Many stories use symbols to hint to a deeper meaning, or moral to the story. Authors have long used literary techniques such as similes, metaphors and even words' connotations to achieve these goals. In "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" Ernest Hemmingway uses many symbols including the setting to convey his purpose in this short story. This story's images and details are used to illustrate the loneliness of old age.

One of the first of such symbols mentioned is the old man's deafness which is relative to his loneliness. The deafness is a symbol of how the old are cut off from the rest of the world. The old man can't hear spiteful remarks such as "you should have killed yourself," and perhaps he doesn't care because of the "nothingness" or f

The nothingness referred to in the story is another way Hemmingway tries to illustrate the loneliness or futility of old age. The older waiter's sympathy and understanding of the old man's loneliness is demonstrated as he explains to the younger waiter "I am of those who like to stay late at the cafe." He had no wife either and knew that the old man did not have fear or dread but "it was a nothing that he knew to well." The old man was lonely, he had no wife to take care of and his niece was young and probably had a life of her own; this gave the old man a sense of meaninglessness. The lonely old man doesn't even have religion as demonstrated by the older waiter's prayer "Hail nothing full of nothing."

Hemmingway uses many symbols in this story. Most of them illustrate the lon

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Approximate Word count = 531
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)