An old adult male sits entirely at dark in a cafe . He is deaf and likes when the dark grows still. Two servers watch the old adult male carefully because they know he won’t wage if he gets excessively intoxicated. One server tells the other that the old adult male tried to kill himself because he was in desperation. The other server asks why he felt desperation. and the first server says the ground was “nothing” because the adult male has a batch of money.

The servers look at the empty tabular arraies and the old adult male. who sits in the shadow of a tree. They see a twosome walk by. a soldier with a miss. One of the servers says the soldier had better be careful about being out because the guards merely went by. The old adult male taps his glass against its disk and asks the younger server for a brandy. The younger server tells him he’ll acquire rummy. so goes back and tells the older server that the old adult male will remain all dark. The younger server says he ne’er goes to bed earlier than 3 a. m. and that the old adult male should hold killed himself. He takes the old adult male his brandy. As he pours it. he tells the old adult male that he should hold killed himself. but the old adult male merely indicates that he wants more brandy in the glass.

The younger server tells the older server that the old adult male is intoxicated. so asks once more why he tried to kill himself. The older server says he doesn’t know. The younger server asks how he did it. The older server says he tried to hang himself and his niece found him and got him down. The younger server asks why she got him down. and the older server says they were concerned about his psyche. The servers speculate on how much money the old adult male has and make up one’s mind he’s likely age 80.

The younger server says he wishes the old adult male would go forth so that he can travel place and travel to bed with his married woman. The older server says that the old adult male was married at one clip. The younger server says a married woman wouldn’t do him any good. but the older server disagrees. The younger server points out that the old adult male has his niece. so says he doesn’t desire to be an old adult male. The older server points out that the old adult male is clean and drinks neatly. The younger server says once more that he wishes the old adult male would go forth.

The old adult male indicates that he wants another brandy. but the younger server tells him they’re shutting. The old adult male pays and walks off. The older server asks the younger server why he didn’t let him imbibe more because it’s non even 3 a. m. yet. and the younger server says he wants to travel place. The older server says an hr doesn’t make much difference. The younger server says that the old adult male can merely imbibe at place. but the older server says it’s different. The younger server agrees.

The older server jestingly asks if the younger server is afraid to travel home early. The younger server says he has assurance. The older server points out that he besides has young person and a occupation. whereas the older server has merely a occupation. The older server says that he likes to remain at cafes really tardily with the others who are loath to travel place and who need light during the dark. The younger server says he wants to travel place. and the older server comments that they are really different. The older server says he doesn’t like to shut the cafe in instance person needs it. The younger server says there are bars to travel to. but the older server says that the cafe is clean and good lit. They wish each other good dark.

The older server continues believing to himself about how of import it is for a cafe to be clean and good lit. He thinks that music is ne’er good to hold at a cafe and that standing at a saloon isn’t good either. He wonders what he’s afraid of. make up one’s minding it’s non fear but merely a familiar nil. He says two supplications but replacements “nada” ( Spanish for “nothing” ) for most of the words. When he arrives at a saloon. he orders a drink and tells the barman that the saloon isn’t clean. The barman offers another drink. but the server leaves. He doesn’t like bars. preferring cafes. He knows that he will now travel place and autumn asleep when the Sun comes up. He thinks he merely has insomnia. a common job.

Fictional character Analysis The Old Man – A deaf adult male who likes to imbibe at the cafe tardily into the dark. The old adult male likes the shadows of the foliages on the well-lit cafe patio. Rumor has it that he tried to hang himself. he was one time married. he has a batch of money. and his niece takes attention of him. He frequently gets rummy at the cafe and leaves without paying.

The Older Waiter – A compassionate adult male who understands why the old adult male may desire to remain tardily at the cafe . The older server enjoys remaining tardily at cafes every bit good. He thinks it’s really of import for a cafe to be clean and good illume. and he sees the cafe as a safety from desperation. Rather than admit that he is lonely. he tells himself that he has insomnia.

Like the old adult male. the older server likes to remain tardily at cafes. and he understands on a deep degree why they are both loath to travel place at dark. He tries to explicate it to the younger server by stating. “He stays up because he likes it. ” but the younger server dismisses this and says that the old adult male is lonely. Indeed. both the old adult male and the older server are lonely. The old adult male lives entirely with merely a niece to look after him. and we ne’er learn what happened to his married woman. He drinks entirely late into the dark. acquiring rummy in cafes. The older server. excessively. is lonely. He lives entirely and makes a wont of remaining out tardily instead than traveling place to bed.

But there is more to the older waiter’s “insomnia. ” as he calls it. than merely solitariness. An nameless. unspecified unease seems to grip him. This unease is non “a fright or apprehension. ” as the older server clarifies to himself. but an overpowering feeling of nothingness—an experiential angst about his topographic point in the existence and an uncertainness about the significance of life. Whereas other people find significance and comfort in faith. the older server dismisses faith as “nada”—nothing. The older server finds consolation merely in clean. well-lit cafes. There. life seems to do sense.

The older server recognizes himself in the old adult male and sees his ain hereafter. He stands up for the old adult male against the younger waiter’s unfavorable judgments. indicating out that the old adult male might profit from a married woman and is clean and orderly when he drinks. The older server has no existent ground to take the old man’s side. In fact. the old adult male sometimes leaves the cafe without paying. But the possible ground for his support becomes clear when the younger server tells the older server that he talks like an old adult male excessively. The older server is cognizant that he is non immature or confident. and he knows that he may one twenty-four hours be merely like the old man—unwanted. entirely. and in desperation. Ultimately. the older server is loath to shut the cafe as much for the old man’s interest as for his ain because someday he’ll need person to maintain a cafe unfastened tardily for him.

