What is the tone and style of "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place"?

The tone of "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" by American writer Ernest Hemingway is a matter-of-fact, direct tone. It is an unbiased reporting by Hemingway of this story stored in his mind, as if it was a real incident and he was relaying “Just the facts ma’am.” (With apologies to Jack Webb on the TV series Dragnet).

Hemingway is reporting, dryly and without emotion, a moment in time in a café one night. The tone is almost deadpan, as if told by a poker player with a straight face not wanting to reveal anything, especially emotion or any sense of real concern.

The style of "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" is one of unembellished discourse. It is a factual account of what is happening in this clean café. It does not mean that this is a true account, though.

Hemingway, through the eyes of the two waiters is giving a factual account of what is happening in the moment in the cafe. Nevertheless, do the waiters really know the whole truth about this old man? Do they really know the truth of his life and what brought him to this point? Do they really understand his life with his niece? Do they know for sure what caused this old man to try and kill himself?

This unadorned style of writing makes the reader concentrate on the heart of the story. There is no flowery language to distract the reader from the harshness of this story. The harshness is the way the old man is confronting and dealing with old age – all its challenges in what can be a very cruel world.

Furthermore, this plain style mimics the austereness of this simple café on a dusty street. The austere writing also mimics the stark reality of a man in his eighties having to drink alone in some café/bar and having to stumble home somewhat after he’s imbibed too much.

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Hemingway's style for this short story is called "minimalist" because it is brief and simple in every aspect of the story. The sentences are simply, clearly written, there is very little in figurative language (similes/metaphors), and the diction, the writer's choice of words, consists of words with only one or two syllables. The only description we get of the setting, the cafe, is what the title tells us, "clean" and "well-lighted". The characters aren't fully described either. Because the story is simplistic, the reader must be careful not to overlook any of the words and sentences in it because everything in the story becomes important to understanding it.

Throughout the story, we get a sense of loneliness and desperation from the older waiter who wonders if his life has ever been meaningful. He never sleeps at night, but as he's lying in bed that night, he has some hope that he's not alone in his feelings. Somehow, he feels better thinking that other people are having the same doubts and fears he does.

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"A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" is one of Hemingway's works of fiction which is set in Spain. In most of these works the dialogue is in English, but he wrote the dialogue in such a way that the reader understands the characters are speaking in Spanish. A large part of "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" consists of dialogue between two waiters who obviously would not be speaking English. Hemingway had a special talent for writing this kind of dual-language dialogue. He showed that it was really Spanish by some of the vocabulary and by the construction of some of the sentences. A couple of examples from the story are:

"I wish he would go home. I never get to bed before three o'clock. What kind of hour is that to go to bed?"

"I don't want to look at him. I wish he would go home. He has no regard for those who must work."

The novel in which Hemingway uses this English-Spanish to the extreme is For Whom the Bell Tolls. Many of his characters are uneducated peasants who would not be capable of speaking any English at all. They are usually speaking to the protagonist Robert Jordan, an American who can understand them because he is fairly fluent in conversational Spanish. The reader understands that the other characters are speaking in their vernacular but it is being translated into English through Jordan's mind. Other works in which Hemingway uses this technique include "Old Man at the Bridge," "The Undefeated," "The Old Man and the Sea," and The Sun Also Rises. He also does it with Italian and German in some short works. At the end of "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," Hemingway makes it clear that one of the waiters is only speaking Spanish by his interior monologue:

It was all a nothing and man was a nothing too. It was only that and light was all it needed and a certain cleanness and order. Some lived in it and never felt it but he knew it was all nada y pues nada y nada y pues nada. Our nada who art in nada, nada be thy name thy kingdom nada thy will be nada in nada as it is in nada. Give us this nada our daily nada and nada us our nada as we nada our nada and nada us not into nada but deliver us from nada; pues nada. Hail nothing full of nothing, nothing is with thee.

Hemingway was speaking for himself as well as the old man. Hemingway seems to have been troubled all his life by this existential angst, which may explain his heavy drinking and his suicide.

In Hemingway's "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," tone reflects style. Style is the particular way an author constructs sentences and thoughts and it relates to diction and vocabulary, syntax and grammar choices. Tone is the feeling a narrator has about the subject and characters of a story. Tone may be different or the same as the mood, or atmosphere, within the story. For example, the mood of the story may be cheery but the tone of the narrator sarcastic and bitter (think of Scrooge talking about his nephew's Christmas feasts before being visited by the Ghost of Christmas past).

