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A Clean, Well-Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway
A Clean, Well-Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway
Background: Authors Bibliography
The author is a renowned writer with a characteristic economy of words making his works some of the effective delivery of the message with precision and accuracy. The story A Clean, Well Lighted Place was written in the mid 1920s at a time when modernity and traditionalism were clashing against each other’s realities (Shmoop para.1). Also witnessed in other woks by the author, the themes of social exclusion, death, loneliness, and modernity demonstrate the relevance of the narrative in dealing with social issues seen in the plot.
Social Issue and Its Impact on the Narrative
Old age is associated with a stage in life when individuals settle down and have a peaceful life away from complicated activities since their energy is dwindled. Spending time with the family, particularly the extended family and resting constitute the main depiction of individuals in their later stage of life. Pensioners enjoy the savings they made during their young ages as opposed to active participation in work. However, A Clean, Well-Lighted Place generates a different picture of a suffering old man lost in desperation, loneliness, and isolation. Despite having enough money and resources to sustain his life, the main character old man struggles to fit in a society that cannot deliver the social life he deserves. Social exclusion of the old people is a social vice that destroys the dream of a peaceful rest for the old generation.
The events in world political history left a huge scar to the human society since war and aggression create animosity resulting into death and desolation. A cold society depicted by the setting of the story after a time of war shows the coincidence it has with social insensitivity. To illustrate this, the author uses the presence of a soldier and a guard in the story for the obvious reasons of some force needed to quell certain disorderliness. In addition, the waiter’s treatment to the deaf old man shows insensitivity as speaking to the old man aware of his disability is quite an insult.
Causation
In terms of fictitious application of the plot, the author selects the events of causation that resonate well with the social issue of neglect, isolation, and desolation of the old in the society. In illustrating the nature of the main characters, particularly the old man, it is clear of how the desolation and isolation manifest in the story development (Lombardi para. 2). It is perhaps due to the depiction of the difference in the condition of the commotion in daytime and late night silence that the author generates the gentle character of the old man, who chooses the late night for his drink. In contrast, the author paints the young waiter as a violent and insensitive character by opting to retire when the commotion in noisy and dusty street subside. “‘You should have killed yourself last week,’ he said to the deaf man,” (Hemingway line 19). The older waiter’s character seems to be in the middle of the two extremes in that his lenience for the old man’s choice of drinking time does not convince him to take over. He understands the social impact of old age and the risks of desolation and he is aware of the realities that await him in his later days not too far, unlike his younger colleague. The interaction of the three characters in the narrative shows the disconnect that affects the young and the old within the theme of responsibilities of a socially cohesive society. The young cannot understand the challenges of the old such as why they could opt to pick the late hours for drinking crowned with sheer lack of sensitivity. We also learn about the family setting for the old man, with only one niece making up the family that takes care of him. Lack of other family members raises questions on how practical his resting days are, shedding more light on why he is in virtual inexistence in terms of social life befitting a pensioner.
Rising Action
Description of the old man by the waiters introduces the environment in which the story develops and perhaps enables the author to generate the tension between the characters, who develop the social exclusion theme. One of the most important developments in the story is the auditory disability and drunk attributes of the old man. The demand for service by the old man through rapping on the saucer initiates the direct interaction showing the language barrier in the beginning. To illustrate the insensitivity, the sign language issued in the beginning by the old man is responded with a nasty reaction through by voice and later some insult. Despite the fact that the old man cannot hear what those around him say, the insults hurled at him describe the cold world around him as well as the depiction of the young waiter. The conversation between the two waiters sheds more light on the plot on potential reasons for the suicide attempt by the old man, absence of the wife and the fears of the young waiter to become old. Denial for another serve of brandy to the old man and his honorable reaction of opting to leave silently leaves jitters on the young man’s perception of old age. “The old man stood up, slowly counted the saucers, took a leather coin purse from his pocket and paid for the drinks, leaving half a paseta tip,” (Hemingway, line 48).
Falling Action
The exit of the old man after denial for more brandy ushers in the episode to learn the actual darkness in the life of the young and older waiters who struggle differently to come to terms with old and young age. A section of the customers prefers to partake in late night drinking due to myriad social challenges pushing them to insomnia. Fear of emptiness in life caused by the insensitive society causes many to suffer and sometimes contemplate taking their own life. Virtual darkness exists in one’s life when deserted and excluded by the society and it begins to make meaning when the older waiter puts out the café’s lights. Orderliness and cleanliness observed in the night when noise subsides and dust soaked up by the evening dew makes meaning in the night silent and cleaned up pub where life’s worries can be drowned in booze.
