Analysis Of A Clean Well-Lighted Place By Hemingway

Hemingway based much of his writing on a famous code of behavior. He used the code as a kind of background in the story “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”. He uses the short story to show readers there are no guidelines for life, one should view things as they are, no matter the difficulty, one should contain his or her despair and self-pity by sheer willpower, one should not make trouble for others, and one should not judge others, but see them with “irony and pity.” Even though Hemingway did not use much description in his story; he still conveys these points fully throughout the piece. Hemingway illustrates the premise of accepting the lack of guidelines for life in the story “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” in two main ways. He uses religion to demonstrate this idea. When the waiters speak of the old man’s suicide attempt they say the family “Fear[ed] for his soul,” implying that the family is religious. On the other side of the spectrum, the old waiter says, “‘Our nada who art in nada, nada be thy name’,” as a way to show that one does not have to be religious in life. The old man and the old waiter are in similar positions of depression, but the old waiter has different beliefs than that of the old man. This is meant to show that there are no guidelines that change one’s position in life, regardless of other influences, to show that religion does not save those from depression and …show more content…
He used the story “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” to give a reference to the five codes he used to guide his life: there are no guidelines for life, one should always view things as they are, one should keep his or her self-pity to himself or herself, one should not make trouble for others, and one should not judge others but view them with