Ernest Hemingway's A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

There is something other than Insomnia that kept the older waiter from wanting to go to bed in Ernest Hemingway’s, “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place.” In fact, when the older waiter went into his “Nada” make ship prayer he shows what it is that keeps him awake at night. Beyond that, he also understood the older gentlemen’s need for the ‘clean, well-lighted place” the café provided. And finally, there was what the café meant to both the older waiter and the elderly gentleman. It was evident from the passage, “You have youth, confidence, and a job, you have everything,” that the older waiter was not in the possession of much self-confidence (Gioia 171). The almost Freudian joke he mentioned in the story also showed his lack of self-confidence,

Give us this nada our daily nada and nada us our nada as we nada our nadas and nada us not into nada but deliver us from nada; pues nada. Hail nothing full of nothing, nothing is with thee,” goes further to show how empty and alone he felt (Gioia 172). He took a few important prayers and removed all words that were meant to lift the spirit; only to replace them with words like nada or nothing. The last part of the prayer is particularly telling of how he feels. The story was set in Cuba. Cuba was, especially back then, very Catholic and religious. Yet, at the same time it was being fundamentally altered by capitalists moving casinos, bars, and other elements of "the nightlife" into the nation. Even this man, who should have had deep faith, stated at the end of the prayer, “Hail nothing full of nothing, nothing is with thee” (Gioia 172). He felt so alone and neglected he lost his faith in his God. Perhaps he felt that if there were an all loving, kind God, he would not be so

The younger waiter, with a wife waiting in bed for him, could never understand why the two other fellows needed the café. What should have been a warm sanctuary had become a cold, empty reminder of what both men lacked in their lives. Therefore, the seasoned waiter knew that in the café the elderly man at least had other people around him. In other words, the café was the refuge both the older men had lost in their private lives. In the café, they could be around other people, in a clean, bright, calm atmosphere. The café was not loud or flashy. In fact, it was a place where a reserved man could go to get friendly service and perhaps a sense of something of both men’s youth; lost in time as many cultural norms are when capitalists invade an area. As earlier stated, the simple Cuban life was being replaced with casinos, bars, and cat houses. Put simply, the café was the oasis that made life seem okay for both men in the radically changing times. A few examples of the seasoned waiter’s dislike of bars were found in the texts, “Certainly you do not want music. Nor can you stand before a bar with dignity…,” “He disliked bars and bodegas” (Gioia