In
Hemingway’s famous short story “A clean well-lighted place” we see from the
beginning to end that life has no meaning. Nothingness which transformed from
the Spanish word ‘Nada’ in every stage of life is surrounded us by all sides.
Hemingway wants us to rethink about this concept and urges to transcend from
this ‘nada’ as a whole, we have to find out a clean well-lighted place.
Ernest Hemingway is more of a philosopher than a writer.
He spent a vast amount of time in Spain as well as France. That is why he was
very much influenced by European language and culture. In “A well-lighted
place” we can see its imprint. “A clean well-lighted place” is less of a story
rather than a perfect meditation for different stages of life. The story has no
plot, no inner understanding, rather just A cup of Nada. For the old man, The
old waiter with some other fellow contemporary identity always searched for
something quiet, clean well-lighted place. They wanted to escape and transcend
their Nothingness. And as a result, the old man tried to die by suicide attempt
but could not do so. The old waiter, who is suffering from some sort of
identity crisis did not go home after closing the cafe rather he walked to an
all-night café, just to escape the burden of Nada.
At the very beginning of the story, we observe the old
man who comes every night sits alone and drinks in a well-lighted place. Even
though he had lots of Money-splendor, he was feeling empty inside. He wanted to
commit suicide but when the old waiter asked for the reason, the young waiter
replied ‘nothing’. On the other hand, the old waiter, who has a job also, felt
lonely as well. The aged waiter was also searched for something, which might be
a well-lighted place or might be not. So in every step, we can see this clear
portrayal of nothingness. And this is the main theme of this story, Life is
dark. There is no destination, no meaning. Life is like about the Spanish word
‘Nada’.
But when we also search for deeper meaning from this,
Nada has a philosophical meaning also. Hemingway wants us to focus on that. We
in all religions are aware of the old traditional religious rituals. And we do
perform on Lord’s Prayer with these rituals without knowing the meaning. That
is why Hemingway emphasized on those rituals and makes us rethink these. He
wants to tell us without a clear idea of anything, all are meaningless. Through
the story, Hemingway shares an idea on Spanish catholic traditional rituals are
‘nothing, and meaningless’. Catholic society does not support old men. As a
result, these old men are isolated, alone, setting in the shadow of the leaves
of the tree and trying to find out for some calm, clean, well-lighted and
natural place. Hemingway warned us in the story that we can't get out of the
traditional way of thinking about our religion. We should wake up and rethink
the language which we use in our prayer.
On the 2nd part, the lights of the cafe in the story are
symbolic. The meaning of light as the way of self-defense against nothingness
is the old the waiter who feels the importance of light, a clean cafe from bars
and bodegas when he understands the old age, loneliness, death, and
nothingness. According to the story, “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 man was
nothing too.” In this case, we can recall a statement made by Steven K.
Hoffman, “the nothingness was not fear or dread, which would imply a specific
object to be feared.”
Another symbolic sign in ‘a clean well-lighted place’ is
that when the storyteller says, “In the day time the street was dusty, but at
night the dew settled the dust and the old man liked to sit late because he was
deaf and now at the night it was quiet and he felt the difference.” we can also
feel the loneliness of the old man who is alone even at the night time.
On the last page of the story, we observe the old waiter
in a subtle way who is deep in thought about the conception of “Nada” is alone
in a cheap bar. When the barman asked him “what’s yours?” The old waiter
replied ‘Nada,’ which prompts the barman to tell him (in the Spanish Language)
that he is a crazy guy. But if we take a deeper look at this, the old waiter
was contemplating the well-known parody of Lord’s Prayer: “Our nada who art in
nada, nada be thy name thy kingdom, nada thy will be nada……..pues nada;”
The conception of nothingness which transformed from the
Spanish word ‘nada’ and a kind of philosophical point came from the idea of existentialism,
mainly in Europe, started in the 1920s and 1930s. As I mentioned before,
Hemingway was very much influenced by European language and culture.
Existentialism taught us a good lesson that says nothing has meaning until we
put meaning into it.
Again if we look at the end of the story the old waiter
who thinks he is suffering from insomnia, mainly is afraid of darkness, afraid
of nothingness, afraid of Nada. He deserves a clean well-lighted place even
with dignity like the old man, but he did not get that. At the end of the
night, the old waiter is isolated like the old man and he said to himself, it
is probably only insomnia, many must have it.”
In a nutshell, Hemingway in this kind of depressing story is also giving us a big piece of advice which is thought about what we are doing create meaning by looking at meaning bless us. He wants us to search in our life for the best place to drink to eat to live to be right a clean a well-lighted place is a safe place, a place we feel comfortable a place where we feel so far so good.
References:
Themes, A Clean Well-Lighted Place, SparkNotes
https://www.sparknotes.com/short-stories/a-clean-well-lighted-place/themes/
summary and analysis A clean, well-lighted place,
Hemingway's-short-stories, literature,
The Fear of
Nothingness, Hemingway Ernest, A Clean Well-Lighted Place
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