What Is The Problem Of Insomnia And Struggle With Despair?

2.3 Insomnia and Struggle with Despair
Have you ever suffered from severe depression that you would consider staying up at night? What would happen to human beings when they are, unfortunately, struggling with their depression to the point that deprives them of their sleep? In his story “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”, Ernest Hemingway adequately captures the problem of insomnia and despair in the story through by embodying of two main characters. One is The Old Man, a lonely deaf old man who likes to drink and tries to commit suicide. The other is The Old Waiter who is lonely and works in the café. Hemingway allows the readers to understand why his characters, The Old Man and The Old Waiter, are struggling with an existentialist conflict which
Moreover, he feels that his life is empty, meaningless so much so that does not have any reason to live for in contrast with The Young Waiter who has a reason to live for: a wife waiting in bed for him. “He would lie in bed and finally, with daylight. He would go to sleep. After all, he said to himself, it is probably only insomnia. Many must have it.” (p3). The readers get to know that The Old Waiter is very desperate with his life and cannot sleep at night, and he convinces himself that he is insomniac and many other human beings suffer from it too. Despite the fact that The Old Man has a lot of money, he also suffers from emptiness and loses interest in living his meaningless life. Thus, he tries desperately to end his suffering by ending his own life. “Last week he tries to commit suicide,” (p1.8). Hemingway also allows the reader to feel the empathy that The Old Waiter has to The Old man. In the discussion between The Young Waiter and The Old Waiter, The Old Waiter tries to convince his colleague that he is not young and confident, that is why, he is desperate. “You have youth, confidence and a job,” the old waiter said “You have everything” “And what do you lack?” “Everything but
For 84 days he has not caught any fish which drives his villagers to call his “salao”, i.e. unlucky. However, on the 85th day, he goes to the sea to try catching fish. On his boat, he hooks into an extremely big fish a “marlin”, which became his three days long battle that he must fight off to be able to hold it. Santiago’s real reason for going everyday nonstop to the sea, regardless of his age and misfortune, is to prove that he will always fight and will never give up on his fate. His epic struggle stands for his struggle with his existence. He strives with the social stigmas, “old age” and “bad luck and; therefore, he still has faith in to depend on luck as he is someone who does not depend on his luck or take it as his inevitable fate. Indeed, he shapes his own fate. “It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then, when luck comes you are ready.”(p8). Furthermore, he does not put his old age as an excuse to surrender and not to fight with the sharks that attack his fish but, he does all his best to prove himself and to protect his marlin.”I will fight them until I die.”(p32). By completing his journey, he succeeds to bring back the skeleton of the fish, which is a symbol of his stubborn nature and his attitude towards life. In his quest, nevertheless, he proves that he is an undefeated spirit that keeps