The Younger Waiter – An impatient immature adult male who cares merely about acquiring place to his married woman. The younger server is normally irritated with the old adult male because he must remain tardily and serve him drinks. He does non look to care why the old adult male stays so long. His lone concern is go forthing every bit rapidly as possible.

Brash and insensitive. the younger server can’t see beyond himself. He readily admits that he isn’t lonely and is eager to return place where his married woman is waiting for him. He doesn’t seem to care that others can’t say the same and doesn’t recognize that the cafe is a safety for those who are lonely. The younger server is immature and says ill-mannered things to the old adult male because he wants to shut the cafe early. He seems incognizant that he won’t be immature everlastingly or that he may necessitate a topographic point to happen consolation subsequently in life excessively.

Unlike the older server. who thinks deeply—perhaps excessively deeply—about life and those who struggle to confront it. the younger server demonstrates a dismissive attitude toward human life in general. For illustration. he says the old adult male should hold merely gone in front and killed himself and says that he “wouldn’t desire to be that old. ” He himself has ground to populate. and his whole life is in front of him. “You have everything. ” the older server tells him. The younger server. immersed in felicity. doesn’t truly understand that he is lucky. and he hence has small compassion or apprehension for those who are lonely and still seeking for intending in their lives.

Themes Life as Nothingness In “A Clean. Illuminated Topographic point. ” Hemingway suggests that life has no significance and that adult male is an undistinguished pinpoint in a great sea of void. The older server makes this thought every bit clear as he can when he says. “It was all a nil and adult male was a nil excessively. ” When he substitutes the Spanish word nothing ( nil ) into the supplications he recites. he indicates that faith. to which many people turn to happen significance and intent. is besides merely nothingness. Rather than pray with the existent words. “Our Father who art in Eden. ” the older server says. “Our nothing who art in nada”—effectively pass overing out both God and the thought of Eden in one breath. Not everyone is cognizant of the void. nevertheless. For illustration. the younger server hurtles through his life hurriedly and merrily. unaware of any ground why he should keen. For the old adult male. the older server. and the other people who need late-night cafes. nevertheless. the thought of void is overpowering and leads to desperation.

The Struggle to Cover with Despair The old adult male and older server in “A Clean. Illuminated Place” battle to happen a manner to cover with their desperation. but even their best method merely subdues the desperation instead than remedies it. The old adult male has tried to stave off desperation in several unsuccessful ways. We learn that he has money. but money has non helped. We learn that he was one time married. but he no longer has a married woman. We besides learn that he has unsuccessfully tried to perpetrate self-destruction in a despairing effort to squelch the desperation for good. The lone manner the old adult male can cover with his desperation now is to sit for hours in a clean. well-lit cafe . Deaf. he can experience the soundlessness of the dark and the cafe . and although he is basically in his ain private universe. sitting by himself in the cafe is non the same as being entirely.

The older server. in his mocking supplications filled with the word nothing. shows that faith is non a feasible method of covering with desperation. and his solution is the same as the old man’s: he waits out the dark in cafes. He is peculiar about the type of cafe he likes: the cafe must be good illuminated and clean. Parallel barss and bodegas. although many are unfastened all dark. make non decrease desperation because they are non clean. and frequenters frequently must stand at the saloon instead than sit at a tabular array. The old adult male and the older server besides glean consolation from modus operandi. The ritualistic cafe-sitting and imbibing help them cover with desperation because it makes life predictable. Routine is something they can command and pull off. unlike the huge void that surrounds them.

Motif Loneliness Loneliness pervades “A Clean. Illuminated Place” and suggests that even though there are many people fighting with desperation. everyone must fight entirely. The deaf old adult male. with no married woman and merely a niece to care for him. is visibly lonely. The younger server. frustrated that the old adult male won’t go place. defines himself and the old adult male in antonyms: “He’s lonely. I’m non lonely. ” Loneliness. for the younger server. is a cardinal difference between them. but he gives no idea to why the old adult male might be lonely and doesn’t see the possibility that he may one twenty-four hours be lonely excessively. The older server. although he doesn’t say explicitly that he is lonely. is so similar to the old adult male in his wont of sitting in cafes tardily at dark that we can presume that he excessively suffers from solitariness. The older server goes place to his room and lies in bed entirely ; stating himself that he simply suffers from wakefulness. Even in this claim. nevertheless. he instinctively reaches out for company. adding. “Many must hold it. ” The idea that he is non entirely in holding insomnia or being alone amenitiess him.

Symbols The Cafe The cafe represents the antonym of void: its cleanliness and good lighting suggest order and lucidity. whereas void is helter-skelter. confounding. and dark. Because the cafe is so different from the void the older server describes. it serves as a natural safety from the desperation felt by those who are acutely cognizant of the void. In a clean. brilliantly illuminated cafe . desperation can be controlled and even temporarily forgotten. When the older server describes the void that is life. he says. “It was merely that and visible radiation was all it needed and a certain cleanness and order. ” The visible radiation it in the sentence is ne’er defined. but we can theorize about the waiter’s significance: although life and adult male are nil. visible radiation. cleanliness. and order can function as substance. They can assist stave off the desperation that comes from experiencing wholly unanchored to anyone or anything. Equally long as a clean. illuminated cafe exists. desperation can be kept in cheque.