Life, based on modernist fiction, is meaningless. In a sea full of people, a single person is just a speck. small and insignificant part of a larger heterogeneous group in which our life has no value Using his short story “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” as a medium with the literary elements of characterization and light and dark imagery, Ernest Hemingway offers the concepts above and advances the.notion that a single person's life has no value and is meaningless. Say no to plagiarism Get a custom essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? original In the short story, characterization through the words of the. The older waiter is used to reveal the traits of the old man and subsequently support Hemingway's position on the value of life. It takes place in a bar late at night, an older man drinks to be drunk . He is a regular customer of the place, and the two waiters, one old and one young, often reflect on the old man, his actions and his life. They explain that last week he attempted suicide because he “was desperate” for “nothing” (Hemingway 1). This introduces the reader to Hemingway's often used concept of nada, or nothing. It is clear that the man is alone and feels nothing because of his suicide attempt. He has nothing in his life and feels useless. He has no wife, no life, and other than the bar, no place to live out the rest of his otherwise empty life. In other words, he is a lost man and someone who has nothing to live for. This is a man who will probably attempt suicide again. Continuing the characterization argument, the characterization of the old man through the inner thoughts of the older waiter further advances the idea that life is meaningless. The older waiter says that “a wife would be of no use to him now” to curb his loneliness, indicating that he infinitely feels that he is nothing and is in a deep hole of depression that he cannot get out of (Hemingway 1). Towards the end of the story, when the younger waiter tells the older man that he will no longer serve him drinks and the older waiter is himself at the bar cleaning up, he recites the "Our Father" prayer, replacing some words with nada, which once again it means nothingness. This not only avoids the idea of ​​religion as meaningless and nothing, but also reinforces the idea that life itself has no meaning. Furthermore, through the characterization we get of the older waiter, we learn that he is in a similar situation as the old man. After closing the bar, the older waiter stops for a drink in a bodega because he, like the older man, is reluctant to return to the nothingness that awaits him in the darkness just outside the safe haven that is the bodega . The narrator said, “He [the older footman] would lie down on the bed, and at last, with daylight, fall asleep” (Hemingway 2). It is only the light that makes him forget the nada, or nothingness. The old man's suicide attempt serves as a form of indirect characterization for the old man, but it also allows him to seek refuge in the bar. This is revealed through images of light and dark. Outside of the safe haven that is the bar, there is nothing but darkness, “shadows,” and “empty tables” (Hemingway 1). Inside the cafe, however, things are different. The title describes it as “clean” and “well [lit].” The man survived the suicide attempt and remains in the bar to avoid his eventual return to nada, or nothingness. He realizes the futility of life and the world itself it is clear that it is only the light of the coffee that prevents man from thinking about the nothingness of the world and only the light of the coffee that.