A Clean, Well-Lighted Place: An Analysis

J.A.Jaz

Ernest Hemingway’s A Clean, Well-lighted Place is indeed a writerly text. It has been said that a

writerly text is writer-centered as it is the opposite of a readerly text which focuses more on the readers.

The story, although written in Third Person Omniscient Point of View, still was somewhat

difficult to comprehend. This is perhaps due to the reason that Hemingway’s work is economical with

words. According to many, Hemingway is known to have a style of being economical with words. He

omits words that he thinks are unnecessary. This was observed as the story was progressing. Three

major observations were observed as I read the story. First, it was difficult to identify “who-said-what”

because of the lacking dialogue tags. The readers are momentarily left trying to figure out who is the

speaker for that particular line. Second, it is difficult to keep track of the text because it is not detailed.

One moment, the two waiters are still in the café talking. After that, the older waiter gets into a

conversation with himself until he finds himself in a bar. The transition of the scenes was not clear.

Again, it would be traced back towards Hemingway’s style of writing. Minor details for the story were

omitted (transitional devices, fillers, function words, etc.), thus, making it difficult to catch up with. And

lastly, the conversations of the characters were something to notice.

“How did he do it?”

“He hung himself with a rope.”

“Who cut him down?”

“His niece.”

“Why did they do it?”

“Fear for his soul.”

 The conversations seem unnatural to the readers. It is acceptable in a day-to-day conversation

to answer questions with fragments. However, in this story, it is evident that the exchange of dialogues

seems aloof. The response to one question is direct to the point, no further explanation. There is no real

interaction and bond between the characters.

The setting was clearly in a clean, well-lighted café served by two unnamed waiters. Spanish

words such as hombre, copita, bodegas, and nada were used, giving an implication that the story took

place perhaps in a Spanish speaking country or town. The dialogues, although short and unnatural, is

easy to comprehend. It also appears to the ears because of the literary devices used. Some of the lines

used alliteration, rhetorical question, and simile as observed in the following lines.

The light is very bright and pleasant but the bar is unpolished

What is an hour?

You talk like an old man yourself

Parody was evident when the older waiter recited a very well-known Christian prayer, replacing

some words with the word nada which means nothing.

“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”

And there is also repetition of the lines (example: You do not want music, certainly, you do not

want music). The construction of the text is simple. The sentences are short and the choice of words is

simple as well. The events occurred in one single night, told in a linear way, having no flashbacks or

“flashforwards” at all. The story does not have an apparent conflict nor does it have a climax. There is
not much of a complication happening in the story, which perhaps allowed the readers to focus more on

the meaning of the text.

The meaning and the whole purpose of the text is not clearly stated which only adds as a reason

why it is considered as a writerly text. The readers are left contemplating and figuring out what the

writer really intends to convey. Is it about loneliness? Is it about solitude? Or is it really about nothing?

So many interpretations could be made from this story. It is not the ordinary type of story that

readers read. Indeed, it is something new.

Ernest Hemingway’s A Clean, Well-Lighted Place showed two different personalities—one

young, and one old. One is impatient while the other one is slow-paced. One is confident while the other

one is not. Perhaps this was his reason for not naming the two characters. It was done purposively so

that the readers would focus more on their contrasting traits, the meaning instead of the text. Its

meaning is not clearly stated but nada has something to do with it as it was repeated several times in

the story. The text touches more on the life of a person and how the feeling of nothingness affects a

person, and how that person views the world and things around him.