A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

Stream of consciousness is a writing technique that emerged in the Modernist literary movement. In response to traditional modes of writing that presented clean, linear thought processes in characters, Modernist writers sought to capture the confusion of their characters’ nonlinear thought processes.

The majority of this story does not go into the characters’ thoughts but relies on dialogue to reveal the characters’ ideas and values. The narration shifts at the end of the story and allows the reader a full glimpse into the older waiter’s mind at a pivotal moment. In this section, he attempts to make sense of the feeling of nothing washing over him. Vague thoughts are connected loosely by the idea of “nothing,” and the text shifts between the English “nothing” and Spanish “nada,” replicating the fluidity of language and thought. The waiter’s thoughts shift between the bar, fear, an undefined “it,” nothing, cleanliness, and prayer. By rendering this section impressionistically, Hemingway creates an overwhelming passage that evokes the characters’ feelings of despair.

Repetition is the use of the same word or phrase to draw the reader’s attention to that phrase or word. In this story, several phrases are repeated throughout the text, emphasizing the importance of those key words and phrases to the story’s meaning.