Ernest Hemingway (1933)
"What did he fear? It was not a fear or dread. It was a nothing that he knew too well. It was all nothing and a 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 all was nada."
The young waiter, oblivious to his surroundings, was rude to the old man who was seeking a haven in the cafe. While closing the cafe the older waiter admits to having similar feelings of the old man. It was this point in the story where it all came together to me. Earlier when asked why the old man tried to kill himself, the waiter says it was over "nothing." I, along with the younger waiter took this to mean that there was no reason for the old man to kill himself. It is here that we learn the reality. The old man wanted to kill himself because he had nothing.
We know that the old man has a niece and plenty of money but that is it. His wife passed away. His house his empty. He has nothing to go home to. It is much easier to sit in a clean, well lit cafe, then to sit in a dark house, full of memories all alone.
I like how the author describes nothing has an object. Rather than to say he doesn't have anything, they say he has nothing. I feel like that is a more positive way to look at a very sad situation. It says that he has one thing rather than he doesn't have anything. Even though the one thing he has is nothing.
This story made me sad because both the waiter and the old man felt that they had nothing and needed to seek a place for the evening. They both felt alone and that no one understood. I feel as though maybe, they both just needed a friend. Had they talked to each other, they could have felt better. There is a song called "People are Crazy," that I think relates to this well. An old man is sitting in a bar and talks to a younger man all night until they got kicked out. Soon, the singer learns that the old man has died and left all of his money to him. The old man did not have a good relationship with his family. Al he needed was someone to talk to that night and it changed his life.
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