A Clean, Well-lighted Place. A clean, well-lighted place, by Ernest Hemingway is mainly about an old man

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1 A Clean, Well-lighted Place A clean, well-lighted place, by Ernest Hemingway is mainly about an old man who is drunk late at night and seeks more alcohol at a nearby well-lighted café. Two waiters are running the place; the young waiter is eager to go home to his wife and is rude to the old man, while the older waiter can relate to the old man's sensitivity because of their similar backgrounds. Perhaps Hemingway suggests that the older you get the more you internalize the value of life. This story takes place in a well-lighted café very late at night. Perhaps the old man goes to the café to escape from his loneliness, from the darkness of the world. The café represents light for him and a way to distract himself from the world outside of him. The old man, who is the main character in the story, is the subject to both of the waiters. He comes frequently to the well-lighted café when he is drunk, and has nowhere to go. As the younger waiter stated he has ''plenty of money". (29)Money is no option for the old man because he values more who he is than what he has. Even when he is drunk he still ''drinks without spilling (and) walks with dignity". (31)Unlike the old man the younger waiter cannot understand the old mans importance to the café and why he spends every night there getting drunk. The waiter is young, and appreciates more what he has, than who he is. ''I am all confidence" (32). All that matters for him is confidence, youth and a wife. Whereas, the older waiter is ''reluctant to close up because there may be someone who needs the café". (32) He can relate to the old man because of their age, and the fact that they both have no place to go late at night. For them the value of man

2 consists of dignity, happiness and a family who is there by their side. Its essential to have the love and support that he needs in order to live a successful and happy life. 78%

3 Dreams often start ambitious choices and actions. Creating ideas of what one wants out of life: a lifestyle, a career or home. Some dreams can be carried on throughout childhood and influence one as an adult, shaping the way you carry on the day. Dreams are developed by the characters in Death of a Salesman to reveal how often they imbue thoughts of attainable reach creating feelings of misguidedness and deception and escape reality, Willy Loman thinks he has the" greatest career a man could have" as a salesman. In the beginning of the play we see Willy come home from a trip out of town exhausted. He is constantly on the road now, working on commission, trying to sell to clients. The job of a salesman was the career of Willy's father. He sold the flutes he had made with his bare hands out of a chuck wagon, traveling from town to town. Willy's father left at a time when Willy was very young. Willy, looking for a chance to get to know the man his father was, took on the same career. He was also inspired by the man he met in the Porter House, Dave Singleman, he was eighty-four years old and was still making a living as a salesman. Willy dreamed of being known throughout the country the way Dave Singleman was. Willy wanted to have many people attend his funeral, the way Dave Singleman had, with cars from different states. Willy "went on a smile and shoeshine" throughout his career. Charley said that that was all Willy had to by a success, constantly trying to sell himself as an attractive person. Willy constantly felt the need to be "wellliked" because he believed if a man was well-liked then he would be a success. When he began to realize that he was unsuccessful, Willy blamed it on the fact that strangers or clients did not like him. As Willy coasted on this illusion, he saw no other way too have

4 everything he wanted: a house, new stockings for his wife, working appliances, so he maintained it through lies, getting boxed in as time went on. Throughout the play the reader sees the desperate attempts Willy makes to accomplish the dreams he had. Biff, Willy's eldest son, noticed "there is more of Willy in that front stoop" infers that Willy's craftsmanship was more valuable than the sales he made in his career. Knowing this, Willy tries even harder to make the choices he made to be the right ones. He attempts to get a promotion and a bonus form the firm he has worked at. When he is put down by the successful neighbor Charlie, he points out his effective work on the ceiling, knowing Charlie is no good with tools. Having the feeling of failure, Willy makes a final attempt to have something to show in his life by planting seeds he knew would not grow. He saw the seeds as a chance to have a successful idea in his life to prove he had made the right choice. The idea of living in the country came up in this scene and throughout as a flute was played. This represented a recurrent thought of misguided dreams for Willy. As the play continues, we learn of the wishes Willy has for success for his eldest son, Biff. Willy simply supported the actions Biff took to get ahead. When Biff stole the football from the school team he was told that his "initiative would impress the coach." Willy never punished Biff for what he thought would get him ahead. On one account, Biff has a need to study for an exam, but his father is too blown up wit hot air to push Biff. He had "three scholarships, they are not going to flunk him" because he fails math. He knows that Biff has "personal attractiveness" and that will make him succeed. But after an incident in Boston, where Biff caught Willy with another woman, Biff gave up. He threw away the dreams Willy handed to him as a child and started to try and find who

5 he was. Biff realizes his "whole life has been a lie" after a confrontation with his past employer, Bill Oliver, believing he was a salesman other than a shipping clerk. For the most important time of his life Biff carried around the dreams of his father, but now Biff lived out his life form job to job having a dream of a ranch. In a final dramatic scene, Willy commits suicide to give Biff a chance at twenty-thousand dollars to become the success Willy dreamt for him to be. Only now that he was gone, leaving nothing, Biff could find the dreams he wanted his father to know he had. As the illusions continued, Willy feeling lost, his dreams were realized as unaccomplished. Still finding a way to leave the reality with what he thinks will let him have the death of a salesman. Having a dream to live by throughout your life can often lead to false views on what to expect or how you make your choices to adapt to the dream you have dreamt. Sometimes dreams motivate us to the edge of decisions that we face. 83%

