Reader Response to A Clean, Well-Lighted Place, By Hemingway :: A Clean Well-Lighted Place Essays

Reader Response to A Clean, Well-Lighted Place   In 1933, Ernest Hemmingway wrote A Clean, Well-Lighted Place. Its a story of two waiters working late one(a) night in a cafe. Their last customer, a lonely old human getting drunk, is their last customer. The younger waiter wishes the customer would leave season the other waiter is indifferent because he isnt in so much of a hurry. I had a definite, differentiated response to this piece of literature because in my occupation I can relate to both cafe workers.   Hemmingways somber tale is about conquering late night loneliness in a bright cafe. The customer drinking brandy suffers from it and so does the older waiter. However, the younger waiter cannot understand loneliness because he probably hasnt been very lonely in his life. He mentions a couple times throughout the story that he wished to be able to go home to his wife, yet the old man and old waiter have no wives to go home to like he does. This story have a deeper me aning to me because I very much am in a similar situation at work.   For a little over three years, Ive been a weekend bartender at an American Legion Club. I close to always work the entire weekends, open to close, which proves to be a tortorous schedule at times. Like the cafe in Hemmingways tale, the Legion is a civilized place, often well lit, and quieter than most clubs. Because members have to either have served in the military during wartime or have a relative that did, the patronage is often older and to a greater extent respectful than an average barroom. And because most members are older, they may not have a family to go home to, or they may be just a little more dismal because their lives have been longer and harder than most. In many ways, they are very much like the old man sipping brandy while hide in the shadows of the leaves in Hemmingways cafe. And in many ways, I am like the young waiter, anxious to leave.   The young waiter seems selfish and inconsid erate of anyone else. In the bloodline of the story, hes confused why the old man tried to kill himself. He has plenty of money, he says, as if thats the only thing anyone needs for happiness. When the old man orders another drink, the younger waiter warns him that hell get drunk, as if to waver his own responsibility rather than to warn the old man for his sake.