Sun 5 Mar, 2017 02:40 am
It's an unfinished essay, actually a passage analysis but I am extremely worried and riddled with anxiety because of this.
Ernest Hemingway’s short story, “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” paints a reality where this old man is devoid of passion and belonging to the world. This story depicts the old man’s life with heavy emphasis on death and the repetitive nature of living in the society without any meaning. The passage where the unnamed waiter brought more brandy to the old man and bluntly told him he should have tried killing himself last week, really emphasize the emptiness and contrast of the waiters' fulfilled life as opposed to the old man who has nothing. Hemingway showed how this old man lacks the emotion to strive for more using his old age to represent a contrast and irony of already achieving everything necessary in life while having no meaning at the same time, and by using this passage Hemingway demonstrates the significance between the old man and the waiter, the existence of time and the willingness to become drunk as symbolisms and central theme of lack of motivation.
At the very beginning of this passage, there is already a build up to animosity because of the age difference and the comparisons between the old man's life and the waiters'. This is emphasized in the line "What do you want?" (150) as the waiter who is the younger one showed disrespect towards the old man instead of asking in a professional manner. As noted in this line "The old man sitting in the shadows-" (150) the reason why the old man is sitting in the shadow is because that symbolizes him being in the depth of his despair and lack of empathy to do anything about it. The old man is drowning himself in sorrows in the shadow while the waiter is out in the light. In the same sentence, the passage used the word young as a comparison where the waiter has the motivation because he is full of life and the other is stuck in the as being dubbed the old man. Another symbolism embodies the glass or saucer, and this glass is meant to be the only light the old man is holding onto, he is holding onto this glass as support.
The old man's only support left in this world is alcohol because time is almost always going against him. Noting that his old age is already a depiction of barely hanging onto to life and the waiters' young age of having all the time in the world. The young waiter sees how this old man is rotting away his life and becomes distraught because he fears he is losing his time by interacting with a dead soul, and this is depicted in the line, “You’ll be drunk,” the waiter said. The old man looked at him. The waiter went away.
“He’ll stay all night,” he said to his colleague. “I’m sleepy now. I never get into bed before three o’clock. He should have killed himself last week” (150). This line also gives the indication that the waiter has time in this world and obtained fulfillment with having a wife and kid to get back to compared to the old man he lost everything and basically has no time left and willingly killing himself. The waiters' impatient attitude signifies the stress and worries over time and the fast paced world society is known for.
@sabishiwalts,
I just want a simple answer of yes or no if this makes sense so far.
@sabishiwalts,
I am a longtime fan of Hemingway's works and your paragraphs as written make sense, conveying your thoughts.