payment page
Study Tools
Overview
American author Ernest Hemingway’s 1933 short story “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” is a brief but poignant exploration of the meaning of life and the inevitability of death
. The story, set in a Spanish café late at night, centers around three characters: a younger waiter, an older waiter, and an elderly deaf man. Through their interactions, Hemingway examines the human need for a sense of purpose, and the despair that can result from its absence. The story was published in Scribner’s Magazine and also included, later in the same year, in Hemingway’s collection Winner Take Nothing.Explore the full story summary, in-depth character analyses of the Older Waiter and the Younger Waiter, and explanations of important quotes from “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place.”
