The Characters and Art Features in Hemingway’s A Clean, WellLighted Place海明威——《一个干净明亮的地方》评论.doc

The characters and Art Features in Hemingways A Clean, Well-Lighted PlaceAbstract: A Clean, Well-Lighted Place is one of Hemingways typical short stories, whose theme is Nihility. And in order to exhibit this theme, the writer used three different characters and many narrate techniques. This paper will analyse the main characters and the art features in the story, in order to research the art style of Hemingways works.Key words: Nihility; Characters; Symbolism; Brevity.I. A brief introduction to A Clean, Well-Lighted PlaceThe story is set in a cafe late in the evening. Two waiters are waiting for their last customer to leave so they can close the cafe. The younger of the two is impatient, because he wants to get home to his wife and warm bed. The older one has more patience for he also has nothing to do in the evening and he understands the old customer and feels pity for him. The old man is deaf. He is desperate in life and once attempts suicide. Finally the younger waiter refuses to sell brandy to the old man and closes the café. The older waiter goes to a bar unconsciously while thinking about the nihility of life. And that is all about this story. Although the plot of the story is brief and simple, the theme is deep and profound.II. Analysis of the three main characters Hemingway had chosen three very different characters in this short story. However, after a deep analysis, we can see the similar problems in their lives they are all living through the nihility of life. Firstly, lets focus on the old man. He is always trying to escape from the nihility of life. He has plenty of money but it doesnt gain happiness. He is deaf, lonely and desperate. Hes life seems meaningless now and he is nearly isolated from other people. He tries different ways to escape from the nihility and hopelessness. First, he attempts suicide but failed. Then he tries his best to get drunk in the café to forget about the real life. There are many fearful things in his life and we know he is suffering. His life reminds us of the mystery of that generation. After the Word War I, the old value system in peoples heart collapsed, and the new value hadnt been founded yet. People were hurt psychologically. They were disappointed for the country and didnt know what life is for. This brought the sadness of the whole society and many peoples life turned into tragedy. However, there is a very strange phenomenon. Although the old man feel very desperate deep in his heart and wants to escape the nihility negatively, he still remains his dignity. It is said in the story that he is always clean and drinks without splitting. We can see the kind of character that Hemingway admires through this old man. In Hemingways eyes, a man can by no means lose his dignity, no matter how he suffers in his life. The contrast between the old man and the young waiter is very obvious. The old man holds no hope for life while the young waiter is blandly confidence about life. He has not realized the nihility in life yet. As the older waiter said, he has youth, confidence, and a job. He has everything. Hes so shortsighted about life that he only looks forward to his wife and bed. When asked about why the old man wants to kill himself, he only says “nothing” and “He has plenty of money.” And he is so impatient to serve the old man that he lets the brandy run down the glass when pouring it. He even says” you should have killed yourself last week” to the old deaf man. These plots show his inhospitality to the old man and his misunderstanding about life. In his eyes, only money matters. Money is everything. He cannot understand why the old feel desperate and lonely while being so rich, nor does he care about it. His life is very self-centered. He thinks others life has nothing to do with him. He does not see that one day in the future his life will just like the old mans. He does not see that youth, confidence, job and love will quickly leave him with time. He does not see that one day he will too face the desperate nihility in life. Different from the old man and the younger waiter, the older waiter is much braver and soberer. He has already understood nihility in life. At the last part of the story, he says “it was all a nothing and a man was a nothing too.” And he imitates a paragraph of prayer words full of the word “nada”. From this we can figure out that he realizes his life is like the old man, beginning to hold no meaning. He is very depressed because of the cruel reality. He feels pity for the old man and he himself feels lonely and sad, too. He finds it hard to fall asleep after work and he also needs a clean, well-lighted place like the café to comfort his soul and provide his soul from the darkness and sadness. However, he isnt going to escape from the nihility in life. He bravely faces it and tries his best to live with it. He has the clearest understanding of the empty life and profound experiences. At the end of this story, he says to himself, “After all, it's