6 The picaresque novel "Catcher in the Rye" is based upon the narrator and central character Holden Caulfield and his episodic journey through the streets of New York. Throughout the novel Holden is telling the story of his journey from inside a sanitarium. The author J.D. Salinger chose to use first person point of view and this allows the reader to feel as if Holden is talking to you and you're the psychiatrist. I believe that this close connection allows the reader to see the events more clearly and to get a better understanding of the pressures that Holden has deal with and the pressures of adolescence in general. The first person point of view is a writing style that is often used in picaresque novels like the "Catcher in the rye." The "Catcher in the rye" can be classified as a picaresque novel. According to the wikipedia the picaresque novel is a common and well-known style of writing that originated from Spain. This style of novel follows the episodic adventures of a roguish hero of a low class in society. In a picaresque novel the adventurer or picaro often ridicules the community that he/she has exploited. In the "Catcher in the rye" Holden ridicules the phoniness of adult life without realising the fact that he is being hypocritical because he is a typical phoney. A good example of this is when Holden lies to the lady on the Train. Holden makes up a ridiculous story of why is isn't at school so that she doesn't think poorly of him. Picaresque novels are often constructed in 1st person point of view so it can contain clear and accurate detail. The "Catcher in the rye" is a perfect example of a picaresque novel. This narrative has most of the qualities of a picaresque novel. It is told in first person point of view, it is episodic in structure; it follows Holden the picaro/rogue throughout his adventures and it contains vivid detail. The "Catcher in the rye" is one of the world's most famous Picaresque texts. Other world famous picaresque

7 novels include Tom Jones, Don Quixote, the adventurers of huckleberry fin and Lazarillo de tormes the first ever written picaresque novel. To resemble a typical 16 year old, Holden is constructed to battle the average pressures of an adolescent. This is apparent when Holden tells us of the consequences that will be implemented if he fails in his studies. "He'll send me to that goddam military school ". As well as this major pressure Holden has to face the pressures of smoking and alcohol. Unfortunately these pressures were obviously too overwhelming for Holden to handle and as a result he is portrayed as a heavy smoker and drinker. Another typical adolescent pressure that dawn's on Holden is having sex. In the text Holden talks about his confusions towards sex. "Sex is something I really don't understand too hot". I believe that this inexperienced outlook can be blamed on the pressures of staying fashionable and following the crowd mixed with the lack of parental guidance at his boarding school. Although Holden had a number of typical adolescent pressures dawning on him, Holden is far from a typical adolescent. Throughout the text Holden has to face the pressure of people forcing Him to make the transition from an adolescent to an adult. A good example of this is when Mr. Spencer lectures Holden in an attempt to get him to commit himself to his studies and play life as a game. As the narrative comes to a conclusion the reader observes that Holden is rejecting adult life. Holden hates the adult world so much that he fantasizes that he is the catcher, protecting the children from entering the adult world and keeping them safe in the colorful world of childhood. J.D. Salinger decided to write the "Catcher in the rye" in first person point of view. The use of this technique has a number of advantages over other methods. One advantage is the sense unity the reader feels towards Holden. Because of this closeness

8 the reader is able to get an insight into Holden's opinions on the world. By using this technique J.D. Salinger positions the reader to feel as if Holden is talking directly to them. This perception allows the reader to see into Holden's mind alike the way that a psychiatrist does. An additional benefit that the reader obtains whilst reading a first person text like "the catcher in the rye" is the extensive information on the protagonist and the texts settings. The detailed information on the texts settings adds to the realism of the narrative and the vivid details on the protagonist gives the reader further insights into what Holden is thinking and saying. Although the advantages of using Holden as the narrator overshadow the disadvantages, there are still a number of weaknesses in this technique. As the reader is presented with only one viewpoint on the story, we must be alert of the possibility that we're getting a bias account of the facts. At various points in the text Holden informs the reader of his lying capabilities. "I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life" PG 14. This allows the reader question the trustworthiness of Holden's narration. J.D. Salinger encourages this critical approach towards Holden's accounting of the facts. Salinger does this in an attempt to make the reader develop an opinion to whether they love or hate Holden. In conclusion J.D. Salinger uses his amazing writing abilities to portray realism to the reader. He portrays realism by presenting the novel in first person point of view, with vivid details and amazing accuracy towards real life. Because of this proximity towards real life the reader gets drawn into the novel and becomes emotionally connected with Holden and his attempts to evade the transition into an adult world. I believe that by the

9 end of the novel Holden comes to terms with the fact that he cannot protect every child from phonies and he must grow up and face his adult responsibilities. 81%