A Clean Well-Lighted Place by Ernest Hemmingway

Sitting in the shadows, thinking about life, in despair, with a drink in his hand, was an old man, wanting to kill himself more than anything. In the short story, “A Clean Well-Lighted Place”, Ernest Hemingway expresses his true outlook on life through a made up character in ways never imagined, confusing at first, but right to the point. You can get a more defined understanding of this short story through characters.

In many short stories, the author writes about many characters, in a very detailed way. On the other hand, Hemingway uses only three characters to get to the point. One of the three characters is most important, the old man. The old man is the character that Hemmingway uses to expresses himself through, a character he intentionally made miserable to relate to his actual life. The old man doesn’t really enjoy the life he has. He has wealth, wife, and many things to enjoy in life, but he still doesn’t truly appreciate it. Another character Hemingway uses is, the younger waiter. Knowing that this is younger, he doesn’t have much experience in life, and does not appreciate the old man staying at the café every night until a late hour. Not only does this waiter doesn’t give his appreciation, he also insisted that the old man should decide to commit suicide. Completely the opposite, there is also an older waiter, who understands what the old man is going through, and tries to explain to the younger waiter. The older waiter is a lot more experienced, which leads to him understanding the situation.

In the end, this short story, if you truly analyze it, you can learn a lot of life lessons and a true understanding of the story through characters. For example just because you have everything, that doesn’t mean you can be happy, just go for something you truly want, and not to judge so easily because you don’t know what the persons going through.