Spirituality in Solitude - A Clean Well Lighted Place
Uploaded by Chava Berman on Oct 23, 2006
A clean well lighted place by Ernest Hemingway is the ultimate story about the deep human struggle to find one's inner place in a vast all-encompassing world. This spiritual inner place is one which can only be accessed through a physical place which is conducive to a higher state of spiritual being. This need to find one's personal place in the world stems from the fact that humankind is so exceedingly vulnerable and insignificant. Thus people create a place which brings sense out of the senseless. For some to find this place in order to elevate themselves from the madness of a completely arbitrary world and create some sort of meaning,they turn to God.
For these people a house of worship is the ultimate place to access this meaning. Through this place, they become an essential part of the human race through their trust and reliance of a higher power.
The above insight lends substantial evidence to whom the real protagonist of this story would be. The protagonist is not a literal character, but rather the actual place itself. Hemingway is relaying the message that a place emanates a significant influence. Depending on one's surroundings he might evolve into the worst criminal or the greatest saint. This does not negate the fact that it is up to the person himself, too, for the way he ultimately becomes, but nonetheless a powerful factor of how one turns out is based on his physical surroundings.A child who is raised without the necessary conditions for health and growth may grow up to be retarded or have severe developmental problems. This reiterates the point that our surroundings are responsible for a huge part of what people turn out to be, no only in behavior, but physiologically as well. Hemingway chose his title for us readers to comprehend the most significant aspect of the story.
The second most significant dimesion to this story after place, would be time. Hemingway is showing the importance of setting. Just like the place with its bright lights and cleanliness is an essential part, so too is the time, at night. Physical surroundings are a reflection of mental and spiritual states. The cleanliness the old man likes is to ensure that his mind is still free and clean from the clutter that humans face on a daily basis. Clean usually conjures up to the mind a figurative cleanliness which reflects...