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Communication In Ernest Hemingway's A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

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Being in a state of isolation, whether it be physically or emotionally, can be tough on a person and potentially lead to self destruction. The ability to openly communicate and express your emotions is key to escaping the hardships of isolation. Today, we live in a developed society where we are encouraged to express our opinions and therefore, become more understanding of one another. However, many remain silent, what is it exactly that makes communication so difficult that we would prefer to suffer rather than giving a voice to your thoughts? Neglecting your true emotions and being dishonest with yourself will inevitably lead to a life full of distress and despair. The only method to move forward is to recognise your loneliness for what it …show more content…

‘Hills like White Elephants,’ exhibits a disagreement between a man and a young girl on the abortion of their unborn child and the misery the girl must endure to save her baby. ‘Cat in the Rain,’ gives the readers an insight of a dysfunctional marriage as a result of lack of communication. ‘A Clean, Well-lighted Place,’ is based on the nightly routine of a suicidal old man in a clean, well-lighted cafe. ‘Rain,’ by Merce Rodoreda allows the reader to view the isolation of a woman as she decides to reject a possible new relationship due to fear of being heart broken again. All four short stories revolve around the same idea of how significant the power of words can be on one’s life because communication is key to successful relationships and overall …show more content…

He once had a family and now he is all alone. The old man’s routine showed him sitting alone in the corner of the cafe and drinking his brandy until as late as the cafe was open. In this story, Hemingway is trying to show the readers that as a person ages and death draws nearer, they suffer from more despair and believe they no longer have a purpose in their life as a result of their isolation. It is this despair that starts to dominate a person’s life and eventually become a part of who they are. However, this suffering can be resolved with the ears of a trusting and understanding individual. Compared to the old man’s life, the young waiter’s character’s life is seen at its peak where he has a loving wife to go home to, “He's lonely. I'm not lonely. I have a wife waiting in bed for me," hence he does not sympathize with the old man. What the young waiter doesn’t understand is, his life will not remain the same forever because ageism is what caused the loneliness and hopelessness that the old man suffers from. Although, talking to someone would change the man’s life significantly, it is the clean, well-lighted setting of the cafe keeping him alive. To him, the cafe is temporary refuge from the darkness and emptiness of his home. The cafe acts as a shelter for “those who need a light for the night." The old man

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Bui grows through his relationship with Galilee and through learning English. Bui’s improvement in speaking English also reflects the “opening soon” message of the sign: “And when the dog limped inside her new home and curled herself at the door, Bui wound up his recitation, his voice confident and strong” (170). Bui also grows as a character by accepting that his wife is pregnant by another man. Finally, the renewed vitality of the café also reflects how the café is again “opening soon”: “The Honk was seldom empty and sometimes so crowded at noon, customers had to wait for tables” (203). Overall, the “opening soon” part of the Honk and Holler café is a literal mistake; however, Caney’s gaffe figuratively symbolizes the beginning of character growth, relationship, and the café’s “reopening” in the

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The narrator distanced his path of finding his own voice even more when he imitated Hemingway’s stories. Rather than expressing his own voice and identity into his stories, the narrator “typed out Hemingway’s stories” (Wolff 110) causing his search to find his voice much longer. It is clear that Hemingway’s contributions to the school’s literacy contest motivated the narrator erroneously by discouraging the narrator from finding his own

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When she was at the shop, a man walks in wearing a “stained blanket pulled up to his chin” who smells of “stale cigarettes and urine” (7). This graphic description of the man instills a feeling of disgust in the audience. He stands there until a “moody French woman” walks towards him and handing him “steaming coffee in a Styrofoam cup, and a small paper bag” of what is perhaps a croissant. He accepts the food and leaves the bread shop. Just like she did in the preceding anecdotal narrative she question why the woman demonstrated this act of compassion.

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Hemingway sets the story environment at a train station, with two very different sides of the tracks. This setting is interpreted as a metaphor for the choice at hand, an interpretation of life or death. One side reflecting a dry harsh area, with no trees, and devoid of life, on the other side of the

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Isolation is when one is set apart from others and is virtually alone. In Laurie Anderson’s Speak, the protagonist, Melinda, isolates herself and is further isolated from others. Isolation can be seen through three symbols: lips, mirrors and a closet. Melinda thinks no one cares about what she has to say, resulting in silence. After the incident in the summer, Melinda cannot bare to look at herself.

