Literature II

1- Explain the meaning of The Lost Generation.2- Write the chronology about Hemingway.3- Read A clean well lighted place, summarise its plot, main characters, themes and symbols.1-The "Lost Generation" was the generation that came of age during World War I. The term was popularized by Ernest Hemingway, who used it as one of two contrasting epigraphs for his novel, The Sun Also Rises. In that volume Hemingway credits the phrase to Gertrude Stein, who was then his mentor and patrones.Hemingway reveals that the phrase was actually originated by the garage owner who serviced Stein's car. When a young mechanic failed to repair the car in a way satisfactory to Stein, the garage owner shouted at the boy, "You are all a "gnration perdue."[1]:29 Stein, in telling Hemingway the story, added, "That is what you are. That's what you all are ... all of you young people who served in the war. You are a lost generation."[1]:29 This generation included distinguished artists such as F. Scott Fitzgerald,[2] T. S. Eliot, John Dos Passos, Waldo Peirce, Isadora Duncan, Abraham Walkowitz, Alan Seeger, and Erich Maria Remarque.The "Lost Generation" defines a sense of moral loss or aimlessness apparent in literary figures during the 1920s. World War I seemed to have destroyed the idea that if you acted virtuously, good things would happen. Many good, young men went to war and died, or returned home either physically or mentally wounded (for most, both), and their faith in the moral guideposts that had earlier given them hope, were no longer valid...they were "Lost."2-Hemingway Chronology1899

Ernest Miller Hemingway is born in what would become Oak Park, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago. He is the second of six children of Dr. Clarence Edmonds Hemingway, a physician and outdoorsman, and Grace Hall Hemingway, a talented singer and music teacher.1915He begins writing for the high school newspaper, covering a breadth of curricular or extracurricular activities in which he is a participant or witness.

1921He marries Hadley Richardson on September 3.1922He takes a job sending feature stories from Europe to The Toronto Star. With letters of introduction from author Sherwood Anderson, he and Hadley move to Paris. In Europe, Hemingway covers a wide variety of events, including a war and a peace conference. He meets the poet Ezra Pound in Paris, who with authors including Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald and James Joyce will appreciate Hemingway's work. Hemingway would be aware of their intense esthetic currents, responding to some of them in his own writing. Pound's compressed poetry, for example, would complement the spare style Hemingway learned as a journalist beginning at The Kansas City Star.

1923He sees his first bullfight at Pamplona, Spain. He returns to Toronto, where his son, John Hadley is born in October. He resigns from The Star and returns to Paris to write fiction. His first book, Three Stories & Ten Poems, is published.1924He assists Ford Maddox Ford in editing the transatlantic review, which prints his work. Several of his best-known short stories are published.1925In Our Time appears, containing several stories set in Michigan about the maturation of a semi-autobiographical character named Nick Adams and concluding with "Big Two-Hearted River." Hemingway finds a publisher for his books for the rest of his life, Charles Scribner's Sons.1926Charles Scribner's Sons publishes his popular book, The Sun Also Rises.1927He publishes Men without Women, a story collection including "Hills Like White Elephants" and "The Killers." The latter is the only filmed version of nearly twenty stories by Hemingway that he said he liked. Divorced by Hadley, he marries Pauline Pfeiffer..

1929He publishes A Farewell to Arms- to good reviews and sales, despite Boston censorship of the serialized version in Scribner's magazine. It is a poetic, sparely written novel of love and war in Italy during World War I.1930He breaks his arm in an auto accident near Billings Montana. This is only in a series of many accidental injuries to his arms, legs, and head, that plague him throughout his life.1932He brings out his book on bullfighting, Death in the Afternoon.1933He publishes Winner Take Nothing, a book of stories including "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place." He goes on safari to Africa, the setting for his two long stories "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" and "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" (both published in 1936).1935He publishes Green Hills of Africa, an account of his adventures on a safari.1937He serves as a war correspondent during the Spanish civil war. He contributes funds to the Loyalist cause, and publishes To Have and Have Not, his most overtly political novel.1939He publishes Fifth Column and the First Forty-nine Stories, comprised of a play about the war in Spain and his stories to date.1940He marries writer Martha Gellhorn, and publishes For Whom the Bell Tolls, his best-selling novel about a band of guerrillas fighting on the Loyalist side in the Spanish civil war1945Martha Gellhorn divorces him in December.

1950He Publishes Across the River and into the Trees, a novel about a December-May romance set in post - World War II Europe. Many reviewers attack it, asserting that Hemingway had lost his touch. He staunchly defends it, however. It is more favorably received near the end of the 20th century.1952The Old Man and the Sea, a novella, is printed in its entirety in a single issue of Life magazine. It is a triumph for Hemingway after several years when the public and critics wondered if he was through as a major writer. His story's hero, Santiago, is a nearly destitute old Cuban fisherman who reveals his humility, sensitivity and courage. On his crucial fishing voyage alone in the Gulf Stream, he has no material success, but seemingly universal spiritual experiences and insights. Charles Scribner's and Sons' first book edition was 50,000 copies.1953In January, he is severely injured by two successive plane crashes in Africa. He is reported dead in some accounts, but soon afterward he meets the press, telling them, "My luck she is still good." He is awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.1959In declining health, he follows the Antonio Ordez and Luis Miguel Dominguin bullfights and observes his sixtieth birthday in Spain.1960Based on these experiences he writes a nonfiction work, The Dangerous Summer, for an issue of Life magazine. It is his last work published during his lifetime. It is one of several manuscripts to be published in book form after his death.1961He undergoes shock treatment for depression. On July 2, he kills himself with a shotgun. He is buried in Sun Valley, Idaho.

