A Clean, Well-Lighted Place (1993) is one of the most famous existential stories of the distinguished American writer Ernest Hemingway. In this piece, an old man drinks whiskey, a stack of saucers growing in front of him. Two waiters close the pub for the night, exchanging, quite in Hemingway style, various minor remarks. The younger one is in a hurry to go home, the older one hesitates, he clearly does not want to leave, although it is already deep night. He has lived a long life and knows: there is nothing in the world, except for a tiny light surrounded by hopeless darkness. In this story, the feeling of hopelessness, meaninglessness of life reaches its climax.
An old man discussed by the waiters is in despair, but it does not come from poverty. From the dialogue between the two waiters, we learn that he tried to commit suicide and failed only because his niece saved him.
“He was in despair.”
“What about?”
“Nothing.”
“How do you know it was nothing?”
“He has plenty of money.” (Hemingway, 1933, p.288).
A person, especially a lonely person, very often seeks shelter next to people, even if they are not noticed. In this tragic, doomed world, it was necessary to find at least some kind of anchor, at least a straw to cling to. However, in essence, there is darkness full of meaninglessness beyond this cafe.
There are no human meanings in the world. This idea is essential for American literature, where God is irrational and incomprehensible. There are no human meanings in the world: “It was a nothing that he knew too well. It was all a nothing and a man was a nothing too.” (Hemingway, 1933, p.291). Such is the hopeless conclusion that one of the heroes of the story comes to. Senses are a person’s attempt to overcome his loneliness, speak emptiness, an attempt to connect himself with a meaningless world.
The feeling of tragedy permeated most of Hemingway’s works of the first decade of his work – from the mid-20s to the mid-30s. The writer perceived the surrounding reality as a mosaic of large and small human tragedies, which embodied a fruitless pursuit of happiness, a desperate search for harmony within oneself, and loneliness among people.
Reference
Hemingway, E. (1933). A clean, well-lighted place. Complete Short Stories, 288-291.