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Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants" and David Foster Wallace’s “Good People,” are respected, yet controversial text within American literature. In Both works they confront the hard-hitting reality of how couples face the struggles of an unwanted pregnancy when it occurs. These stories deal with realism at their cores but deal with them in their very own ways. Both stories share similarities and differences with each other and it’s all based on the authors Ernest Hemingway and David Foster Wallace views on these themes as well as their relationship.

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The struggles presented between these two characters bring to light issues in human relationships that weigh into everyday life. Hemingway’s short story reveals to readers how relationships affect communication, decision

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Ehrenreich mentions “The regulation poster in the single unisex rest room admonishes us to wash our hands thoroughly,” in her essay; However, there is almost no one following the instruction because “there is always some vital substance missing—soap, paper towels, toilet paper”. Although workers may want to follow the instructions, it is impossible for them to do so because they “never found all three at once ”. The effect of describing the deficient rest room is to highlight the fact that the owner of the restaurant is so stingy to the workers that the owner refuses to provide enough substance. Thus, the readers can better understand the terrible environment that the workers live in. In short, with mention the dreadful environment of the kitchen and the rest room, the audiences are able to know that lower workers work in a grubby environment and how they have been treated by the upper class.

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The novel, The Old Man and the Sea, is a story about an old man, Santiago, who experienced great adversity but did not give up. The author, Ernest Hemingway, describes how an old man uses his experience, his endurance and his hopefulness to catch a huge marlin, the biggest fish he has ever caught in his life. The old man experienced social-emotional, physical, and mental adversity. However, despite the overwhelming challenges, he did not allow them to hold him back but instead continued to pursue his goal of catching a fish with determination. Santiago’s character, his actions and the event in the novel reveals an underlying theme that even when one is facing incredible struggles, one should persevere.

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Ernest Hemingway’s characters are frequently tested in their faith, beliefs, and ideas. To Hemingway’s characters, things that appear to be grounded in reality and unmovable facts frequently are not, revealing themselves to be hollow, personal mythologies. Hemingway shakes his characters out of their comfortable ignorance through traumatic events that usually cause a certain sense of disillusionment with characters mythologies, moving them to change their way of life. His characters usually, after becoming disillusioned, respond with depression, suicide, and nihilism. However, this is not always the case.

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Every novel or stories gives a fundamental ideas or lesson for the readers. Most of the lesson are informative and it brings a changes to the readers mind. There will be a universal of an ideas explored in a literature and readers can abstract numerous themes depending on each individual. Similarly, in the novel “the old man and the sea” Hemingway depicted several themes related to nature, people and so on. However determination can also be one of the theme for the readers because the old man, Santiago didn’t gave up fishing even if he had cramp but he took this as an encouragement in his old age.

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America is built upon the ideal that every citizen has an equal opportunity to success and prosperity through hard work and dedication. This is also known as the American dream. Many authors have speculated what is most important in grasping the American dream and through reading these stories it can be determined that success, happiness, and freedoms all play an important role in attaining the American dream. The American dream is historically unique because everyone American has the right to it.

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The man thinks he is way to young to lose his father. Due to that he pities himself since he is alone. His father left him and the speaker does not think he deserves that. Within Li-Young Lee’s poem “Eating Alone” many different poetic elements are used.

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The novel, The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway, describes the life of some people from the Lost Generation in post-World War I Europe, but mostly in Paris, France and Pamplona, Spain. This novel rotates around Jacob, or Jake, Barnes’, the narrator’s, life; which mostly includes drinking with his friends, Robert Cohn, a Jewish man who is often verbally abused by his “friends”, Ashley Brett, an attractive woman who Jake is in love with, Bill Gorton, a good friend of Jake’s, and a couple others. Their life in dull Paris seems to revolve around spending money and drinking, but when they go to colorful Pamplona, Spain, they have an amazing time during the fun-filled fiesta. Ernest Hemingway uses the “iceberg theory” when he presents Jake Barnes to the reader; he does not directly tell you a lot about Jake, but through Jake’s thoughts and emotions, one can tell that he was injured in the war, he is not a very religious person, he would rather do what he loves, instead of what he must, and he does not like to be honest with himself, despite the fact that he is one of the more honest characters in the novel. Ernest Hemingway does not directly let the reader know that Jake is injured in a special place; he allows the reader to interpret that from Jake’s thoughts and memories.

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Winter was just around the corner. It was my first time in the biggest coffee shop in town. I could see the cheerful and brilliant lighting of the shop as I walked across the vast parking lot. There were tables outside the shop each with a brown vintage style umbrella. This particular coffee shop is not a cafe, it’s a coffee shop literally.

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