A Simple Story of Imagery and Irony

Simple Story of Imagery and Irony

“A Clean, Well Lighted Place”, is a story about three men that come across one another one night in a bar. Hemingway uses a minimalistic style with symbolic imagery and verbal irony to reveal a story of three men with three views of life and despair.

“Hemingway’s style is famous for its simplicity-short common words, short sentences-and is said to be realistic and naturalistic” (Berryman 270). What stands out about “A Clean, Well Lighted Place” is its minimalism. It uses the minimal amount of words, sentences, and dialogue to create a story. Although the story is said to have no definite plot, it does convey a tale of three nameless characters that take part in a nocturnal scene in Spain. The two waiters talk, the old man drinks and they go home. The descriptions of the characters are very flat. Two of the men are only described as waiters and the customer is described as just an old blind man, and yet that is all that is need for the reader to paint a visual picture of the scenes in this story. As far as realism, this story could not connect more on a realistic level than what is expressed in this story. The scene in this story can be seen on a day to day bias throughout life. The characters my not be the same but the overall ambiance can be found.

Symbolic imagery is found throughout this tale of three gentlemen. Light provides the most striking image pattern. The cafe has an "electric light" that the older waiter eventually turns off. The older waiter is "with all those who need a light for the night." The cafe where he works is "well lighted"; it’s "light is very good." In the bodega where he buys coffee "the light is very bright and pleasant." After going home he would be able to sleep "with daylight." Other images are less important but function in the same way. Liquor, the "giant killer" of other stories, is a weapon against the darkness, but it also impairs physical functioning, making the old man walk "unsteadily," so that the older waiter notices with pride that he can drink "without spilling. Even now, drunk," walk "with dignity." The younger waiter is "not lonely" because he has "a wife waiting in bed," but for the old man who "had a wife once" now "a wife would be no good," making women, a relationship to a woman, a material, but very temporary and thus illusory, protection against nothingness. A sleepless characters desire sleep, but the old waiter, acutely conscious of the darkness lurking behind the light, cannot allow himself to lose that consciousness until he has light to protect him.

“The fundamental irony of the story lays in the skillfully balanced and controlled contrast between the attitudes between…..the young waiter…….and of the older waiter….” (Benson 237). The ironic tone can be seen through the pattern of verbal exchange between the two characters. The complete pattern appears earlier in the story, in that exchange concerned with why they cut the old man down.

"Why did they do it?"

"Fear for his soul."

"How much money has he