Hemingway in 1933. The story involves two waiters talking about their feelings,

and their different views of life. Hemingway uses an old man sitting in the cafe as a supporting character to help show the waiter's different views of life; this is shown as they talk about the old man.

As we continue reading the story we learn many things about the characteristics of the two waiters. It is clear that the older waiter seems to have sympathy for the old man, where the younger waiter does not like the nasty old man. As the two waiters keep an eye on the old man (so he won't get up and leave), the younger waiter says, "Last Week he tried to commit suicide". The older waiter asks why, and the younger tells him that he was in despair about nothing because he had plenty of money; therefore he had no reason to kill himself. At this point the older waiter stops the conversation immediately. I believe this is due to the fact that after hearing the younger waiters response he realizes they have nothing in common and to continue this conversation would be useless. The older waiter seems to have more knowledge abo

ut life, everybody, and everything around him. The younger waiter cares only for himself and will not sacrifice anything for anybody. We realize these characteristics by the small details in the story. For example when they notice the soldier walking by with a girl, the older waiters comments, "the guard will pick him up". However the younger waiters response is, "what does it matter if he gets what he's after". The older waiter indeed has more knowledge of his surroundings. The younger waiter does not trouble himself to think too deeply about things that have nothing to do with him.

He tells the older waiter that he is acting like the old man. This sentence was used by Hemingway to hint to the readers that there is a connection between the old man and the older waiter. The older waiter than continues to add the fact that he is no longer young and has no confidence. We must note that the old man is also old and lacks confidence. We realize the old man lacks confidence because of the fact he tried to commit suicide. Again we see the connections of the older waiter and the old man.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Clean Well-Lighted, waiter continues, waiters response, views life, waiter waiter, nothingness waiter goes, lighted bar, dark reminds nothingness, tried commit suicide, tried commit, lacks confidence, commit suicide, fear nothingness, home sleep,
Approximate Word count = 1460
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)