The idea of a well-lighted place is very significant to this story. In my opinion it is important to the story because that is the only place the deaf old man gets away from his problems. "In the day time the street was dusty, but at night the dew settled the dust and the old man liked to sit late because he was deaf and now at night it was quiet and he felt the difference. "
The author does not use names in the story. The reason to this is because each one of the characters in the story represents someone to Hemingway. The author obviously wants to keep these peoples unidentified.
The connection between the old man and the older waiter is that they both suffer from insomnia, they like to stay out late. In the story when the hurried waiter tells the old man he cannot drink anymore, the older waiter asks the other waiter why did he tell him to leave. And after that question they have a small dialogue where the older waiter tells the hurried waiter that he like to stay out late, and then Hemingway goes on about how the older waiter falls asleep when the sun comes up.
The conflict of the story is that the old waiter has been staying at the cafe late every night and the hurried waiter has been going home to his wife late every night. The rising action of the story is when the old man keeps asking for brandy and the younger waiter complains to the older one about the old man staying late and having no concern for those who work. The complication is throughout the story, the old man tried to commit suicide the week before, and he has been drunk at the cafe every night. The problem about this is that the waiter wants to go home to his wife, and he hasn't been able to do that till very late lately. The hurried waiter is so mad, he tells the old man that he should have killed himself last week (the old man of course cannot hear this). The climax of the story happens when the waiter denies the old man of any more drinks, and tell him that they were closed. The falling action of the story is when the old man is walking away, and then the two waiters begin talking. The older waiter asks the younger one why did he kick the old man out.
The theme of the story: It is more important to be healthy than to have money. (If the old man did not have insomnia or was not deaf, I doubt he would have tried to commit suicide).
Biography - Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), born in Oak Park, Illinois, started his career as a writer in a newspaper office in Kansas City at the age of seventeen. After the United States entered the First World War, he joined a volunteer ambulance unit in the Italian army. Serving at the front, he was wounded, was decorated by the Italian Government, and spent considerable time in hospitals. After his return to the United States, he became a reporter for Canadian and American newspapers and was soon sent back to Europe to cover such events as the Greek Revolution.
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1954/hemingway-bio.html
One way Hemingway can connect to the story is through the time period the story takes place. In one part of the story there is a soldier, and we know that the story is in Spain, so this would mean the Spain Civil War, which took place in the 1930's. Hemingway took part of that war.
Another way the author can connect to the story is through the deaf old man. Hemingway had permanent eye damage because of boxing. Maybe Hemingway made the old man deaf so he had a deffect just like he did.
And the third way he connects with the story is through the hurried waiter. Hemingway had a wife he loved very much, and maybe throught this waiters ambitions to get home to his wife, he portrays himself trying to reach out for his own.
