Conclusion
Nihilism has always been the theme of nearly all of Hemingway’s works. In The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway quoted in the first page “The sun also ariseth, and the sun goth down, and hasteth to the place where he arose...”24, stating that everything under the sun is vanity. Nada, used by Hemingway in this story is a Spanish word which has the same meaning as vanity in Old Testament: Ecclesiastes: “vanity of vanities; all is vanity.”
In A Clean, Well-lighted Place, Hemingway explores human being’s value of living and the tragedy of people’s sufferings. There are mainly three characters described in this short story: the younger waiter, the older waiter and the old man. They are in their different ages which symbolize three stages in one’s life: youth, middle age and old age. Because they have different experiences in their lives, they have different views over the meaning of life. The younger waiter thinks his life is meaningful with a job, home and wife. Having experienced an eventful life, the deaf old man is disappointed and desperate with the meaninglessness of living. All he feels is the great nada in life. The older waiter is aware of the nothingness in life, too. But he can do nothing to change it except to provide a refuge for those lonely and desperate people. So, in the story he is quite sympathetic with the old man.
All of them are living in a world of nada, but they take different attitudes towards it. The younger waiter bases his confidence on youth, a job, things that will vanish with time passing. He is confined to the social restrictions and does not realize that he lives in a nihilistic world. The old man fully knows that the world is full of nada, and he tries to escape from it by killing himself. When failed, he becomes a regular patron of the clean, well lighted cafe and gets drunk, but he does his best to keep his dignity. The older waiter has the same feeling with the old man. He faces nada directly and bravely. By providing others who need a pleasant place to escape from the chaotic world, he enriches his own life as well. He is the only one who acts rationally and calmly in the face of nada.
This thesis explores the nihilism permeated in the short story. Through the
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analysis of the three major characters in the story, the author studies the waste spirit of people in that period between the two world wars and through the economic depression and comes to the conclusion of the Hemingway’s ideology of nihilism and people’s need to find their meaning of living.
If a further study of this short story is to be made, methods inferred by Hemingway in his works of how to lead people out of nada should be introduced. The nihilistic ideas of Hemingway’s other works should also be discussed.
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Notes
1. Chang Yaoxin. A Survey of American Literature. 3rd Edition, 天津:南开大学出版
社(2008)，p224.
2. Baym, Nina, Ronald Gottesman. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 3rd
Edition, Vol. 2, p1652.
3. Tzachi Zamir. Double Vision: Moral Philosophy and Shakespearean Drama.
Princeton: Princeton University Press (2007), p94.
4. 白凤欣、冯梅、姬生雷、李正栓. Best Short Stories of The world. 河北：河北教
育出版社(2006), p130. 5. Ibid.130. 6. Ibid.131. 7. Ibid.132.
8. Harold Bloom. Earnest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms. New Edition. Infobase
Publishing, p149.
9. Earnest Hemingway. Death in the Afternoon. Scribner’s(1932), p154
10. 白凤欣、冯梅、姬生雷、李正栓, Best Short Stories of The world, 河北，河北
教育出版社(2006), p130. 11. Ibid.130. 12. Ibid.131.
13. K’ung-fu Tzu, (2007), p5-6.
14. Earnest Hemingway. Death in the Afternoon. Scribner’s (1932), p100.
15. Thomas Gray. A New Course of English Literature. 2nd Edition. 河北教育出版
社(2008): p97.
16. Baker Carlos. Hemingway: A Writer as an Artist. Princeton: Princeton University
Press (1972), p124.
17. 白凤欣、冯梅、姬生雷、李正栓. Best Short Stories of The world. 河北:河北教
育出版社(2006), p132.
18. Baker Carlos. Hemingway: A Writer as an Artist. Princeton: Princeton University
Press (1972), p124.
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19. 白凤欣、冯梅、姬生雷、李正栓. Best Short Stories of The world. 河北：河北
教育出版社(2006), p133.
20. Baker Carlos. Hemingway: A Writer as an Artist. Princeton: Princeton University
Press (1972), p124.
21. 白凤欣、冯梅、姬生雷、李正栓. Best Short Stories of The world. 河北:河北教
育出版社(2006), p133. 22. Ibid.133.
23. J. R. Ensey. The Book We Call The Bible. Library of Congress-in-Publication
Data (1938), p321.
24. Adam Clarke. The Holy Bible: Ecclesiastes. New York: T. Mason & G. Lane
(1837), p807.
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