Hemmingway

A detailed Summary of Hemmingway

In 1933, Ernest Hemmingway wrote A Clean, Well-Lighted Place. It's a story of two waiters working late one night in a cafe. Their last customer, a lonely old man getting drunk, is their last customer. The younger waiter wishes the customer would leave while the other waiter is indifferent because he isn't in so much of a hurry. I had a definite, differentitated response to this piece of literature because in my occupation I can relate to both cafe workers.

Hemmingway's somber tale is about conquering late night loneliness in a bright cafe. The customer drinking brandy suffers from it and so does the older waiter. However, the younger waiter cannot understand loneliness because he probably hasn't been very lonely in his life. He mentions a couple times throughout the story that he wished to be able to go home to his wife, yet the old man and old waiter have no wives to go home to like he does. This story have a deeper meaning to me because I often am in a similar situation at work.

For a little over three years, I've been a weekend bartender at an American Legion Club. I almost always work the entire weekends, open to close, which proves to be a tortorous schedule at times. Like the cafe in Hemmingway's tale, the Legion is

The young waiter seems selfish and inconsiderate of anyone else. In the beginning of the story, he's confused why the old man tried to kill himself. "He has plenty of money," he says, as if that's the only thing anyone needs for happiness. When the old man orders another drink, the younger waiter warns him that he'll get drunk, as if to waver his own responsibility rather than to warn the old man for his sake. At work, I often feel the same, that people get what they deserve and that it's no one's fault but their own. When the hours get late and my eyelids get heavy, I catagorize my customers and make their lives seem trivial. Because I'm selfish, I want my customers to leave so that I can then leave and go to bed. If I stick around too long at work, I'll catch a second wind and be wide awake by the time I finally do get home. Then I'll have trouble sleeping and staying awake the following day behind the bar. One late night can wreck the entire weekend.

The other waiter in Hemmingway's tale begins seeming indifferent to the old customer. But as the story progresses, he defends him because he can relate to his despair. He calls him clean and like himself, lacking of confidence and a place to exist that reminds him he's still alive. Drinking at home just isn't the same, he tells his younger co-worker, and they both agree to this. The old man sits looking out the window, as if life was a movie to him, and he was living it by observing. Near the end of the story, he admits his reluctance to close up the cafe because he knows that there may be someone who needs a "clean, well-lighted place." However anxious I am behind the bar to go home s

Some common words found in the essay are:
Legion Club, Well-Lighted It's, Well-Lighted I've, clean well-lighted, Ernest Hemmingway, late night, Clean Well-Lighted, , don't mind, cafe customer, hemmingway's tale, leave waiter,

Approximate Word count = 1110
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English