Hemingway's style is minimalistic and without numerous kinds of figures of speech. His vocabulary is simple and often single syllable words. His diction is the language of the common person without advanced education. He uses a minimal number of compound and complex sentences--thus has simple grammar constructions and syntax relationships--and these appear in the narrator's comments, not in the dialogue. Examples are:

• Simple sentences: "The guard will get him. They went by five minutes ago." (older waiter dialogue)
• Complex sentence: The two waiters inside the cafe knew that the old man was a little drunk, and while he was a good client they knew that if he became too drunk he would leave without paying, so they kept watch on him. (narrator)

The tone reflected in this minimalism is distanced and objective (although you can find a tone of compassion in the first paragraph description and symbolism). The narrator expresses the tone, and the narrator says as little as possible. This is why the narrator tone is distanced. The narrator prefers to let the character dialogue express character emotions, motives and ideas. This is why the narrator tone is objective.

The theme addresses the feeling of despair (hopelessness) that arises from the belief that life is meaningless and without order. The theme accepts existential meaninglessness but rejects despairing nihilism. In other words, the theme suggests that while life may seem to be without meaning and order, there are things to do to keep from falling into hopeless despair. Being in a clean, well-lighted place is one of the things that might drive off despair and hopelessness.

"Why?"

"He was in despair."

"What about?"

"Nothing."

Perhaps Ernest Hemingway, in his unstated way, merely portrays the young waiter as the typical youth who is so full of life and the desires of life that he does not yet recognize the void and the absurdity of life.  It is when one is an old man, alone, that he becomes, then, much more aware of life.  As death draws near, the older men realize what little their lives have held.  Alone, each must listen to his thoughts; alone he must admit "It was a nothing that he knew too well."  Hence, the parodic prayer: 

Give us this nada our daily nada and nada us our nada as we nada nour nada and nada us not into nada but deliver us from nada;pues nada.

I would agree with #4. As hard as it is to identify Hemmingway's attitude is, as #5 points out, I think that from what we know of Hemmingway's own life and his own sense of despair and insignificance, we can see that the narrator shows more sympathy for the older characters, the old, drunk man, and the older narrator, than he does for the younger waiter who wishes that the old man had killed himself so he could get to bed sooner. In addition, I think that the older waiter's understanding and empathy for those that need cafe's as a refuge against their sense of despair and loneliness, and the way that he is blind to how he himself is lonely, makes him worthy of most sympathy.

It's tricky to say what Hemingway's attitude is, unless you assume the narrator is Hemingway's voice. Hemingway took two narratorial approaches. Sometimes, as in the Spanish Civil War stories, the narrator is clearly Hemingway. Other times, as in the Nick Adams stories, the narrator is a persona and not Hemingway. If examined from both perspectives, one might say that the narrator has a sympathetic, compassionate, understanding attitude toward each of the three character, even toward the impetuous young husband who is dissatisfied with getting home to his wife at 3 a.m. One might also say that, if the narrator is Hemingway's voice, Hemingway has an attitude of particular empathy (as well as sympathy) toward the drunken old man; of deeply understanding compassion for the old insomniac waiter; and of nostalgic good will toward the waiter with the wife.

I agree.  Hemingway is clearly more sympathetic to the older characters in the story.  The young waiter is eager to leave, rushing the old man and looking at him through completely unsympathetic and impatient eyes.  The old man is dilatory and doing his best not to have to go home to his lonely room.  This, of course, is to contrast the eager, callous youthfulness with the tragic loneliness of old age. 

What is Hemingway's attitude toward his characters in  "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place"? What is Hemingway's attitude toward his characters in A Clean, Well-Lighted Place and how does he reveal his attitude?

Hemingway treats his two older characters with more sympathy than he expends upon the young waiter. They are united in their nameless despair. We don't hear the old man speak, but in the words of the older waiter, we can see that he understands the old man and feels empathy for him. He understands why the old man drinks and why he needs the cafe rather than a bar. The older waiter wants to let him stay longer. The older waiter hates to close the cafe because he is afraid that others might "need it."

The younger man, however, is not old enough to understand the loneliness of the others. He is confident to the point of cockiness, although his confidence in the faithfulness of his wife is suspect. He is impatient and rude. When the old man insists upon having more brandy poured into his glass, the young waiter fills it to overflowing and it runs down the sides of the glass. The young waiter is both petty and petulant; he sulks; he wants to go home early. The two older men are treated much more gently in the story.

That is a good but complex question. In this classic story, Hemingway's style is very restrained (even for him). It has been called minimalist, and in truth, sections of this story are almost a play script with stage directions (except for the eruption of the internal late in the story). If I had to sum up a single attitude, I'd say it was respect for existential despair. Hemingway shows how austere their lives are, and how they lack metaphysical foundation here:

"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. He smiled and stood before a bar with a shining steam pressure coffee machine."

So, they pray to nothing, and they get nothing-but they smile and go on anyway. That's a kind of respect.

What sentences in "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" establish Hemingway's distinctive style?

It is always the opening sentences that set the style of well written literature. In this case, the opening sentences include the narration and dialogue as in this excerpt from the opening narration and dialogue:

The two waiters inside the cafe knew that the old man was a little drunk, and while he was a good client they knew that if he became too drunk he would leave without paying, so they kept watch on him.

