Lilis
Yulianti
Gindho
Rizano, M.Hum
Prose
A
08
October 2013
“A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”
This story by Ernest Hemingway talked
about the old man as a main character, who loves to sit late on the terrace of café
because he is deaf, and at night is quiet, he felt the difference. The setting
is on a cafe, and happened at midnight, And there are two waiters, the first
one is old waiter, and the second one is the young waiter, they are both are
different Kinds, the theme of this story is about Lonely. And there is other idea about having
fear to getting old, because the image of being old is different, like
bothersome to the others.
The waiters here represented different
people who has different opinion, and Ernest created both of them to look at
the old man as a pro and contra, from the young’s side and old’s side, here we
can see that from the conversation between the waiters about the old man who
has commited suicide and hung himself with a rope, but his niece cut him down,
this is show us about desperate, and how he spent all night on café and drunk till late,
this is pretty clear he is lonely, the waiter also mentioned he was married,
but not mentioned about where is his wife, what happen to her, is she still
alive? Are they divorce? Or is she die? Ernest didn’t mentioned it. But the old
man is lonely, because he lives with his niece right now, and his niece is the
only one who’s look after him and take care of him, that’s why he spent all
night long on the café
because
nobody waiting for him at home he hasn’t wife who’ll waiting for him on bed,
and the fact that he choose Brandy to be
his collegue by killing the time.
The waiters tell us about fear of getting
old from two sides, first one is the young waiter and the old waiter, the older
waiter is pro with the old man, because he also lonely and unmarried, he is a
man who like to stay late at the café, and with all those who don’t want to
go to bed, with all those who need a light for the night, indeed this man also
lonely, unlike the young waiter who has a wife, and want to go home because his
wife is waiting, atleast this young waiter has someone who will waiting for him
when he is come home. This story is also have moral value, because in this
story those Lonely men only spent their time in cafe, ‘Clean and pleasant cafe’
unlike mostly people who come to the bar, with Girls and Drunk all night. Just
like the older waiter, when the young waiter said that he could just visit the
bodegas, but he is refuse, he disliked bars and bodegas, a clean, well-lighted
cafe is his favourite, for him it was different thing.
The fact that in this story there’s
different view, when the older waiter said that the younger waiter has
everything, he has confidence, youth, and a job, but the younger waiter said
that the older waiter has everything, just like him, and when the waiter look
at the old man who was walking unsteadly but with dignity, i think there is
implite meaning Hemingway wants to tell us about it, and also when he said the
old man is deaf, but he likes to sit at night because he felt the difference, what
kind of different that Hemingway wants to tell us? Because the old man is Deaf,
and he is totally coudn’t be able to hear things. And what ‘s make it
different?
And the other idea about fear of getting
old showed by the conversation between the waiters, when the old man asked
about another brandy but the younger waiter refuse, he said that they were
closed, the younger waiter wants to go home, because he never went to the
bed before three o’clock, and starts
complaining about it, and the older one said why didn’t he let the old man to
stay and drink? Beside they still have time to open the cafe, but the younger
waiter replied that he wants to go home, and he has more time than the old man,
and the older waiter replied, that they have the same hour, ‘An hour is the
same’ in this part Ernest using simply word but has implite meaning in it, for
the older waiter an hour is just like a regular time, a normal one, nothing
different with it, but in the younger’s side, of course an hour is different
between them, he is young, in his opinion he will live longer than the old man,
and that his life more precious.
Based
on my understanding, There is different kind of loneliness between the
old man and the older waiter, even though similar, they are spent their night
on cafe, a cafe with well-lighted, a clean one, but it’s different, after all
the older waiter spent his night in well-lighted cafe because he is insomnia,
he would go go home to his room, and lie in the bed, with daylight he would go
to sleep, and what about the old man? Where did he go after he visited the
cafe? They only watched him go down to the street, but they have no idea where
did he go after that. Hemingway wants to tell us about what will happen in the
future is unpredictable, we can see that from the conversation between the
waiters on the second page, the older waiter said that the old man almost die,
he hung himself with a rope, but fortunately his niece cut him down, because
she fear for his soul, and he also assumed that the old man is more than eighty
years old. He also had a wife, just like the younger waiter, and the younger
waiter said that he doesn’t want be that old, because for him, becoming old is
nasty thing, bothersome the other, hopeless, he just doesn’t want be that old,
in this part we can see that his fear is for getting old, but the older waiter
disagree with it, he defending the old man, because he is older than the
younger waiter, and has better way to think, and this is kind of different
perspective from different view.
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