While Hemingway's short story "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" is usually interpreted as a representation of the conflict between man and aging, it is also a fruitful example of negatively-used social categorization. In the story, the young waiter’s use of person perception is completely offensive to the old man who falls victim. Due to the young waiter’s inability to sympathize with the old man, the waiter grows increasing more rude and cruel as the story continues. In Ernest Hemingway’s “A Clean Well-Lighted Place”, the young waiter designates the old man as undeserving of freedom and life based on the man being elderly, deaf, and alone in the café.…
This week I read “Soldier home” and ‘The Necklace” along with a section from “Literature: A introduction to reading and writing”, which helped me gain a different view on how and why we read literature. Soldier home painted a reflection of Hemingway’s trials and tribulations when he returned home from the war, emphasizing how he feels disconnected from the world. He wants life to be easy because he doesn’t have the will to put forth effort in obtaining the things he desires. Hemingway expressed his feelings in his writing as a way to communicate more efficiently with the world. The Necklace and that comments that followed in the margins, illustrated how to be an active participant when reading literature. Thinking as you read can help one gain…
Through the text ‘A Clean Well-Lighted Place’ we can very clearly see the ideas of Loneliness and living life in despair. I think that these themes are very relevant to the society around us. A lot of people are unable to form connections or lose connection in their lives. This leads to people being lonely, much like the main character in the story. An example of this in the text is when the two waiters at the café are sitting down, and talking to each other, they begin to talk about the old man, “He’s lonely. I am not lonely.” This is the younger waiter referring to the drunken old man; the only reason for the man being lonely is because he struggles with making connections as he is deaf.…
Even though to be in conflict with society and especially its values and beliefs isn’t easy for many authors to do, Ernest Hemingway breaks out this idea in order to give the reader a deep and provoking novel, mixed with unusual themes for that time in the way they were depicted, like alcoholism and expatriation.…
This literature was confusing however, conceptually understandable that even though this short story was written somewhere between the life-time of Ernest Hemingway. People can relate to it in someway and the style of how it is written is something it could be said to be artistic and educational that people can learn from. As this textbook was dedicated for the purpose of learning literature, it was appropriate for using this literature in the book; So that people could debate, discuss the very meaning of the contents and…
It is his works, such as Hills like White Elephants, which subtly address modern issues that bring forth the question of morality and purpose to a general population (A Farewell to Arms, 3). It is his short, direct style, exemplified by his six word story “Baby shoes for sale, never worn.”, allows for a clear and deep expression of emotion (A Farewell to Arms, 4). His involvement of incorporating the reader through active reading breaks an emotional barrier set forth by usual text. This action allows for the reader to directly examine Hemingway’s characters, and thus reflect on their own behavior. Hemingway’s mastery of language, subsequent to his fluency in the Romantic languages, allows his works to be overall reflective of human behavior and relate to the reader in an emotional context (A Farewell To Arms,…
“" I know you wouldn't mind it, Jig. It's really not anything. It's just to let the air in.” The girl did not say anything. "I'll go with you and I'll stay with you all the time. They just let the air in and then it's all perfectly natural.” "Then what will we do afterward?” (Hemingway 590). He conveys these rules he sets for himself, especially limiting the amount of description he supplies his readers with. Hemingway has a specific writing style that he developed over time. Which is, “1. Direct treatment of the ‘thing,’ without evasion or cliché. 2. The use of absolutely no word that doe not contribute to the general design. 3. Fidelity to the rhythms of natural speech. 4. The natural object is always the adequate symbol.” “That he’d be thinking about her and feeling bad for her, she knew, but he couldn’t be in there with her. This was so obviously true that he felt like a ninny that he’d kept on about it and now knew what she had thought every time he went and said it—it hadn’t brought her comfort or eased the burden at all. The worse he felt, the stiller he sat.” (Wallace 1). The readers strictly rely on Wallace’s descriptions to understand the story. The readers also only hear inside of Lean’s mind, with only his thoughts and feelings.…
