Analysis Of A Clean Well Lighted Place By Hemingway

Faced with many hardships, Hemingway incorporates his experiences in life into his stories. Growing up in an environment where most of his family suffered from depression, Hemingway later developed depression as a result of his childhood. Due to his traumatizing experience in WWI, extreme depression, and tragic family history, Hemingway’s short stories “A Clean Well Lighted Place” and “Hills Like White Elephants,” examine life’s hardships, feelings of loneliness, and sense of meaninglessness.
Hemingway bases the characters in “A Clean Well Lighted Place” on hardships he faced in WWI. He dealt with immense loss, resulting in his belief in life's meaningless. Realizing the majority of people rush home to nothing, Hemingway utilizes this empty
In his short stories, Hemingway describes a young couple who deal with the hardships of coming to terms with their unborn child. Without actually using the word “abortion”, Hemingway develops the idea with the same caution topic elicits to this day. Throughout their conversation, both the girl and American continue to drink believing they will avoid their problems. They start drinking beers the moment they arrive at the station, hoping to fill their free time with anything but discussion. When the girl tells the American that “‘...Hills look like white elephants’”, she requests they order more drinks in order to delay the inevitable conversation about the baby. Although they drink primarily to avoid thinking about the pregnancy, an underlying sense of deeper issues surface. The girl herself supports this when she comments she and the American man try new drinks the majority of the time, as if constantly looking for new ways to avoid each other. By the end of their conversation, both drink alone—the girl at the table and the man at the bar—suggesting that the two will end their relationship and go their separate