Download A Clean, Well-Lighted Place Study Guide
Topics for Further Study
(Short Stories for Students)
- Research the famous U.S. brigade of the Spanish Civil War the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Which U.S. artists and writers fought or raised money for the Spanish Loyalists during this conflict?
- Examine the rise of fascism in the 1930s in Europe. How do historians account for the popularity or power of Mussolini, or Hitler and/or Franco? Or, research what platforms and positions characterize fascism. Hitler’s party, for example, was called the National Socialists. Why was it named this? What was “national” about it? What “socialist”?
- Explore theories about the “folk” that were circulating amongst artists and intellectuals of the Harlem Renaissance (1919-1935). Alain Locke’s 1925 essay ‘‘The New Negro,’’ a manifesto for this social and artistic movement, is a good place to begin. A seminal precursor text of the movement, also dealing with issues relating to “folk,” is W. E. B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk.
- Examine Hemingway’s continued cultivation of Latin connections after his experiences in France and Spain. How was southern Florida and Cuba important to his life and development as a writer once he returned to the U.S.?