The conciseness of the language used in Ernest Hemmingway's "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" is what makes the piece such a quick read as well as adds to the overall callous tone. But the tone is a direct contradiction, in my opinion, to what the piece is really about. The sentence defining this is "He had a wife once." I love pieces that slap youth across the face with the idea that "old people" are not "nasty things," as the waiter claims, but that they were young once too and that young people could find themselves to be the sad old man looking for a clean, well-lighted place to drink. Hemmingway also suggests that youth arrogantly believes that their time is more valuable than the time of the elderly, as seen in the following exchange: "I want to go home to bed." "What is an hour?" "More to me than to him." How sad. I feel exactly the opposite. I imagine that time would seem much more precious the older you get.
One fairly irrelevant note: one thing about this piece that struck me was the inclusion of the sentence, "The girl wore no head covering and hurried beside him." I love tiny details like that.
Another theme I scoffed at was the idea that money equals happiness. Now normally I laugh at that, saying that obviously no one ever bought a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel if they think money can't buy happiness. But in all seriousness, I wanted to smack the waiter for not being able to imagine why someone with plenty of money would want to kill himself. Money isn't everything; it certainly doesn't solve all of your problems aside from money-related ones!
I agree with many of your statements. The text brought me to believe that youth is more valuable and that we take it for granted. It really is sad, and when we get older time gets more precious as it dwindles.
ReplyDeleteI really could not relate to the waiter at all. He seemed inconsiderate to the old man, who seemed poor and lonely sitting in the shadows of the leaves. I could not help but feel sorry for the older gentleman; however, the waiter had no remorse for such a man.
I also think that the theme of money and happiness is disgusting. Money brings more misery to a person who is not psychological capable of handling such a responsibility. Many people are not capable of handling such a responsiblity, because as they accumulate more and more material things, their wants replace their necessities. It can cause greed in some people.