A Clean Café

Author's Note: In these upcoming paragraphs you will read a couple signs of symbolism from the short story, "A Clean, Well-lighted Place" by Ernst Hemingway. 

In every story, there is symbolism, even if you don't see it. There may not be a lot, but there is some! In the piece, "A Clean, Well-lighted Place" by Ernest Hemingway, there are many signs of symbolism. Ernest Hemingway has written a lot of symbolism into his pieces, and in this piece, the characters are a great sign. The three main characters can all be explained differently from their own actions. The symbolism in the story helps the reader understand the purpose of the story and the characters in several ways.

There are times in life where you change, not only once, but many times. A young, middle aged, and old man can be completely different. There is plenty symbolism in the story, "A Clean, Well-lighted Place". Three men, the young, middle aged, and the old are all in a café around 3 am. The old man had been drinking by himself as the two young and middle aged waiters wait for him to finish.

The younger man didn’t understand why he was at a café and not a bar. As the young man wanted to go home and to bed, he was getting crabby and rude with the old man. He demanded him to stop drinking and to carry on home. The middle aged man watched how the younger man approached the eldest. Towards the end, the middle aged man had thought about what he experienced with the younger man's rudeness. You can always tell a clean, empty place is a better place to drink alone, then a loud, crowded one.

One main symbol in the story is the young man. The young man in this story represents a rude attitude, leaving a not so well thought about his generation. Instead of telling the old man to scram in different words, he could've approached him nicely and asked him to return home at the late hour to be safe.

Another symbol in this story is the middle aged man. The middle aged man represents observing, on how the young man treats the oldest man. He watched as the young man had forced the oldest to stop drinking and didn't understand his need to be rude.

The symbolism can be well recognized by some readers to help them understand the story a better. The questions that the middle aged man had from his experience where answered. A clean, quiet café is a much better place to stay, than a loud bar.