Reality of Darkness

             Every individual perceives life differently, and in doing so people find sanctity in different ways. People find peace on a mountain top, or on a wide open ocean on a starry night, or even while lost in a good book. In Ernest Hemingway's A Clean, Well-lighted Place, an old man finds peace in a quiet diner of all places. Throughout our lives, however, the places in which we seek sanctity may change. As children we may find peace and comfort in our mothers' arms. As teenagers perhaps we spend our private time alone in our room, or at a friend's house, away from our parents. The places we go to clear our minds may change as we get older, but everyone has that special kind of place they like to go. A place that is theirs, a place where they don't have to be doing anything and they can just "be".
             A Clean Well-lighted Place begins with a description of a café at dusk. An old deaf man, who is a regular there, sits in the shadow of a tree at a table drinking himself into a stupor as usual. The two waiters, waiting to close, speak to each other about the old man. The older of the two waiters explains to the other that the old man had attempted suicide the week before. As the old man sits and continues to ask for drinks the young waiter becomes reluctant to serve him because of his growing impatience to
             close the café and return home to his waiting wife.
             For the old man in A Clean, Well-lighted Place, the diner is an escape from the darkness of reality. The light of the diner helps the man to distract himself from the darkness of a life that, to him, has no meaning anymore. The older waiter tries to get the younger waiter to see that the old man is content at the diner, but the younger waiter just wants to get home to his own place of sanctity. The older waiter goes on speaking to himself after the diner is empty, discussing why the diner is so appealing. At one point he uses the L
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Reality of Darkness. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 07:34, March 29, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/5350.html