A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

A quote that struck me and captured my interest, more abruptly than the former mentioned in “Tell Tale Heart” was from Ernest Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”. In this short story, Hemingway describes an old, deaf man who drinks at a café all through the night. Similarly, he presents two waiters, one young and the other middle aged. The young waiter complains frequently about the old man, who had tried to commit suicide pervious to that night. He complains because he wants to go home to his wife and go to sleep. However, the old man often stays to drink until 3 in the morning. The middle aged waiter defends the old man, saying that there should be no hurry, and that the old man should be able to stay and drink as he pleases, simply because this is a clean, well-lighted place. After “the nada y nada y pues nada” monologue, the story took more of an existential tone. After re-reading it, there was a quote that stuck out to me. The dialogue is as follows:

“What is an hour?”

“More to me than him.”

“An hour is the same.”

This is, to me, perhaps the most existential quote of the story. It may even give the story its purpose, in my opinion. I think that the “clean, well-lighted place” is somewhat of a sanctuary for those who wish to do nothing. That is to say, those who adopt a glass-half-empty perspective of existentialism simply wish to kill their time and do nothing, because it doesn't matter what they do with their time. That’s why when the young waiter expresses his desire to go home, the old waiter expresses that whether he is with his wife or at the café, same as the old man he is waiting on, “an hour is the same”. One might even go as far as to call the café a kind purgatory. However, only those who adopt that point of view could understand the kind of solace the café might bring to those with existential angst. A quote that further adds to my speculation on this matter is “Each night I am reluctant to close up because there may be some one who needs the café”. This implyies that the café provides something of value, presumably to people like the old man, or the middle aged waiter, both of whom express an existential point of view.