A Rose For Emily Vs A Clean Well Lighted Place Essay, Research Paper

A Rose For Emily is a story of a southern women and the secret she has kept for 40 years. A Clean, Well-Lighted Place takes place in a caf? in a Spanish country. There are three characters in this story, two which are waiters, and an old drunk man. This story is very mysterious just as A Rose for Emily. Both stories are told in an omniscient point of view.

A Rose for Emily begins off telling us that Miss Emily has now died and people have come to her funeral. We see how the men have come out of respectful affection yet the women have come because of their curiosity, since no one has seen her in years

except the gardener, manservant, and the cook. We really do not get a time frame expect the fact that it is after the death of Miss Emily now.

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place begins straight off with taking us into the story at the caf?. We get the picture of the old man drinking and the two waiters observing him and understanding he was drunk. Unlike A Rose for Emily we find out a little more about the character when we find out that the old man is deaf and is a regular client at this caf?. We also get a better depiction of the scene, “…In the daytime the street was dusty, but at night the dew settled the dust…” Ernest Hemingway also sets up a time frame for us. He lets us know that it is late at night.

We can also compare the last paragraph of each story. In both stories we get a revelation at the end. In A Rose for Emily it is discovered that next to the dead body of old Homer Barron in Miss Emily’s room, is a pillow where Miss Emily would lay. This ending is really grearisome and grotesque. In A Clean, Well-Lighted Place, we get a realization of what the title of the story is all about and how the older waiter feels. He explains how he prefers a clean-well lighted caf? over a bar or bodega. We also hear how he can not sleep at night and much prefers to sleep in the daylight, a weird case of insomnia.

Both stories seem to be very different and there is not much in common between both stories. Yet, in one aspect they both mention death. In A Rose for Emily is the death of Emily and her lover Homer Barron. In A Clean, Well-Lighted Place it is the mention of the fact that the old man tried to commit suicide one night.

Both stories may have some similar aspects yet all in all they are both much different. Not only do they tell very different stories but they also give different depictions of life. They were both very good stories and have a mysterious aspect to them.