Hemingway as a Springboard for Inquiry and Research

Hemingway as a Springboard for Inquiry and Research:

Introduction

The concept of “nihilism” or “nothingness” is one of the most peculiar aspect of Hemmingway's writings. This concept is very clearly presented in his short story “A Clean Well Lighted Place”. This story is a perfect reflection of Hemingway's mastery and command of expressing his thoughts and ideas, in a compact form that conveys all his meanings in an explicit way. According to Crino (2012), this is one of the most important and an “iceberg principal” of Hemmingway's writing that he conceals significant information in the story in order to create tension and depression that haunts the character. This theme or impact of “nothingness” or “nada” is a main feature of Hemmingway's “A Clean Well Lighted Place”.

Discussion

“A Clean Well Lighted Place” is a “well-documented stylistic achievement” of Hemmingway's writing (Benson, 1990, p.172). “Nada” is the most important aspect of Hemingway's writing. It is clearly presented as the most important aspect in dealing with the absentness and emptiness in the life of main characters. Baker defines “nada” as “Something called 'Nothing', which is so huge, terrible, overbearing, inevitable, and omnipresent that, once experienced, it can never be forgotten" (Baker, 1972, p.124). This story presents a clean and perfect example of a café, which is quite, and lonely. This provides a complete contrast with the darkness outside the café. This also reflects the idea of cleanliness and purity associated with it along with the light. This is another important contrast of light and dark as café was filled with the light against the dark outside the café.

This concept of nothingness or nada is also reflected with the comparison between the old waiter and young waiter. This concept of “nada” also provides a contrasting element between the light and dark world inside and out of human being. Hemmingway considers inner light of a man as the purity inside the heart, against the world outside. This concept was also presented with the comparison of old and young waiters and the differences in their perceptions. The concept of nothingness was very clear in these ideas and this is also associated with the better understanding of the perception of old man about god and the ideas of young one as hopeless and his considerations about nothingness. At the old age everything seems to be moving towards end and there was no hope, but for the young man there is hope and positive thinking.

With his great skills in writing, Hemingway clearly presented the idea of young man's nothing and old man's something (Benson, 1990). This story clearly presented the quality that lacks in the works of most of the writers and very character presents “multiple guises” (Benson, 1990). It also reflects a number of different other perceptions and ideas about the concept associated with him. Hemmingway also presented the idea of metaphysics to present the concept of nada in this story. It clearly reflects the voices of waiters with their views of ...