Looking for the Light: A Review on Hemingway's "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place"

As an example of the modernist movement, Ernest Hemingway's short story "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" offers a critique of capitalism through a lens of individualism as seen in the dialogue between the young and old waiter. The younger waiter criticizes the rich, old cafe patron as someone who "has no regard for those who must work" in a symbolic conversation with the old waiter that challenges the systemic norms of labor exploitation (Hemingway 2). In juxtaposing the old, rich cafe patron to the old waiter, Hemingway directly challenges the lack of purpose in toiling away under capitalism given the finite human experience of time on this earth. More specifically, Hemingway appears to suggest that wealth isn't a shield against human suffering. This is seen in the compassion and empathy the old waiter expresses to the young waiter in defense of the cafe patron in the following lines: "I am of those who like to stay late at the cafe. With all those who do not want to go to bed. With all those who need a light for the night" (Hemingway 3). The symbolism of the light as comfort to both of the older men, regardless of socioeconomic status, further highlights the meaninglessness of spending one's life in pursuit of the mighty dollar as loss and mortality is inevitable. The young waiter's disregard for his own likely future plight, as foreshadowed by the older men, haunts the reader by intimating how the hamster wheel of capitalism is perpetuated by disregarding consequences in the interest of immediate, selfish gratification.