Clean, Well-Lighted Place tone and style

Hemingway has a distinct writing style in a sense that he chooses his words carefully. He is economic in his word choice, so readers must take into consideration the adjectives and adverbs he uses, as he deploys them rarely. His style is simple and laconic, yet effective. Through his use of simple words and short sentences, he delivers the message powerfully and point on rather than employing descriptive, flowery language (as what his Victorian predecessors used). He is also said to be the master of dialogue, using this mode to characterize and narrate most of the story, as was evident in “A Clean Well-Lighted Place”. Aside from the style and dialogue, another thing to take note about the story is that his tone is dispassionate and unemotional. The writer himself does not even comment on or judge his characters at all. In the line “"You should have killed yourself last week," he [the waiter] said to the deaf man.” Hemingway did not add any additional adjectives or adverbs for commentary like for example instead of writing, “he said harshly” or “he said cruelly” he just used a simple “he said”. The tone also adds to the theme of facing nothingness with dignity. The narrator is talking about oblivion in a detached, apathetic way which gives the reader the impression that the nothingness affects the waiter enough for him to mention it, but his tone suggests he is bold enough to face the issue in dignified, dismissive way; i.e. “After all, he said to himself, it's probably only insomnia. Many must have it.” Hemingway incorporates the “iceberg principle” in most of his stories, and what this means is that the author could be saying one thing (the tip of the iceberg) but in reality it could mean something else larger and more significant. He believes that the true meaning of the story should not be evident. In “A Clean Well-Lighted Place”, the old waiter suffers from apparent insomnia, but upon a closer reading, readers may discover that it is not