A Clean, Well-Lighted Place Essay example -- Literary Analysis, Ernest

â€Å" A Clean, Well-Lighted Place† by Ernest Hemingway is a simplistic short story in which he narrates a scene in a Cafe, where the main characters are two waiters and an old man. In the story, Hemingway hardly created a background for his characters, but this was part of his minimalist writing style. He wanted to create a story that was straightforward to the reader, and in which the reader could easily understand his attitude. His purpose for writing the story was to expose his feelings on society, politics, and the individual at the time. These feelings could be characterized by three main words: desperation, disillusionment, and loneliness. Through all of the characters in his story, the reader was able to obtain one of these feelings. However, when I read the story I wanted to know more about the characters to be able to establish a connection with them. I wanted to know how and why did each of them acquired those feelings? Therefore, I decided to change the point of vi ew of the story from third- person- limited to first- person. Unlike Hemingway, I included more personal details about one of the main characters, in this case the old man, whom I consider to be the most mysterious character of the three. This way, I could make the reader relate more to the emotions conveyed by the story. Consequently, by showing the reader the old man's background, I made Hemingway's attitude of his original story stronger, and also establish a connection between the reader and the character(s). However, I also had to modify some of the plot, and language to make my scene coherent and relevant to my point of view. The most drastic change I made to Hemingway’s short story was the change of point of view from third- person- limited to first -per... ... When I first read â€Å"A Clean, Well-Lighted Place† by Ernest Hemingway, I thought that I lacked a connection to the story. I did not feel like I knew the characters, which left me with no connection to them and intrigued me as well, especially the old man. Why did Hemingway leave out backgrounds to his characters? This motivated me to write my scene through the old man's point of view. I felt that with the change of point of view to first- person, the reader would feel more attracted to the story, and at the same time I could keep Hemingway’s attitude of despair and disillusionment intact, maybe even make it stronger. With my part of the puzzle, I felt more at peace with his original story, and I was able to establish a relationship between Hemingway (as a writer) and me (as a reader). I was able to experience his motivation for writing â€Å"A Clean, Well-Lighted Place†.