The author must put aside his or her own thoughts in order to craft a convincing and realistic dramatic action. “Dialogue frequently proceeds without the assistance of any characters that you can actually see, and uncontained thought leaks out of every corner of the story. The reason is usually that the student is wholly interested in his thoughts and his emotions and not in his dramatic action, and that he is the lazy or highfalutin to descend to the concrete where fiction operates.” It is of utmost importance that a writer be able to abandon his or her personal thoughts and values in writing their short story so that the story not only has a foundation in real and concrete details, but also in honest dialogue that suits the characters within the story, not the author’s own emotions. In “Hills Like White Elephants”, the primary dialogue revolves around whether or not the girl should get an abortion. Instead of projecting his own values and biasing the story one way or the other on the topic of abortion, Hemingway writes an exchange between two people with opposing thoughts on the matter in a compelling and grounded way. The American clearly wants to have the girl get an abortion, although the girl is unsure about the decision; these emotions are never stated directly by Hemingway, and he instead uses dialogue and subtle changes in perceived…
Through our research, we were able to find a common theme of sexism and how that affects identity and communication, and how that is portrayed in the story. In addition, we were able to come up with a claim, and make our three subclaims. To contribute to our ideas, I went back to the story and completely dissected it, and was able to see how Hemingway uses the conflict of sexism and find evidence on how that issue affects communication, which is shown between the “American” and Jig, as well as how it effects both of their identity.…
As one can see from the proof above, Hemingway's single sentence is justifiably a story. It contains all the necessary attributes, none of the fluff. After all, a famous playwright once wrote “Brevity is the soul of wit.” With “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” it certainly…
Ernest Hemingway is known for his sparse style of writing. In “Hills Like White Elephants” his style of writing is just that. “Hills Like White Elephants” exemplifies his style of writing along with a detailed description of the scenery and intense dialogue between the two main characters, the American man and Jig, throughout the story. Hemingway’s writing style, use of description, and dialogue enables the reader to figure out just what the man and the woman, Jig, are discussing.…
Although tone is an extremely complicated issue to analyze, it is one of the most elementary literary elements. Like a tone of voice, the tone of a story may communicate joy, anger, love, sorrow, and contempt. It shows the feelings of the author, so greatly that we can sense them. The tone adds to the overall feeling, and effectiveness portrayed in any literary work. Those feelings may be similar to the feelings expressed by the narrator of the story, but sometimes they may be dissimilar, even sharply opposed. The characters in a story may be regarded even as sad, but we sense that the author regards it as funny, as in Ernest Hemingway's "A Clean, Well Lighted Place", where Hemingway purposively "sets up the aura" of an apathetic tone; using diction, imagery, and a third person point of view, by not directly confronting any emotions (Edel 270).…
Hemingway starts the story right in the middle because you don’t really know what’s happening or what’s going on. All you know is that there is a girl who’s traveling with an American man and they are trying to get to Madrid. Through the whole story the two are having a conversation while waiting for the train. They are talking about life, how bad the alcohol tastes, and how the valley looks like white elephants.…
Throughout the story, the American behaves according to Hemingway’s conception of masculinity. Hemingway portrays the American as a rugged man. He is knowledgeable, worldly, and always in control of himself and the situation at hand. Compared to the American man, the girl has less self-confident and persuasive way. Throughout the story, the girl appears helpless, confused, and indecisive.…
Disillusionment, death, and a general feeling of malaise are recurrent themes throughout Ernest Hemingway's stories. While Hemingway sometimes drifts into a philosophy of nihilism, there also shines a sense of dignity in the acceptance of such pessimism; as it is especially displayed in the short, "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place". This story proposes that as people may feel complacent in their youth, they will inevitability decline into an undesirable life of loneliness and dissatisfaction. However, Hemingway attempts to instill his view of masculinity while coping with these dreadful feelings in a specific way. Like in other works by Hemingway, such as The Sun Also Rises, he portrays masculinity with an emphasis that encourages others to not question their identity. Hemingway uses literally elements of setting and characters of this story to reveal these themes.…