Quotes
- Questions for Study & Discussion
- Ernest Hemingway Biography
Say it, But Boil it...
Hemingway once wrote, "I am trying to make, before I get through, a picture of the world--or as much of it as I have seen. Boiling it down always, rather than spreading it out thin."
With "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" (1926), Ernest Hemingway succeeds in that goal. He boils down the lines, helping us to see the essence of the situation. But, he doesn't go "thin." We have what we need to see the situation, with basic truths about loneliness, sadness, aging, and human connectivity. What is it to connect with another human being--even with the shadows surrounding--in the dead of night?
Light and Shadows
The story is filled with light and shadows, as an old man sits through another sleepless night--in the quiet of a well-lighted cafe. The older waiter explains to the younger, more impatient waiter, "You do not understand. This is a clean and pleasant cafe. It is well lighted. The light is very good and also, now there are shadows of the leaves."
For a lonely, old man, the clean, well-lighted cafe is a slight respite from the darkness. He drinks himself into a drunken state, hoping that sleep will come--taking him from the quiet desperation that has already caused him to attempt suicide once (as the waiters discuss).
Hemingway once wrote, "I am trying to make, before I get through, a picture of the world--or as much of it as I have seen. Boiling it down always, rather than spreading it out thin."
With "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" (1926), Ernest Hemingway succeeds in that goal. He boils down the lines, helping us to see the essence of the situation. But, he doesn't go "thin." We have what we need to see the situation, with basic truths about loneliness, sadness, aging, and human connectivity. What is it to connect with another human being--even with the shadows surrounding--in the dead of night?
Light and Shadows
The story is filled with light and shadows, as an old man sits through another sleepless night--in the quiet of a well-lighted cafe. The older waiter explains to the younger, more impatient waiter, "You do not understand. This is a clean and pleasant cafe. It is well lighted. The light is very good and also, now there are shadows of the leaves."
For a lonely, old man, the clean, well-lighted cafe is a slight respite from the darkness. He drinks himself into a drunken state, hoping that sleep will come--taking him from the quiet desperation that has already caused him to attempt suicide once (as the waiters discuss).
Quiet Desperation
In Walden, Henry David Thoreau says that the masses of men live lives of quiet desperation. This simple city scene seems to go far to prove the point. For the old man, and also for the old waiter, life now has begun to hold no meaning. As the old waiter says to himself, "It was all a nothing and a man was nothing too."
In the end, Hemingway leaves us with a universality to the tale in that: "Many must have it." Not only do many people have the insomnia and sleeplessness, but they also experience loneliness and the need for a clean, well-lighted place in which to feel safe, or perhaps insulated.
In Walden, Henry David Thoreau says that the masses of men live lives of quiet desperation. This simple city scene seems to go far to prove the point. For the old man, and also for the old waiter, life now has begun to hold no meaning. As the old waiter says to himself, "It was all a nothing and a man was nothing too."
In the end, Hemingway leaves us with a universality to the tale in that: "Many must have it." Not only do many people have the insomnia and sleeplessness, but they also experience loneliness and the need for a clean, well-lighted place in which to feel safe, or perhaps insulated.