3-SummaryTwo waiters are, um, waiting to close up their caf for the night. They only have one customer left an old man, deaf, drunk, and seemingly peaceful. He's a regular at the caf, and the waiters seem to know all about him. Apparently, the old man attempted to hang himself the previous week, but was stopped mid-suicide by his niece. The older waiter and younger waiter debate the possible cause. Meanwhile, a soldier walks by with a young woman, presumably out beyond curfew. The waiters wonder idly if he will get picked up by the guard, but decide that it doesn't matter, as long as he gets what he wants from the girl. The old man asks for another drink, and the younger waiter goes to serve him, disdainfully commenting that the old man should have killed himself (this is no Mr. Sensitive). Watching the old man from afar, the two waiters return to their conversation about the his attempted suicide. The younger waiter thinks that old age is a terrible thing, but the older waiter disagrees after all, this particular old man is still clean and proper, even when he's drunk. The old man signals for yet another drink, but this time, the younger waiter refuses, saying that they have to close up for the night. The old man carefully pays and leaves, drunk but dignified. As the two waiters close up shop, they continue to argue mildly about the old man, and about people who "need" the caf to stay open. The older waiter sympathizes with these people he recognizes that sometimes someone might need to take refuge in a "clean, well-lighted place," rather than a dark, dim bar or bodega.After the younger waiter hurries off home to his wife, the older waiter takes his time, continuing their argument in his mind. He realizes that life, when it comes down to it, is simply meaningless and that we all need a brightly lit, pleasant place to sit to avoid thinking about the dark demons of death and nothingness. He stops at a bar, but finds that it's not to his liking, and continues home, ruefully commenting that his malaise is probably just insomnia.

Main CharactersThe Old WaiterThe Young WaiterThe Old Man

ThemesLife as NothingnessIn A Clean, Well-Lighted Place, Hemingway suggests that life has no meaning and that man is an insignificant speck in a great sea of nothingness. The older waiter makes this idea as clear as he can when he says, It was all a nothing and man was a nothing too. When he substitutes the Spanish wordnada(nothing) into the prayers he recites, he indicates that religion, to which many people turn to find meaning and purpose, is also just nothingness. Rather than pray with the actual words, Our Father who art in heaven, the older waiter says, Our nada who art in nadaeffectively wiping out both God and the idea of heaven in one breath. Not everyone is aware of the nothingness, however. For example, the younger waiter hurtles through his life hastily and happily, unaware of any reason why he should lament. For the old man, the older waiter, and the other people who need late-night cafs, however, the idea of nothingness is overwhelming and leads to despair.The Struggle to Deal with DespairThe old man and older waiter in A Clean, Well-Lighted Place struggle to find a way to deal with their despair, but even their best method simply subdues the despair rather than cures it. The old man has tried to stave off despair in several unsuccessful ways. We learn that he has money, but money has not helped. We learn that he was once married, but he no longer has a wife. We also learn that he has unsuccessfully tried to commit suicide in a desperate attempt to quell the despair for good. The only way the old man can deal with his despair now is to sit for hours in a clean, well-lit caf. Deaf, he can feel the quietness of the nighttime and the caf, and although he is essentially in his own private world, sitting by himself in the caf is not the same as being alone.The older waiter, in his mocking prayers filled with the word nada, shows that religion is not a viable method of dealing with despair, and his solution is the same as the old mans: he waits out the nighttime in cafs. He is particular about the type of caf he likes: the caf must be well lit and clean. Bars and bodegas, although many are open all night, do not lessen despair because they are not clean, and patrons often must stand at the bar rather than sit at a table. The old man and the older waiter also glean solace from routine. The ritualistic caf-sitting and drinking help them deal with despair because it makes life predictable. Routine is something they can control and manage, unlike the vast nothingness that surrounds them.

SymbolsThe CafThe caf represents the opposite of nothingness: its cleanliness and good lighting suggest order and clarity, whereas nothingness is chaotic, confusing, and dark. Because the caf is so different from the nothingness the older waiter describes, it serves as a natural refuge from the despair felt by those who are acutely aware of the nothingness. In a clean, brightly lit caf, despair can be controlled and even temporarily forgotten. When the older waiter describes the nothingness that is life, he says, It was only that and light was all it needed and a certain cleanness and order. The it in the sentence is never defined, but we can speculate about the waiters meaning: although life and man are nothing, light, clealiness, and order can serve as substance. They can help stave off the despair that comes from feeling completely unanchored to anyone or anything. As long as a clean, well-lighted caf exists, despair can be kept in check.