Analysis Of A Clean Well-Lighted Place By Ernest Hemingway

Born July 21, 1899 to Dr. Clarence and Grace Hall Hemingway in Oak Park, Illinois, Ernest Miller Hemingway would later become one of the most famous American writers in history. He achieved and experienced everything one can imagine within 62 years of life, from surviving plane crashes all the way to winning Nobel prizes. He was and is known not only for his fantastic writing, but for his service during World War I, interesting points of view and exotic lifestyle. Hemingway's religious views, World War I experiences and influence of Spanish culture all heavily influenced his writing of the short story “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” and the message he was trying to convey through it. From birth to death, Hemingway could be classified as a Christian. As a child he
At the end of his life, he also did not comply with Christian standards as he ended his own life when he shot himself. Suicide is clearly frowned upon by the Catholic Church. Although his way of death would disqualify him from a Catholic burial service, he was buried by a priest. He never directly addressed his religious or political views, but it could be argued that some of his writing expressed his true feelings regarding religion. In one of his well-known books “A Moveable Feast” he wrote “All thinking men are atheist”. He lived in an era that was conservative but he lived a progressive, liberal life. So we understand that even though he was raised and buried a Christian, Hemingway, leaned more towards a progressive, liberal and existentialist view on life, which he reflected in his writings. In the short story “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” we see that his religious views influenced the following sentences, “What did he fear? It was not a fear or dread, it was a nothing that he knew too well. It was all a nothing and a man was a nothing too. It was only that and light was all it needed and a certain cleanness and