Tag: Ernest Hemingway

Lessons From Stories: Hemingway’s A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

Arshan Dhillon

Ernest Hemingway captured an essential understanding of human nature in just 1,465 words. The understanding is: We need order when we’re lost in life.

Chaos and order are the bases of many stories, so it is not unique per se that Hemingway explores this issue, but the way he does it is unique. In A Clean, Well-Lighted Place, the cafe represents order because cleanliness and light are often associated with orderliness. The cafe is an attractive place that shelters those in need, like the old man who is lost in life. The old man regularly gets drunk at the cafe and later on, we are told that his wife recently passed away and he tried to commit suicide. The old man has lost his sense of purpose, his meaning for life and so he clings to the cafe because he doesn’t want to be alone.

Solitude represents chaos in this story. The old man doesn’t want to be alone at home. The older waiter, whose perspective we see the story from, can’t sleep until the sun rises. This is because when your mental state is not correct, one of the worst places you can be is in your own head, alone with your thoughts. That is a dangerous place. A chaotic place. 

The opening scene of the story has two waiters. The older one and the younger one. The two are different in one main way; the younger waiter has a sense of purpose and meaning, hence, he has order in his life.

“You have youth, confidence, and a job,” the older waiter said.

“You have everything.”

“And what do you lack?”

“Everything but work.”

“You have everything I have.”

“No. I have never had confidence and I am not young.”

This is why the younger waiter has a tough time emphasizing with the old man. He can’t see the old man is lost. He passes judgment on the old man and even says the old man has nothing to be sad about because he’s rich.

“Last week he tried to commit suicide,” (young) waiter said.

“Why?”

“He was in despair.”

“What about?”

“Nothing.”

“How do you know it was nothing?”

“He has plenty of money.”

This raises an interesting question. Can someone who has order or meaning in their life relate to someone who doesn’t? Someone who is in a chaotic state? Often when we have meaning in our life, we are focused on it and that can cause us to put blinders on and not see others who are trying to find their own way. Trying to find order. 

The older waiter suffers from chaos. He can’t be alone with his thoughts. He has trouble finding meaning in anything. This is shown in perhaps the most famous passage of this story.

It was all a nothing and a man was a nothing too. It was only that and light was all it needed and a certain cleanness and order. Some lived in it and never felt it but he knew it all was nada y pues nada y nada y pues nada. Our nada who art in nada, nada be thy name thy kingdom nada thy will be nada in nada as it is in nada. 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. He smiled and stood before a bar with a shining steam pressure coffee machine.

Nothing matters to the waiter.

But because the waiter has no meaning in his life, he can relate to the old man, and feel empathy towards him. The older waiter is even willing to keep the light on in the cafe for a while longer to give the old man more time to drink.

“We are of two different kinds,” the older waiter said. He was now dressed to go home. “It is not only a question of youth and confidence although those things are very beautiful. Each night I am reluctant to close up because there may be some one who needs the cafe.”

“Hombre, there are bodegas open all night long.”

“You do not understand. This is a clean and pleasant cafe. It is well lighted. The light is very good and also, now, there are shadows of the leaves.”

Hemingway was famous for capturing a moment in time, a slice of life. The story ends without an answer. The old waiter blames his state of mind on insomnia, which could be seen as a scapegoat instead of confronting the reality of the meaninglessness of life.

But what could be a solution to this chaos?

Lost souls need order as evidenced by the old man’s desire to stay in the cafe. Order is then an essential need for those who are without meaning. Perhaps this suggests that when we are lost and lack meaning, we need to find things that bring order into our lives. Routines, habits, people, places, etc. Whatever helps us positively deal with our mental state.

In the story, it is implied that the old man lost his meaning after his wife passed. While the old waiter is seen trying to find meaning through religion but fails to do so. Even the young waiter finds his meaning through his work and his wife, both are liable to change.

What then?

Perhaps the meaning of our life has to be intrinsic. Something that can survive the ups and down of life. Perhaps that is the meaning. How well can you navigate what life throws at you? To constantly find the meaning behind your suffering. To search for the light in the darkness.

Maybe that is how meaning is created, and our mind becomes a place of solitude. 

Lessons From Stories: Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants

Arshan Dhillon

‘Hills Like White Elephants’ is a short story by Ernest Hemingway. The story is about a young couple waiting on a train to come and In the meantime, they have a conversation about a lingering topic of conflict amongst them, the unplanned pregnancy. The initial conflict is simple, the American, as the boy is called, wants the girl to have an abortion. The girl wants their life to go back to what it was, prior to the pregnancy. Much of the conflict takes place subtly as was Hemingway’s style.

Without conflict a story is bland. No one wants to read about some person who got everything they wished and then lived happily ever after. This can barely be even classified as a story. At the surface of ‘Hills Like White Elephants’, you may think that it’s without much conflict as much of the time the couple bickers over hills which may or may not look like white elephants or what drinks to get, however, the conflict is evident in the changing desire of the two characters which takes place underneath the surface.

The warm wind blew the bead curtain against the table.

‘The beer’s nice and cool,’ the man said.

‘It’s lovely,’ the girl said.

‘It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig,’ the man said. ‘It’s not really an operation at all.’

The girl looked at the ground the table legs rested on.

‘I know you wouldn’t mind it, Jig. It’s really not anything. It’s just to let the air in.’

The girl did not say anything.

‘I’ll go with you and I’ll stay with you all the time. They just let the air in and then it’s all perfectly natural.’

‘Then what will we do afterwards?’

‘We’ll be fine afterwards. Just like we were before.’