Closure
Visitation of the bar by the older waiter makes a mock of the theme of A Clean and Well-Lighted Place, which is depicted by the café. The bar lacks the balance of light and cleanliness, standards observed in the café where the old man enjoys his drinks. The observation of the older waiter to the effect that the bar lacks one important element of cleanliness shows that age issues finally catch up with his choices and decisions. His option to remain sober for a little longer however illustrates his judgment mind ass opposed to the old deaf man who wishes to soak his brain in alcohol. All the characters are finally brought together by the same force of nature and have to get to bed even if they have a different choice.
Themes
Old age and death takes a fair share of social perceptions between the young and the old. Whereas the young think that they can escape old age and its predicaments, the author paints the picture that they need to have in that theirs is a transition stage that melts away with time. As an illustration, the use of the older waiter who understands the situation of the young waiter and that of the old man augurs well with the transition phenomena that the young must accept. It follows that the problems that face the old generation are not understood by the younger generation that almost dispels old age as an ugly thing. Perhaps the impact of the delusional perceptions is witnessed when the old come to the reality of life as opposed to their youthful expectation of remaining young for the rest of their lives. As a consequence of the reality of social acceptance of aging among the young, old age is a burden to bear for them usually ending in suicidal thoughts. “‘Last week he tried to commit suicide,’ one waiter said,” (Hemington line 2). The attempt to commit suicide by the old man shows some form of denial of the nasty things about age, which is against youthful wishes.
The theme of young age and modernity can perhaps be generated from the narrative as captured in the young waiter who sees the world in a different perspective. In view of the youthful and delusional thoughts that assume that confidence and young age are permanent and inseparable, the author depicts the young as hasty and judgmental. The young waiter explains to his colleague that he wants to rush home to be with his wife and is insensitive to understand that the older men would be alone. A hasty decision mind with a little understanding of the underlying issues shows how ill prepared the youth is, in internalizing old age life. Perhaps an advancement in age such as the older waiter would equip the young waiter to deal with insensitive and unaccommodating attitudes. By internalizing such issues, the youth would be ready learn to appreciate life at all phases and cope with the shock of realities of loss of confidence and vitality that they are deluded to be permanent. The image of light and shadows in the story can be used to understand the age differences, perceptions, and wisdom between the characters.
The most dominant theme of the narrative is perhaps that of suffering for the old people who should otherwise be enjoying the fruits of their sweat gathered in their young age. On the contrary, desolation masks the life of the old people instead of finding consolation from the life that they have build over the years. The author paints a picture of a difficult life of languish in terms of social neglect leading to a cold environment for the aged to live in. By painting the family taking care of the old man to be only composed of a niece, the author illustrates the void left in the core of social life that the old man has to cope with. In view of the many challenges facing the old man for living in an environment devoid of social warmth, the author uses the conspicuous absence of a the wife to assist the man in life. Although he is old and aged at around 80 years, the loss of a wife to whichever cause is a devastating shock to the old men. Since the society does not take special note on the care needed by the old widowers, the impact of the loss sustained may lead to eventual loss emerges clearly from the narrative. It is perhaps the intention of the author to show the missing link for the roles of the entire family in maintaining social health for the aged under the predicaments of grief, loss, poor health, erratic sleep, and waning memory.
Works Cited
Hemingway, Ernest. “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” 1926, Web. HYPERLINK “http://www.mrbauld.com/hemclean.html” http://www.mrbauld.com/hemclean.html (Accessed 11 May 2012)
Lombardi, Esther. “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place: Review,” 2012, Web. HYPERLINK “http://classiclit.about.com/od/cleanwelllight/fr/aa_cleanwell.htm” http://classiclit.about.com/od/cleanwelllight/fr/aa_cleanwell.htm (Accessed 11 May 2012)
Shmoop, “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place- In a Nutshell,” 2012, Web. HYPERLINK “http://www.shmoop.com/clean-well-lighted-place/” http://www.shmoop.com/clean-well-lighted-place/ (Accessed 11 May 2012)
A clean car gets better gas mileage–a proven fact.
”A clean car gets better gas mileage–a proven fact.”
This statement can only be true at highway speeds. In the real sense, the car’s mpg may not be affected by a little dust on the cars body. Equally we can say that there is no measurable effect of a little dirt on the cars mpg. However, if your car has big clumps of dirt that considerably alters the flow of air along its surface, then it reduces your gas mileage. This can be supported by the fact that large clumps of dirt on the body of the car disrupt the air around it creating a stir behind it hence reducing drag.
The statement is true if we look at a clean car in the sense of a well maintained, repaired and upgraded car especially on the vehicle systems like intake, exhaust, suspension brake and electrical system. For instance replacing a dirty gas filter will enable your car to breathe easily hence using less gas thus increasing gas millage by more than 10%.
