美国文学史结课论文

A Stylistic Analysis of “A Clean,

Well-lighted Place”

王琼

Student number: 20074180704

Course: A Survey of American Literature Tutor: Huang Huihui

December 30, 2010

The main focus of ―A Clean, Well-Lighted Place‖ is on the pain of old age suffered by a man that we meet in a cafe late one night.Hemingway considers loneliness the principle tragedy of modern human life. Faced with ―nothing" in the modern society now and then, man should seek light in order to establish dignity in life. This kind of courage needed by man to fight against intolerable loneliness is exactly what Hemingway wanted to display in the story.

1. Symbols in “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”

1.1 Light and Shadows

The story is filled with light and shadows, as an old man sits through another sleepless night--in the quiet of a well-lighted cafe. The older waiter explains to the younger, more impatient waiter, "You do not understand. This is a clean and pleasant cafe. It is well lighted. The light is very good and also, now there are shadows of the leaves." For a lonely, old man, the clean, well-lighted cafe is a slight respite from the darkness. He drinks himself into a drunken state, hoping that sleep will come--taking him from the quiet desperation that has already caused him to attempt suicide once (as the waiters discuss). The veteran waiter, like Hemingway, understands the deeper things in life, believing strongly that he must keep the café open in order to let others stay in the light, as he wishes also to remain in the light. Unable to bear the darkness of his world, the waiter walks the streets late in the night, not being able to sleep until morning. In the end, Hemingway leaves us in this: "Many must have it", by which he means not only that many people have the insomnia and sleeplessness, but also that many experience loneliness and the need for a clean, well-lighted place in which to feel safe, or perhaps insulated. Some have argued that Hemingway contrasts light and shadow differentiate the old man and the young people around him, and uses the deafness of the old man as a symbol for his separation from the rest of the world. To Hemingway, it was much more than the physical darkness that frightened him—it was the symbolic darkness of reality. Hemingway was a modernist, a realist, and a

philosopher. He believed the ultimate purpose of life was to discover such a clean, well-lighted place to escape from the darkness of the world—the dark truth that life is without truth or meaning. So light represents any device man uses to distract himself from the darkness.

1.2 The Café

The clean, well-lighted café of the story's title is its central image. This kind of caféis a kind of idealized space; in it, even the loneliest, most despairing of men can find some kind of comfort. The clean, well-lighted caféis a refuge that can provide comfort and company. The caférepresents a space in which one can escape from troubles –in this case, from the despair of everyday life. The older waiter explains why these specific elements are necessary in his ideal space: he needs the café to be clean and quiet (music is absolutely out), and most importantly, he requires a lot of light. Light chases away the dark. These characters are feeling insecurity and dread that can creep in at night; the older waiter expresses it best when he describes the awful nothingness of life –"nada y pues nada y pues nada‖. Nothing can offer him comfort, and this vast spiritual emptiness is overwhelming. Hemingway suggests that only the light of a pleasant café, and the numbing effect of drunkenness, can push away the dark realization that we are all nothing.

2. Contrasts in “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place"

2.1 Man and Time

The real conflict of "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" is not between two characters, but, rather, in a more abstract sense, between man and time. The story deals with characters that all have different visions of the meaning of time – the youngest man values it, but the older characters don't. The oldest character, a man near the end of his life, is simply passing the time until he dies (in fact, we learn that he even tries to commit suicide to hurry along the process). The point is, the older you get, the more

time wears upon you, and the more you feel your mortality – Hemingway wants us to recognize the fact that all of us will grow old and die someday, no matter how young or confident we are now. If you were looking for an uplifting story, you may have figured out by now that this is probably not it.

2.2 Success and Loneliness

In this short story, the process of aging makes the characters feel their mortality; the Old Man's attempted suicide demonstrates his willingness to escape the loneliness that, according to Hemingway, comes with age. A progression of age is seen among the characters demonstrating the transition from being young and social to aging and feeling lonely. In "A Clean Well Lighted Place," Hemingway portrays a difference in age, experience, and opinion of drinking through the unique characters that could represent a progression of alcoholism. Hemingway implies that, no matter how much money we have, or how successful we have been in life, we are all ultimately end up as lonely individuals. In this loneliness, what matters above all is simply to have some means of escape from this loneliness, whether that's suicide, drunkenness, or simply a clean, well-lighted place to sit and still feel like part of the world.

3. The Style of“A Clean, Well-Lighted Place"

3.1 Language Features

This super-short short story is a terrific example of Hemingway's famous prose style. His writing is journalistic and no-nonsense; he reports dialogue cleanly and directly, without any floury adjectives or fancy-pants descriptions. This sparse, tight economy of words is one of the things that made Hemingway so very, very famous in the 1920s, and his distinctive style is still much admired to this day.

Hemingway's Hemingwayness contributes to the bleak outlook of this story –instead of hearing about the despair of the old man, phrased eloquently and poetically over a span of pages; we simply get a kind of punch to the gut in this story. Its

extreme shortness makes its point all the more powerful, and the direct reportage of dialogue and inner monologue are far more effective here than any amount of descriptive language could ever be. The most descriptive line we get, in fact, is the opening of the story, which, in fact, barely tells us anything at all: "It was late and every one had left the cafe except an old man who sat in the shadow the leaves of the tree made against th e electric light‖. We don't see the café, nor do we know where it is or anything else about it – however, Hemingway manages to sketch out just enough of the scene for us to create a feeling of the setting for us.

3.2 The “Iceberg Principle” under This Short Story

In "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," Hemingway offers a fairly pessimistic view of the world, suggesting that even people who are young, happy, and totally content will someday end up lonely, drunk, and dissatisfied. By showing us three characters in different stages of life (young, middle aged, and elderly), Hemingway depicts the way in which life grows increasingly unsatisfactory, until the only viable options are suicide or drunkenness. From that, we also understand the youth and self-confidence can not help one withstand the metaphorical dark and nothing, Only use right way to look at other people that can understand life. In addition, Hemingway presents him as a representative of all people nearing the end of life, weary and hopeless, but still dignified. The key here is dignity – Hemingway wants us to see that even when life gets you down, you should accept it and try to keep it real.