probably only insomnia. Many must have it.” It infers that he has already taken insomnia for granted, and he clearly knows that his insomnia is not a common problem of himself, but a disillusion from the old ages frustrating reality of the whole society. In conclusion, nihility is one of biggest problem in peoples hearts at that time. But different people hold the different attitude towards it. Some are desperate and pessimistic; some are blank and optimistic; and some are sober and just neutral. However, will better attitude help people to find a way out of this nihility? That is the question.III. Art features in this work1. Hemingway's iceberg theory in this workAs Hemingway himself said, “The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. A good writer does not need to reveal every detail of a character or action.” In Hemingways work, he always made the content externally brief but signification deep and profound. In A Clean, Well-Lighted Place，he also didn't use an excess of words and language. This can be proved by several aspects.First, in this short story, Hemingway used Free Direct Speech for the dialogs between the characters, left out the necessary for the writer to retail. Here is a typical piece of dialog at the beginning of the story:"Last week he tried to commit suicide," one waiter said."Why?""He was in despair.""What about?""Nothing.""How do you know it was nothing?""He has plenty of money."The Free Direct Speech here has a magical function. It makes the reader see no view from the writer. They can only analyse the inner world of the characters by themselves. In the brief and jumping paragraph above, the readers are not only able to know the life background of the old man, but also attracted by a series of suspense like why this old man wants to kill himself because of nothing, what makes him so desperate and so on. These questions will increase the interest for the readers to look for answers and help them understand the theme in the story.Second, the writer only used descriptions rather than the views while telling the story. For example, he used dialogs to tell the life background of the old man instead of telling it directly; He did not describe how desperate and lonely the old man is, but use the facts like being deaf and attempting suicide to show the misery in the old mans life. This method created an objective condition for the readers to understand the old man and the theme by themselves. In this way, readers will imagine the past and the future of the old man and feel pity for him. In this way, readers will feel that they themselves are the main characters, instead of playing the roles of bystanders.2. The art of symbolism The use of symbolism reflected the theme perfectly in A Clean, Well-Lighted Place. There are several obvious symbols in this work. First, the café, which is clean and well-lighted, can be regarded as a symbol of a soul shelter. The old man, whose life is filled with loneliness, sadness, aging and isolation, just want a place like this as a refuge. He drinks himself into a drunken state, hoping that the muddleheaded state will take him from the desperation that has already caused him to attempt suicide once. He is very disinclined to leave the café because that is the shelter preventing him from the darkness and loneliness. To the older waiter, the café is very much different from a bar. A clean, well-lighted café is a paradise for him. It can keep him warm and calm, although he is not fear of the nihility. But a bar to him, which is “unpolished”, is a place where people lose their soul. Another symbol is the emptiness in the café. It is a symbol of nihility. At the beginning of the story, the writer creates an empty and quiet atmosphere. And this atmosphere covers the whole story, which makes the readers feel a little depressed. In this empty and quiet environment, the three characters seem lonelier and more tragic. And in this way, the story provides the readers an intuitive feeling about nihility in life. The third symbol in this story is the darkness outside the café. It is a symbol of cruel reality at that time. It is very late at night, the darkness outside and the brightness in the café is in sharp contrast. This contrast make the shelter function of the café more outstanding. And when finally the café closes, the old man has to leave and go back to the dark world outside. This drops a hint of the ending of the old man and makes the whole story more tragic. To conclude, A Clean, Well-Lighted Place reflects the nihility in peoples life after World War I in a very simple story. In this story, most of Hemingways writing style can be found. After analyzing the main characters and art features in this work, we can also have a glimpse of the ideas of the “Lost Generation”.List of Works Cited:葛应儒，心灵的家园：灯火阑珊处海明威一个干净明亮的地方赏析，安徽文学，2008年第二期孙秀华，“冰山”下关于“空无”的三个声音海明威<一个干净明亮的地方>的艺术魅力，镇江师专学报，1997年第四期张厚震，A Corpus-based Analysis of Earnest Hemingways” A Clean Well-Lighted Place” Using Wordsmith Tools，新乡教育学院学报，2004年6月何昌邑，“冰山原则”，曲尽其妙评海明威所著<一个干净明亮的地方>，云南教育学院学报，1995年8月