A Clean, Well-lighted place is a story of pain and loneliness.

Given Hemingways interest, in representing human life through fictional forms, has consistently been to set man against the background of his world and universe, to examine the human situation from various points of view as pointed out by Linda Wagner-Martin the author of A historical Guide to Ernest Hemingway. His views and feelings seem to be the bases of this particular writing. A sort of expression of how a particular man is at war with his surroundings and not knowing how to cope with them. In this, he also gives the characters an image of realness that comes across to the reader very vividly because while Hemingway focuses on this particular character some of the other characters are shown to have similar problems, something that any reader can relate to and compare to his reality. Hemingway employs a great deal of symbolism in the story. As he introduces his first character he mentions that he sat under The shadow the leaves made against the electric light. The first conclusion a reader may come to is that it was just a place the character liked to sit. But as the story progresses it is shown that this shadow was some kind of dark cloud over the characters head or a sort of darkness that surround him, causing him to wallow in his pain. Even some of the comments made by the characters give a sense of symbolism. For example, You should have killed your-self last week is a perfect example of a statement that symbolizes more about the persons character that is saying this, more than it would the person that the statement is being aimed at, showing selfishness and a lack of sympathy towards others. The way Hemingway incorporates symbolism into this writing is the only way the true essence of each character is brought out. In other words without the symbolism that is expressed in the story there would be no story! The reader would not understand its purpose therefore it would be pointless for Hemingway to even write it. When reading A Clean Well-Lighted Place it obvious and rather strange that Hemingway gives no names and little description of his three central characters. He describes one as the very old man,

another as an older waiter, and a third as the younger waiter. Herein arises a narrative problem as note by Ken Ryan of the University of Alaska author of, Contentious Emendation of Hemingways A Clean Well-Lighted Place. Many have noticed an inconsistency in the dialogue concerning the identity of the two waiters. It becomes rather difficult to figure out whos saying what. For instance, Last weekend he tried to commit suicide. One waiter said Why? He was in despair. What about? Nothing. How do you know it was nothing? He has plenty of money. Reading this gives the reader no clue to what statement belongs to what person. All that can be inferred is that it is a dialogue between two people. The only way a statement or question can be assigned to a character is if the reader reads the story in its entirety. Then goes back and labels each one as I have done below, O.W representing the older waiter and Y.W representing the younger waiter. O.W Last weekend he tried to commit suicide. One waiter said Y.W Why? O.W He was in despair. Y.W What about? O.W Nothing.

Y.W How do you know it was nothing? Y.W He has plenty of money.

This short sample of dialogue not only shows that it is hard to distinguish who is saying what without reading the story in its full contents. But, it is also the first time the word or symbol nothing appears. And, once each statement or question was assigned to a waiter the ignorance of the younger waiter was revealed when he replied, He has plenty of money in regards to why the person they are speaking about has no reason to commit suicide. A clean, well-lit place represents, for Hemingway, a haven of sorts. The light protects the soul from the dark and the purpose of it being clean is so people feel comfortable and welcome. The title itself basically summarizes the overall meaning of the story. Given Hemingways suspicion of the ultimate doom and his passion for being alive, he leaves the knowledgeable reader no room for questioning the theme or the reasons for writing the story but the irony of it all is quite interesting. As quoted by Sean OFaolain We relies that such notes as love, youth , the lighted leaves the dew all carry dark shadows, the silence is ominous and the night inimical. But, the irony in it is that youth implies age, love is an apple that must fall from its tree, the dew will dry, and the light will go out. And, yet he does not include this mistakenly, it was all done with great intention. Ernest Hemingways color and Chiaroscuro explains how Hemingway only indicates three colors in this story. The brightness of the electric light and the streetlight, the shadow made by the tree, and the darkness of night giving the story a sort of gloomy and depressing tone. These three colors represent the feelings of the old man and the older waiter basically introducing the psychological status of these two characters and their feeling of emptiness.

The old man is drawn to the caf in A Clean, Well lighted Place to escape from the darkness of an empty life. Later in the story, the older waiter expresses this emptiness of his own life by inserting the word nada into the holiest of prayers. In this, Hemingway reveals a connection to Christianity. He, himself being a roman catholic he shows no shame in having his characters express their religiosity. Though, the way he went about it can be seen as rather strange because he basically changed the prayer to make it mean something totally different and from this the overall meaning of the story appears, nothingness. But, the characters struggle to erase this feeling is never solved.