Hemingway was one of the most influential authors of his time, but it is still debated whether he is a true modernist. In this essay, I will demonstrate that Hemingway is indeed a modernist by analyzing the language, structure, themes, and narrative of his short story "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place." The story is about an old man and an increasingly younger waiter who reflect on the emptiness of life and also represents how people of different generations have different perspectives on life. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The language of “A clean, well-lit place” is too simple and extremely brief. Except for a few narrative passages, like at the very beginning of the story when the setting is introduced and at the end when the older waiter has his inner monologue. Most sentences are very short, using direct speech or dialogue such as "He was desperate." " And ? " "Nothing." As can be seen, the dialogue is very direct, without adjectives or descriptive words. Another example would be “You should have killed yourself last week,” he said to the deaf man. " After a statement like this, something like "he said despite" or "he said cruelly" would follow, but Hemingway presents this piece of dialogue not as something callous and cruel but as something normal that one would say in one's daily life. the words are only used in relation to the setting or certain characters, but they are rather journalistic, presenting things as they seem to be, without giving them too many hidden meanings through metaphorical or figurative speech, such as "This is a clean and pleasant place.” coffee. It's well lit. The light is very good and also now there are leaf shadows.” The most striking example, however, is the description of the old man, where the reader only learns that he is old, deaf, drunk and suicidal. This brings us back to Hemingway's "iceberg theory", where instead of elaborating on situations, settings and characters, Hemingway limits information so that his language only explains the most necessary details and that the reader must fill in the gaps in the story themselves. The same applies to one of the story's most profound themes, namely the notion of "nothing." When the older waiter contemplated the idea of ​​nothingness, Hemingway stacks the sentences with vague pronouns, without ever specifying what or who they refer to: "It was a nothing (...)" and "Some people lived there (...) ". The reader must interpret for himself what he thinks or sees as "nothing". Another thing that characterizes Hemingway as a modernist writer is that he does not use words to change scene or mark the passage of time in the story, and leaves it to the reader to follow the rhythm of the story and what is happening. For example, only a brief conversation between the two servers takes place between the moment when. the youngest serves the old man a brandy and the moment when the old man asks for another Hemingway does not suggest that the old man drank the brandy quickly. In fact, the old man stays in the café for a long time. The story may seem quick, but the action actually extends much longer than it seems. The notion of nothingness extends throughout the story, which leads to the indication of. an empty, meaningless life surrounding the old man and the older waiter. Both fear loneliness and despair, "nada" (in Spanish for nothing) and consider the café to be a "clean and well-lit place", a.