A Men With Nada Essay, Research Paper

To me, since I am majoring in psychology, I would like to understand and analysis people*s thinking and feelings. It is a difficult knowledge to know what people and why they think since they are from different ages, races and countries. Because Ernest Hemingway, ” A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” is dealt with the concept with a young and an old waiter, I like it when they have the conversation about the deaf man in the caf*. Two main characters, a waiter with a wife and an older waiter, have a discussion about the concept of loneliness. And a young waiter, who believes himself both immortal and never alone, portrays the optimistic role of youthful human nature; on the other hand, an older waiter is at the opposite pole, with a belief in an inevitable mortality that leads him to have a terrible feeling of loneliness and despair. Thus because it is associated with psychology, I derive pleasure from this story. It shows the different point of view of an hour between youth and old, the loneliness of being old and nothingness of man’s inevitable fate.

First of all, I can see the different point of view of an hour between the young waiter and the old waiter. In the story, the young waiter, who impatiently waits for the deaf man to leave, busily sets out to close the caf*. The older waiter trifles upset at the younger one for expelling the man so early. And asks him what the difference another hour would make and believes that an hour is the same, regardless of age. In youth, an hour is an eternity, a time in which to do a thousand different things, namely all equating to the living of life. In old age, an hour is also an eternity which is either used to curse the youth for seemingly squandering their time or to curse the gods for prolonging the “agony” of life. Time is the most precious of all commodities. Actually, I find that I have the same thought with the young waiter of an hour. For example, sometimes when I go to evening class, I always pray for the teacher who can let us go an hour earlier. Actually, that hour is just for me to have an hour extra sleep only, just as same as the young waiter. Therefore, I like Hemingway*s story that can use peculiar perspective to show the different point of views of “time” in both youth and old.

Secondly, the loneliness of being old is the main concept of the story. In this story, the deaf man and the old waiter also have the same feelings of being alone at night. The loneliness of deaf man is the largely a fault of his own because he chooses to see the darkness instead of life. For he chooses to look upon death instead of life. From here, I understand why the rates of old people who commit suicide is higher than others because they have no one to care them or even wait for them at home, like the young waiter. Also, as many people think, to be an old man is a “nasty thing”. An example in Hong Kong, many families who prefer to send the elders to the sanatorium where has someone to take care of them. Since the families send them in, they seldom visit them. Another example, many old Chinese people, who like to yam-cha in the early morning, want to feel the crowd in the restaurant and chat with others. The difference is that the old waiter who feels better to spend the night in the bar or in the caf* that fills with this temporary elation. Then he can go back home to sleep at the dawning of the day. Thus, this is a likeable story because it tells man who can further strengthen his latticework of narrative lines upon this chaotic world.

At last, it is amiable because Hemingway tries to impress upon the reader that man’s inevitable fate is to enter into nothingness from nothingness, for life is nothing. In the bar, the older waiter continues the conversation within his mind, asking himself what bothered him, what fear accosted his mind. It was not a fear, he realized with sadness, but a realization that everything was nothing. Life was nothing and a man was barely even a trace amount of nothing. This nothing only needed light to feed off of, light and a certain amount of order in the prevailing chaos of life. Although many people go through their lives in ignorance of the grand design, the old waiter “knew it all was nada y pues nada y nada y pues nada.” This preoccupation with nada is one of the most bothersome of the elder waiter’s attitude towards life; this poor outlook on life justifies his fate.

In conclusion, I like the story “A Well, Clean-Lighted Place” by Ernest Hemingway because it gives me an idea about how youth and old think of an hour and the loneliness of being old. Besides, he uses indirect way to tell that life is nothing. This story could be Hemingway’s view of the world. His portrayal of old age as a time of despair is not what I feel it to be, even though I am biased because of my age. In this story, I saw the need for light in the darkness as an aspect of Yin and Yang that is taught in Philosophy class. Two opposites, which are incomplete without each other, must dwell within each other.

Bibliography

author: hemingsway