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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