A Clean, Well-Lighted Place | Themes and Characters
Loneliness and the search for meaning in the world are the main themes of the story, although other themes are subsumed in these two notions. The older waiter's compassion for the old man drinking by himself late into the night every night suggests loneliness. The older waiter understands implicitly what it may be like to be that customer, to live that customer's life. The younger waiter, who has a wife, a home, and a job, lacks the older waiter's perspective on life; he sees only his own immediate desire to go home and sleep, with no thought toward what may be haunting the customers he...
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