28 pages • 56 minutes read
Ernest HemingwayA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Content Warning: The source text and this guide discuss suicide.
Ernest Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” serves as a social commentary on the times in which it was written, exploring Modernist themes like Futility and Stagnation in Modern Society, Despair as a Human Condition, and Generational Divides and the Inevitability of Disillusionment. The story takes place almost entirely in a single setting, the clean, well-lighted café in which the two waiters work. Not much action occurs in the story, and most of the story and social commentary come through the three characters’ thoughts and dialogue. These three characters represent people adrift who are searching for meaning in a life that has become meaningless. They are prime examples of people struggling with essential, existential questions and looking to escape the new world in which they live, though that ultimately proves impossible; therefore, they come to a place of bleak acceptance or resignation.
The first hint of this meaninglessness occurs when the waiters begin to discuss the old man. After mentioning that he attempted suicide the previous week, the older waiter attributes his attempt to despair, caused by “nothing” (288).
By Ernest Hemingway
Across the River and into the Trees
Ernest Hemingway
A Day's Wait
Ernest Hemingway
A Farewell to Arms
Ernest Hemingway
A Moveable Feast
Ernest Hemingway
A Very Short Story
Ernest Hemingway
Big Two-Hearted River
Ernest Hemingway
Cat in the Rain
Ernest Hemingway
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Ernest Hemingway
Green Hills of Africa
Ernest Hemingway
Hills Like White Elephants
Ernest Hemingway
In Another Country
Ernest Hemingway
Indian Camp
Ernest Hemingway
In Our Time
Ernest Hemingway
Old Man at the Bridge
Ernest Hemingway
Soldier's Home
Ernest Hemingway
Solider's Home
Ernest Hemingway
Ten Indians
Ernest Hemingway
The Garden of Eden
Ernest Hemingway
The Killers
Ernest Hemingway
The Nick Adams Stories
Ernest Hemingway