Juxtaposition In Well Lighted Place

An existential crisis occurs when an individual starts to question their existence and purpose in life. The individual may experience a sense of being lost and having no meaning while approaching what’s known as a state of “nothingness.” The state of nothingness is reached when an individual does not fulfill their purpose or live life to the fullest. Existentialists consider nothingness to be worse than death. A crisis arises when the individual doesn’t take any action to change the stasis they are in or find their meaning. Hemingway uses the juxtaposition between light and darkness to emphasize the older waiter’s existential crisis; correlating the “nothingness” felt by the older waiter to darkness, and the light to clarity of the mind and …show more content…
Hemingway portrays light positively, for example, “With all those who do not want to go to bed. With all those who need a light for the night.” This language suggests that the light during nighttime saves the character from darkness, which refers to the void or nothingness at which the old waiter is experiencing. The turning off of the electric light sends the old waiter into a stream of the unconscious. The thoughts that are evoked focus on the his loss of faith and his own realization that he is falling deeper into a state of “nothingness.” Hemingway confirms that the darkness provokes this event, “Turning off the electric light he continued the conversation with himself.” Following this stream of unconscious, Hemingway emphasizes the difference in connotations between bars and bodegas, and the waiter’s preference of a “well-lighted cafe.” Also, the waiter waits until daylight to go to sleep, reiterating the fact that darkness symbolizes nothingness and he is afraid to fall deeper into that state by sleeping during the night time. Hemingway closes the story by confirming the crisis through the waiter’s inability to act and generate and excuse that his state of “nothingness” is normal and