"Last week he tried to commit suicide," one waiter said.

"Why?"

"He was in despair."

The distinctive diction techniques here are Hemingway's trademarks found in all his major works. The story is written in the style of minimalism in which only the most essential story and diction elements are given or used: Hemingway routinely left more untold than told in his stories. One distinction in vocabulary choice to note is there are few adjectives or adverbs used (adjectives modify nouns, adverbs modify verbs and adjectives). Those that are used are simple ones derived from Old English like "little" or "good" in the quote above. Another distinctive point of style is that Hemingway lets characters' actions and dialogue reveal their character traits. For example, the old man is drunk and the waiters keep watch. Without reading any further, this tells you that the old man is unhappy and the waiters work well together and are attentive to both the customer and the integrity of the business.

Another distinctive technique of Heminway's is symbolic narrative description. He introduces into his brief descriptions symbolism that helps lay the themes, the relationships between characters, the conflict, the tone of the narrator and mood of the story. In the first sentence, Hemingway introduces the symbolic motif of "the shadow the leaves of the tree made against the electric light." This will occur again and symbolizes the theme of how to avoid existential nihilism's despair and destruction: how to find order and meaning without living in despair.

What modernist characteristics are present in "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place"?

Modernist writing rejected the Victorian and Edwardian omniscient, or all-knowing, narrator, believing that this form of narration did not accurately reflect a reality in which knowledge is fragmentary and subjective. Modernist writers like also Hemingway rejected piling on details which older authors meant to represent verisimilitude. The new wave of authors felt that small details encrusted literature with too many merely decorative embellishments that had no connection with the core story. Just as modernist architects rejected "gingerbread" embellishments on houses, modernist writers sought clean lines and stories. After World War I, modernism, which had already started to reflect the alienation brought on by industrialism, increasingly depicted the sense of despair caused by the aftermath of a bloody and futile war.

In "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" Hemingway first shows his modernism by rejecting embellishments, using spare, clean prose to tell his story. Further, while there is a narrator setting the scene, Hemingway largely keeps this narrative voice out of the story. Readers interpret the action for themselves by relying on the dialogue between the two waiters and interior monologue. Finally, the story reflects a world that has lost faith in God, where people commit suicide out of hopelessness, and where giving an old man a clean well-lighted cafe to sit in can be a compassionate stopgap against the darkness of life. The elderly waiter, who understands and feels kindness towards the old man, reflects this sense of life's nothing or "nada" when he repeats to himself the Lord's Prayer, substituting nada for most of the words:

Our nada who art in nada, nada be thy name thy kingdom nada thy will be nada in nada as it is in nada.

This story is about as far as we can imagine from a sentimental Victorian narrative with an omniscient narrator, loads of descriptive detail, and an uplifting moral message.

Very few modernists were avowed nihilists, but in challenging prevailing ideas they often gave that impression. It's not so much that modernists didn't believe in anything, more that they believed that the old certainties had been swept away in the post-war cultural malaise and that new ideas needed to take their place.

To some extent, the older waiter is a representative of the modernist attitude in miniature. His mocking invocation of the Lord's Prayer, with its refrain of "nada," or nothing, pithily expresses the sense of crisis and disillusionment which descended upon Hemingway and the other members of the so-called Lost Generation. Like a whole generation of modernist artists, the old waiter doesn't really belong in the modern world; he has no "clean, well-lighted" place to call home. He's cut adrift from his fellow man, forced back on his own resources to find his own truth in the midst of an alienating world where everything suddenly seems to have lost all meaning.

Which sentences establish the style of Hemingway's "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place"?

It stands to reason that the opening sentences, particularly the first sentence, must be the ones to establish the style of a story. And this maxim is true for hemingway's "A Clean Well-Lighted Place." Yet, since so much of this story is told as dialogue, then later as the old waiter's soliloquy (speeches in which speakers addresses themselves), a sentence written after the opening is also instrumental in establishing style.

The first sentence Hemingway writes sets up the style, as it rightly should and must do. In it, he incorporates and establishes the tone, instructive symbolism, foreshadowing, and theme. He also establishes his terse, concise, information-packed sentence style.

It was very late and everyone had left the cafe except an old man who sat in the shadow the leaves of the tree made against the electric light.

The tone is distanced and objective but not unemotional: "very late and everyone had left" has an emotional, lonely quality to it. The symbolism in "an old man who sat in the shadow" is instructive of the existential despair and suggests the theme. Foreshadowing in the "old man," the "leaves," and the "electric light," leads to and prepares for the old waiter's soliloquy and delivery of the full theme.

The full thesis of existential despair that overwhelms after the full blush of youth is gone is established in the first sentence of dialogue spoken by an unnamed "one waiter":

"Last week he tried to commit suicide," one waiter said.

In these two sentences, Hemingway's style is fully and firmly established, from style of establishing tone to establishing sentence style to establishing his style for revealing his thesis and themes.