‘What makes you think so?’

‘That’s the only thing that bothers us. It’s the only thing that’s made us unhappy.’

The American wants the girl to have an abortion, this is his desire. The girl agrees but only if it pleases the American in the hope that this will return their relationship to what it was. She desires the past, a time before this “interruption” came.

‘If I do it you won’t ever worry?’ (the girl said)

‘I won’t worry about that because it’s perfectly simple.’

‘Then I’ll do it. Because I don’t care about me.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I don’t care about me.’

‘Well, I care about you.’

‘Oh, yes. But I don’t care about me. And I’ll do it and then everything will be fine.’

‘I don’t want you to do it if you feel that way.’

The American is displeased because he’s getting want he wants but not in the way he’d like because he loves the girl he wants her to do it if only she wishes it too and not as a favor. The conflict leads to a change in desire. The girl wants to please the American but can’t and the American wants the girl to be happy which she isn’t because her happiness is tied with the American who she knows desires the operation. 

And we could have all this,’ she said. ‘And we could have everything and every day we make it more impossible.’

‘What did you say?’

‘I said we could have everything.’

‘We can have everything.’

‘No, we can’t.’

‘We can have the whole world.’

‘No, we can’t.’

‘We can go everywhere.’

‘No, we can’t. It isn’t ours any more.’

‘It’s ours.’

‘No, it isn’t. And once they take it away, you never get it back.’

‘But they haven’t taken it away.’

‘We’ll wait and see.’

She is displeased now because she’s realizing that things will never be what they used to be and so it doesn’t matter if she keeps the child or not, her desire will never be fulfilled. This is where the story ends. A realization that there is no turning back the clock, whether or not the abortion takes place, this relationship has changed for good. The girl grows as a character through this realization and the story leaves the reader with the harsh reality of life which is that with each action you limit certain possibilities in your life and open others. Once that action is committed all you can do is make the best out of the possibilities that are left for you. 

‘Do you feel better?’ he asked.

‘I feel fine,’ she said. ‘There’s nothing wrong with me. I feel fine.’

Ernest Hemingway On What To Write About

Arshan Dhillon

I wish to write about things that are personal to me, things that matter to me, which cause me a certain sense of discomfort to write. The reason for this is that I view writing as a self-exploratory tool through which not only do I come to understand myself better and to formulate my thoughts but also to be able to express what goes unexpressed in daily life. There is always a sense of discomfort when one opens themselves up to others but this discomfort is needed if you wish to write about things that are of importance to you.

It is in this thought where Hemingway provides crucial insight. In his book, A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway recollects his early days as a writer and the time he spent in Paris interacting with other great artists such as Ezra Pound, Scott Fitzgerald, James Joyce and many more. Hemingway also speaks on the art of writing, his struggles to write and his attempt to write his first novel. It is in this, where he shares his thoughts on what he wishes to write about, in particular, three ideas:

I would write one story about each thing I knew about.

What did I know best that I had not written about and lost?

What did I know about truly and care for the most?

It’s these three ideas that have stuck with me through my reading of the book. The reason is simple, they are personal and they require thought. In order to transplant those thoughts onto paper, I have to be truthful. This truth may make you vulnerable but it is in this vulnerability that I may be able to write something that has meaning.

 

Hemingway & The Broken Places

Arshan Dhillon

There are two themes that I often reflect on when reading A Farewell To Arms. These two are optimism and pessimism. These opposite themes weave in and out of the novel as Hemingway explores the consequences of war and its effect on mankind through the eyes of the main character, Henry. Amidst the war, two people, Henry and Catherine, come together and find a kind of comforting peace. Henry and Catherine are both struggling with the effects of the war and need one another to feel stable. You can describe this as love but for me, it’s an example of human companionship. They are a presence of comfort in each other’s lives, and this allows them to organize themselves from the chaos of war. Even at the worst times, human comfort can bring relief and human beings can come together and provide moments of happiness and bliss that can remove the person from the things they might suffer from. This optimistic viewpoint contrasts with the pessimistic one that is often showcased in the tragedy of any war novel.

Both these themes are present in the following passage, which displays Hemingway’s writing ability, for he can convey such depth through the use of simple sentences and language.

If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.

When I read this, I am reminded of the struggles of life. Not just my own, but rather the struggle of people around me. The passage brings awareness to the thought that everyone is going through something or has gone through something or will go through something. This is life. Life is hard and it is difficult and even when you go through the rough parts of life and come out of it and “many are strong at the broken places”, life is not done, it will put more obstacles, more trials, more struggles in your path and that’s it. There is nothing else to it. You either withstand the struggle long enough or you allow it to break you early. Once more, “there will be no special hurry”.

Hemingway’s pessimism is clear in the passage, however, there is also optimism. There is a belief in man. That people can be courageous, gentle, brave and good. That even when life breaks you or you fail, you can use that to harden yourself, to get stronger, to get better and yes, ultimately there is no beating life, but it is in the struggle against life that one can show his or her true characteristics. Meaning, the hardships of life are there so you can be better for a period of time. In a way, you can be grateful for this kind of life because “many are strong at the broken places”.

Lastly, this passage is a good reminder to be kind. To be kind to people you know. You may be unaware of the troubles they are going through in their minds or in their personal life or work life. So, be patient with people. Be kind and patient with strangers as well for they are just like you, they are battling life, we are all in the same fight and through kindness and companionship, we can ease that fight, just a little. Or at least bring some kind of momentary relief as Henry and Catherine do for each other.

The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day. This is real freedom (David Foster Wallace)