"A Clean, Well-Lighted Place"- Ernest Hemingway

Analysis-

I'm not sure who the protagnist is in this story. I would at first think the old man who is deaf, but further into the reading I would say that it is the older waiter without the wife. My immediate thought on who the antagonist would be the young waiter with the wife. I almost sensed the feeling that this story was young vs. old. It showed how young people are always go, go, go and older individuals can sit and enjoy the moment. In the introduction, there is a lot of description about the old man and the young waiter goes on and on about how he is wasting his time and he wishes he would died when he tried to hang himself. The rising action is when the young waiter keeps going over and filling up the glass and becomes angrier and angrier. Then the young waiter finally becomes to annoyed and told the old man that he could have no more drinks and had to go home, that is the climax. The falling action happens when the older waiter tells the young waiter that he didn't need to rush the old gentleman and that he was doing no harm. The denouement happens when the old waiter goes to a different place and it almost seems that he becomes the old man in this bar.

My Response-

This story became very confusing with all the dialog. It switched several teams and I sometimes became lost. I understood the frustration the young waiter felt because of the old man in the cafe, but then I also felt the acceptance that the old waiter had for the older gentleman. Our generation is always go, go, go and older generations can stop and enjoy the moment. I will be the first to agree with this theory, but I'm a mixture of the generations. I love to go, go, go but at the same moment I love to just relax and enjoy the screnary around me. I do not prefer these kinds of stories because I dislike stories that I get lost in easy.