A Clean Well-Lighted Place Essay

Nada, nada thing. These are the thoughts or absence of thoughts that ran through the heads of the Latino population coming back from the Great War. Nothing. Ernest Hemingway as an ambulance driver got to see this shift in men’s thoughts and wrote “A Clean Well-Lighted Place” (1933). His short story has been anthologized for the reason that now more than ever the Hispanic culture was growing and contributing to society post World War I as much as it is now. The first point that stands out in this piece is Hemingway using Spanish. He does this to paint a narrative of a Hispanic-American in a post-Great War era. The first time that a character speaks Spanish in the story is the old waiter to the young waiter having a conversation about whether or not to shut down the diner before or at three in the morning saying, “’No, hombre,’” (). Hombre translates to man. This proves that Hemingway, for one, knew Spanish, which …show more content…
It also reveals that as a media organization they are reaching not just Hispanics, but those that are not and shifting their mindset. This mindset shift makes other non-Hispanics interested in Hispanic culture. Thus, the more interest peaked by non-Latinos adds more Latino roots to American culture. Some might claim that this would be a takeover of American culture, but as Hispanics are only sixteen percent and other white ethnicities will predominantly overwhelm that Hispanic minority. The numbers are rising though in Hispanic growth. From 2000 to 2010 Hispanic population increased by forty-three percent (Overview of Race and Hispanic Origin pp. 1). All of this info further demonstrates why Hemingway’s work has gone beyond time and been anthologized as American. It is due to the fact that our American culture now more than ever is increasingly Hispanic from music to video production/media