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

There is something other than Insomnia that kept the older waiter from wanting to go to bed in Ernest Hemingway’s, “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place.” In fact, when the older waiter went into his “Nada” make ship prayer he shows what it is that keeps him awake at night. Beyond that, he also understood the older gentlemen’s need for the ‘clean, well-lighted place” the café provided. And finally, there was what the café meant to both the older waiter and the elderly gentleman. It was evident from the passage, “You have youth, confidence, and a job, you have everything,” that the older waiter was not in the possession of much self-confidence (Gioia 171). The almost Freudian joke he mentioned in the story also showed his lack of self-confidence, “And you? You have no fear of going home before the usual hour?” (Gioia 171). It would seem that the older waiter would be afraid of coming home and finding his wife with another man, believing he would not be enough of a man to keep a woman satisfied. Therefore, he was afraid of

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,” goes further to show how empty and alone he feels (Gioia 172). He took a few well-known prayers and removed all words that are meant to lift the spirit. Only to replace them with words like nada or nothing. The last part of the prayer is particularly telling of how he feels. The story is set in Cuba, which was especially back then very Catholic and religious. Yet, this man states at the end of the prayer, “Hail nothing full of nothing, nothing is with thee” (Gioia 172). He felt so alone and neglected he lost his faith in God. Perhaps he felt that if there were an all loving, kind God, he would not be so