The primary aim of initiating an argument is to convince and persuade the audience to whom the
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The primary aim of initiating an argument is to convince and persuade the audience to whom the argument is directed to with the goal of making them understand their topic while at the same time owe them to support their ideas. It is therefore for the urge of convincing and obtaining support that makes the person present concrete facts as proof to their audience that their argument is not an opinionated debate. Rachel Carson in her article ‘The Obligation to Endure’ (Carson, 2014) can be termed as one of the greatest persuasive essays of the year the 1950s due to her explicit use of the scientific facts as well as explanations in the presentation of her argument. Through her skillful presentation of the facts against pesticides, her audience was hugely convinced about the effects and dangers of the use of the harmful DDT that led to the eventual banning on the use of the pesticide. Rachel presents various facts in her argument to which she aimed at persuading her audience to which were a success to her motive of writing the essay.
Rachel Carson presents a variety of facts concerning pesticides throughout her writing, and besides she has also managed to have the scientific facts as well as their explanation relating perfecting to each other, and eventually introducing her audience to another augment. To begin with, Rachel Carson explains how the pesticides tend to be harmful to the environment, and then she goes ahead to demonstrate how the use of the dreadful pesticides is detrimental to the environment. And finally, she states of the assumption and reasoning that the use of pesticides is deemed to be necessary to the maintenance of the farm production is falsely (pg. 86). Rachel initiates her argument with a scientific fact regarding how pesticides contain certain chemicals to which contribute to the pollution of the environment as well as the living creatures in a manner to which cannot be revoked. She describes the pollutants as being evil as a way to portray the pesticide negatively, having an implication that the pesticides are causing more harm than good and therefore intrigues the reader of work as to whether the use of the pesticides is essential.
After making the reader question the use of the pesticide, she provides an answer by referring to Charles Darwin’s principle of natural selection where she proves that the use of the pesticides is unnecessary. She terms the use being useless because with the ability of the pests being able to mutate, there arises the need for the development of new insecticides and through this, she relates to the continued development of new pesticides as being useless for the control of the pest problem. After answering the question, she changes her tone to bring into light the real problem of crop production, where she states that ‘yet is our real problem not one of overproduction?’(pg. 86) as the creation of more pesticides is supposedly necessary for all the production of the crops. However, Rachel goes ahead and points out that due to the overproduction, a majority of the American citizens were required to pay over a billion dollars to cover the cost. Therefore, it is evident that Rachel Carson has done a lot of research before the initiation of her argument and thus proving she has the basis of her arguments. Through the skillful connection of the of the scientific facts, Rachel Carson assures her readers that she has done enough research through the provision of a variety of counts that are attributed to be reliable evidence.
In the article ‘The Obligation to Endure,’ Rachel has made it possible for her readers to understand her arguments by stating her facts in a manner that is not complex. She digs into details with her facts and explanations while at the same time compelling her readers with keywords and phrases to attract her audience on her side of the argument. For example, “In this now universal contamination of the environment, chemicals are the sinister and little-recognized partners of radiation in changing the very nature of the world- the very nature of its life … chemicals sprayed on croplands or forests or gardens lie long in the soil, entering into living organisms, passing from one to another in a chain of poisoning and death” (pg. 84). She argues her point through first describing the chemicals as being sinister, grabbing the reader’s attention and then presents her facts in a more straightforward manner such that the readers can understand and get informed.
From the article, Rachel begins a new major point in her essay that precedes a fact that is aimed at strengthening her argument. On page 87, “The devotion of immense acreages to a single crop ….set(s) the stage for explosive increase in specific insect population”, here she refers to the incident in history where most of the towns were infected disease that was transmitted by beetles and therefore acts as a proof to her readers. From the skillful presentation of the arguments by Rachel, it leaves the audience with no choice but instead conforms to her argument as the evidence provided is solid and it is almost impossible for a person or the reader to argue against it. Rachel decides to use the scientific facts and explanations rather than using her statements that are opinionated according to her views so that her argument would be valid and successful and therefore she is compelled to present a compelling argument to which can be backed up by substantial evidence and not just meaningless statements. Rachel Carson has been able to successful persuaded her audience through her strong argument that is backed up by evidence to which makes the reader connect easily and therefore compels the reader to agree with her ideas.
Reference
Rachel Carson, “The Obligation to Endure”. Retrieved from: https://hilltownchautauqua.org/files/The_Obligation_to_Endure.pdfCarson, R. (2014). The obligation to endure. In The Ecological Design and Planning Reader (pp. 122-130). Island Press, Washington, DC.