A Place, Three men, One Life

This article A Clean Well-lighted Place has profound meaning in itself, and its author is a famous writer. When I first read this story, I only feel angry about this young waiter and pity for the old man. After our teacher analyzing it during the class, I have a better understanding about this story and I want to share my opinions with you. The story reveals a common phenomenon in our society, talking about the relations between the old and the young, wealth and happiness, selfishness and kindness, indifference and sympathy.

Characteristics:
The old man is a despaired man but still keep his dignity, and eager to gain warmth and companion from other people. He is a typical image of hero in Hemingway's novels, such as the hero of the Old man and sea, Santiago. All of them have great courage to confront with harsh life and uncontrollable predestination. From the younger waiter’s words, we know that the old man had committed to suicide, which shows he loses his hope. He is a weak, hopeless and extremely unhappy old man. Although he never lacks of material wealth, he loses faith in his heart. However, he always keeps dignity. I conclude that from his choice to go to a clean and well-lighted cafe rather than a crowd and messy bar, and he barely drinks too much, which is not suitable for a gentle man. He keeps himself clean even not, like other old people. Even though he is a little drunk, he doesn't pour the wine and gives tips to waiters. Loneliness pushes him going to a cafe with warm atmosphere. Meanwhile this also shows that he doesn't have any relatives caring about him so he often go to a cafe in the late night. Therefore, he is deaf so he can not hear the sounds, which makes him only lives in his own world.
The middle-age man is sympathetic, considerate, and good-minded. He is also lonely as the old man. From his conversation with the young waiter, we can know that he cares about the old man's misfortunes and feels sympathy for the old man. He identify himself with the situation of the old man. And when the young man urges to go home and pushes the old man to leave earlier, he blames and teases the young waiter. After the closing of the cafe, he goes to a bar and has a cup of wine rather than go home, which reveals his loneliness. Therefore he knows a lot about wealth, youth, and confidence, and understand all of them can not bring happiness to human.
The young man is a selfish, indifferent and shallow man. He talks about the old man's suicide, only for he want to find some topic to chat with another waiter rather than care about, the old man. Because he wants to go home earlier, he shows extremely terrible attitudes towards the poor old man. He even swears the old man goes to die. This shows his indifference to other's lives and misfortunes. He mentions that the old man has a lot of money, so the old man suicide for nothing. Therefore, he emphasis that he is young and has a wife, so he has confidence. All of these shows his shallow and blindly confident.

Background
The old man has a lot of money, so he can often go to cafe, drinking comparatively expensive wine. He has no family members so no one stops him from drinking alcohol at his old ages in the late night.
The middle age man has no money and no wife. After his work, he is not hurry to go home rather than go to a bar, because there is nobody waiting for his returning. He go to the bar to drink a cup of wine, due to he lacks of money to drink more, and he want somebody can accompany him. But he has experienced much in his life, and know well about other people's living state. He cares for the old man and warns the young man.
The young man is lack of education and experiences, and he has youth and a wife. His values on wealth and youth are shallow. He wrongly regards the youth as the reason for his confidence. These show he is not well-educated.

From youth to old, from birth to die are inevitable processes for every man. These three man are the shadow of every man's image in this world. When we are young, we have confidence and care about nothing. Because we think that we have a lot of time to go for everything we want to get. The death is very far away, so we are the young man who regards wealth as happiness, and youth as the source of confidence. Then, we are in our middle ages, and we begin to be afraid of the pass of time and the lack of energy and time to realize your dream. The experiences make you think about the meaning of things around you. The middle age waiter know well about the despair and loneliness of the old man and the unnecessary confidence of the youth. At last, we are old, having to face the death and loneliness. Especially for those old man without relatives comparing with them, the life is dark and disappointed.
The kind of destination is determined by nature, no one can change it. The only thing we can do is try our best to create a harmony atmosphere for other people, and give them some warmth and care. So their life will not be so suffering...