![]() ‘A Clean, Well-Lighted Place’ is like many of Ernest Hemingway’s short stories, in that the action – what little ‘action’ there is – doesn’t generate the meaning of the story. ![]() The story is about an old man who frequents a Spanish café at night, and the two waiters who discuss why the old man comes to sit there every night and is always reluctant to leave. This 1933 story uses its spare, direct dialogue to hint at the relationships between the characters and the themes the story is delicately and obliquely exploring. You can read our analysis of the story here. Alienation is a key theme of this classic Hemingway story. Harold Krebs has returned from the war and can no longer relate to the people in his hometown. Critics often draw attention to what’s known as Hemingway’s ‘iceberg’ technique, whereby the feelings and motivations of the characters in his work are largely beneath the surface, much as only the tip of the iceberg is visible above the surface of the water.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |