Ernest Hemingway's “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”

Discussion Questions

1.) Examine closely the 1st paragraph of the story. What is revealed here? What has Hemingway left out because “we already know it”?

2.) What is the purpose of the description and dialogue about “a girl and a soldier”?

3.) Discuss the two waiters. How are they similar and different? What stands out most clearly about each one?

4.) Compare the younger waiter and the older waiter in their attitudes toward the old man. Whose attitude do you take to be closer to that of the author? Even though Hemingway does not editorially state his own feelings, how does he make them clear to us?

5.) How and why is the clean, well-lighted café important? Why has Hemingway emphasized light and shadow throughout the story?

6.) Examine all the references to “nada” (“nothing”). What’s going on here?

7.) What besides insomnia makes the older waiter reluctant to go to bed? Comment especially on his meditation with the “nada” refrain. Why does he so well understand the old man’s need for a café? What does the café represent for the two of them?

8.) Examine closely the last paragraph of the story. What is revealed here? What has Hemingway left out because “we already know it”?

9.) What is the story’s point of view? Discuss its appropriateness.

10.) Point to sentences that establish the style of the story. What is distinctive in them? What repetitions of words or phrases seem particularly effective? Does Hemingway seem to favor a simple or an erudite vocabulary?