Scott Morgan
March 7, 2003
ENGL 102
Meloy
The Young and the Lonely
When our lives begin, we are innocent and life is beautiful, but as we grow older and time passes, we discover that not everything about life is quite so pleasing. Along with the joys and happiness we experience there is also sadness and loneliness. In Hemingway's short story, "A Clean Well-Lighted Place," two waiters in a café are discussing one of their regular customers, an elderly, deaf man. The customer comes in every night and drinks his glasses of brandy slowly and very carefully, peacefully becoming drunk. The older waiter seems to relate with the old man because he too doesn't have anyone to go home to while the younger waiter has a wife waiting for him at home and is in a hurry to close up and get home to her. Hemingway uses an old drunken man, the young waiter, and the old waiter to show how loneliness affects the older characters and how this clean well-lighted place is a necessary illusion against the darkness of their existence.
When the story begins, the old deaf man is sitting outside the Spanish café in the shadow of the leaves of a tree that was made against the electric light. The narrator says, "The two waiters inside the café knew that the old man was a little drunk, and while he was a good client they knew that if he became too drunk he would leave without paying, so they kept a watch on him" (289). Their mention of the fact that he was a good client indicates that he is a regular
March 7, 2003
ENGL 102
Meloy
The Young and the Lonely
When our lives begin, we are innocent and life is beautiful, but as we grow older and time passes, we discover that not everything about life is quite so pleasing. Along with the joys and happiness we experience there is also sadness and loneliness. In Hemingway's short story, "A Clean Well-Lighted Place," two waiters in a café are discussing one of their regular customers, an elderly, deaf man. The customer comes in every night and drinks his glasses of brandy slowly and very carefully, peacefully becoming drunk. The older waiter seems to relate with the old man because he too doesn't have anyone to go home to while the younger waiter has a wife waiting for him at home and is in a hurry to close up and get home to her. Hemingway uses an old drunken man, the young waiter, and the old waiter to show how loneliness affects the older characters and how this clean well-lighted place is a necessary illusion against the darkness of their existence.
When the story begins, the old deaf man is sitting outside the Spanish café in the shadow of the leaves of a tree that was made against the electric light. The narrator says, "The two waiters inside the café knew that the old man was a little drunk, and while he was a good client they knew that if he became too drunk he would leave without paying, so they kept a watch on him" (289). Their mention of the fact that he was a good client indicates that he is a regular