The Fake Nihility in Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” In Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”, the story is constructed in the several contrasts: young and old, light and dark, asleep and sleepless, live and death, religion and nihilism. The outer world’s contrasts form the contradictory meanings of the central word “nothing”, and reflect the psychological struggle in older waiter’s mind. The essay will include three supporting literary terms: irony, symbol and denouement. Irony means the words which remain the root sense and dissemble or hide the real meaning of the case in order to achieve special rhetorical or artistic effects (Abrams 135). Symbol is a word or phrase that signifies an object or event which stands for a deeper meaning (Abrams 311). Denouement is the outcome of conflict and the ending of the story (Abrams 227). In the article “The Logic of Confusion in: Hemingway’s ‘A Clean, Well-Lighted Place’” by Joseph F. Gabriel, the author argues that the older waiter and younger waiter have contradictory attitude to “nothingness” and show the contrasts in the story. Another critic, Warren Bennett, in his article entitled “Character, Irony, and Resolution in ‘A Clean Well-Lighted Place’,” contends that in the story the dramatic and verbal irony show the negative situation of old man and older waiter, and the situation will transfer to younger waiter in the future. Many people think in “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”, “nothing” signifies the absolute