A Clean, Well Lighted Place from IkhtiarinaPutri

Short Story Analysis

A Clean, Well Lighted Place

by Ernest Hemingway

INTRINSIC ELEMENTS

Characterization
1. The Major Characters

• The Old Man
• The Older Waiter
• The Younger Waiter

2. The Minor Characters

• The Girl
• The Soldier
• The Bartender

Characteristics

• The Old Man

A deaf man who likes to drink at the café late into the night. The old man likes the shadows of the leaves on the well-lit café terrace. Rumored to end his life but his niece safe him. He was once married, he has a lot of money, and his niece takes care of him. He often gets drunk at the café and leaves without paying. (More: Sparknotes)

• The Older Waiter

Just like the old man, he is lonely and likes to stay in the cafe more longer in the night. He also afraid if in the future he will be like the old man, surrounding by loneliness. He may feel lonely but he also afraid of something like nothingness, not to the death he was afraid of. (More: Sparknotes)

• The Younger Waiter

An impatient man who have a wife and care so much about his wife. He shows his manner which is impatient to the old man because he want to get home and he didn't like to work up late. He doesn't care much about the old man who want to drink more although the older waiter have remind him to serve the old man. But he refuses and only concern to leave as quickly as possible because his wife is waiting at home.

The Setting

• Setting of Place

In the Cafe :"It was very late and everyone had left the cafe except an old man who sat in the shadow the leaves of the tree made against the electric light."

• Setting of Time

At late night: "...and now at night it was quiet and he felt the difference."

Themes

Loneliness

The theme of the short story is loneliness. As it represented by The Old Man and The Older Waiter, they don't have someone to share with, and someone to talk to. The Older Waiter is exquisitely afraid if he will be like the old man in the future. But the cafe which described as "a clean, well lighted place" is the opposite of the loneliness because it is quite impossible to see the cafe is empty, that is why the Old Man and The Older Waiter like to stay longer. The cafe also symbolized as a place where they can feel safe because its tidiness and its cleanness. 

Short Story

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

BY ERNEST HEMINGWAY