Juxtaposition In A Clean Well Lighted Place

The juxtaposition of light and darkness in “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” emphasizes the old waiter’s existential crisis. An existential crisis occurs when a character has a sudden realization or epiphany that life has no inherent meaning or purpose. Feelings of depression, anxiety, and nausea follow the sudden realization. The only way to move past an existential crisis is to act and create meaning and purpose in life. The old waiter experiences this when he realizes he has no wife or family and that he is living without meaning. As an effect, he loses faith in his religion and refuses to change his perspective on life in order to ultimately find purpose.
The juxtaposition of light and darkness, along with light’s symbolic interpretation,
emphasizes the old waiter’s existential crisis. The story starts out in the “lighted” cafe, but ends with the old waiter lying in darkness, waiting for light. This mirrors the progression of the old waiter’s crisis. He doesn’t have an epiphany until the end of the story as he turns off all the lights in the cafe and continues his depressing thoughts. Standing in the darkness, the waiter fears that he’s been living in a “nothing that he knew too well.” He becomes aware of his old age and decides that he is not satisfied with the life he has lived. Instead of acting and establishing a purpose, the watier allows this fear of nothingness to consume him and cannot fall asleep in the darkness. He waits for the morning light to come because the light serves as a reminder of safety and life. Since darkness is the absence of light and light symbolizes life, the waiter would fall into a sleep that feels like death because of the darkness. The juxtaposition of light and darkness, along with light’s symbolic interpretation, emphasizes the old waiter’s existential crisis.