In Ernest Hemingway's story “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” Hemingway describes a deaf old man sitting one evening in a bar as seen through the eyes of two restaurant waiters. While the two waiters wait for the old man to leave so they can close the bar, they gossip about the old man's life. The old man is depressed. His wife died and he recently attempted suicide. The younger waiter has no sympathy for the old man. The younger waiter believes that the old man's life is worthless. The younger waiter is afraid of becoming like the older one. The younger waiter suggests to the older waiter that the old man would have been better off if he had managed to commit suicide. The younger waiter wants the old man to leave the bar, so the young waiter will not have to consider nothingness in his life (Hemingway). The older waiter is more empathetic towards the older one. The older waiter sees how his life is similar to that of the old man. For this reason the older waiter is kinder than the younger waiter towards the older one. The older waiter defends the old man's life to the younger waiter. The older waiter tries to explain to the younger waiter how the older waiter and the old man are similar. The younger waiter refuses to see the similarities between the older waiter and the old man. He doesn't want to believe that one day he could be like the old man (Hemingway). The three characters in the story all face varying degrees of nothingness in their lives, but their reactions to that nothingness are very different. The old man's wife is dead. The old man's money does not console him. Unable to cope with his loss, the older... middle of paper... younger waiter acts confident and seems unwilling to accept that there is nothing in life. The real winner of the story, however, is the older waiter. The older waiter recognizes and accepts the nothingness of life, but refuses to surrender to nothingness. The older waiter's ability to accept nothingness and his refusal to give in to nothingness are what distinguish him from the younger waiter and the older man. It is these things that make the older waiter a winner in his life and story. Works Cited Hemingway, Ernest. A clean and well-lit place. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1933. Print.Hoffman, Steven K. “Nada and the Clean, Well-Lighted Place.” Essays in Literature 6.1 (Spring 1979): 91-110. Rpt. in Short Stories for Students. Ed. Ira Mark Milne. vol. 9. Detroit: Gale Group, 2000. Literature Resource Center. Network. April 11. 2014.