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A Clean, Well Lighted 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 a...

Posted by: Rainey Day

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