A Clean Well-Lighted Place

A clean well-lighted place has been recognized to be one of Ernest Hemingway’s best short stories. Although Hemingway doesn’t identify the speakers thoroughly, the use of characterization is present and really develops the story. Literary elements like setting, theme, and tone are all elements that contribute to the characterization in the story.
In the beginning of the story, a reader can already tell the differences between the older waiter and younger waiter. The younger waiter is rude and abrupt to the old man. This is clearly evident when he says “you should have killed yourself last week”.  He wants the man to go home so that he himself can go home as well. The younger waiter wants to get home to his wife. On the other hand, the older waiter understands the old man more. The older waiter does not have a wife to go home to and wants to stay at the café longer. This is where theme starts to play a major role. The theme that life is nothingness really stands out with the older waiter and the old man. The old man comes to the café to drink and get away. He views life as nothingness. The older waiter understands the man and relates to him. The younger waiter doesn’t understand this because he is young and still has his life ahead of him. Examples of this are when he says “you talk like an old man yourself” and when he repeatedly says that he is not lonely. The nada speech given by the older waiter shows his views on life and religion. The older waiter knows he is getting older and possibly views the old man as him in the future, therefore he is more relatable with the old man. Another theme is how people deal with their depression or despair. The old man deals with his despair by going to cafes. We know that the old man has lost his wife, is wealthy, and tried to commit suicide. The only way the man deals with the despair is by going to
a café and drinking. The older waiter also enjoys staying late at the café “I am one of those who like to stay late at the café”. The older waiter tells the younger waiter “you do not understand. This is a clean and pleasant café. It is well lighted. The light is very good, and now there are shadows of the leaves”. There is theme present in the lottery as well. One theme is tradition. There are many times where people didn’t want to upset tradition. For example, “Mr. Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset tradition as was represented by the box” and when the characters said they need the lottery even if other towns are beginning not to do them anymore.
Tone is a key literary element used in this story. Many can argue that the old man or the older waiter is Hemingway, but there is no way to prove it. You can really see Hemingway’s attitude towards things by looking at each character. Hemingway wrote the lines for the characters straight out. For example, when the younger waiter says “You should have killed yourself last week”, he did not add in anything else. He wants the reader to focus on the character’s thoughts and words. A huge line to the story that is effected with tone is “the waiter watched him go down the street, a very old man walking unsteadily but with dignity”. This shows that just because the old man is viewed as a drunk, he still has dignity. This is perhaps how Hemingway felt about drinking. In the “nada” speech given by the old waiter, tone is present.
Some lived in it and never felt it but he knew it all was nada y pues nada y nada y pues nada. Our nada who art in nada, nada be thy name thy kingdom nada thy will be nada in nada as it is in nada. Give us this nada our daily nada and nada us our nada as we nada our nadas and nada us not into nada but deliver us from nada;
pues nada. Hail nothing full of nothing, nothing is with thee. He smiled and stood before a bar with a shining steam pressure coffee machine.”
Hemingway’s attitude about religion really comes out in this speech. At first a reader will think it’s just a paragraph about nonsense. However, when you look deeper into it you can see how the older waiter looks at life, being that the Spanish word nada means nothing. Also, when our father prayer is replaced by a lot of nadas, Hemingway is trying to mock religion. In a sense its almost comical and that’s what Hemingway wants to get across. On the contrary, Tone does not really play a major role in the lottery. There is tone of calmness and detachedness, but the tone stays the same basically throughout the whole story until the very end.
            The point of view really helps develop the story. “A Clean, well-lighted place” is wrote in the third person omniscient. This allows the readers to really look at each character. Not only can the reader see what the person is saying, but the reader can also see what the character is thinking. The older waiter thinks about how he is getting older and how a clean well-lighted place is a nice surrounding. He does not like the bar because the light is bright but the bar is unpolished.  The younger waiter seems to be a bad guy, but really he is in just a hurry. The lottery also uses narrator point of view however it is written in the third person objective. The reader doesn’t really get to see what the characters are thinking as much as in “A Clean Well-Lighted Place”. In “The Lottery” the narrator really just shows the process of the lottery rather than what the characters are thinking about. This helps shape the shocking ending. If it wasn’t written in the third person and it was written by a character, both stories would be completely different than what they are and would not have the same effect as they do now.
            In conclusion, Characterization plays a huge role in both “ A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” and “The Lottery”. The use of literary elements helps develop the characterization. Both stories use the literary elements of theme and point of view, however “A Clean Well- Lighted Place” uses a lot more tone than “The Lottery” does. Without the use of the literary elements both stories would not be the same, and would not be the great, famous stories.








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