Hemingway

Part one

1.       The setting seems to be a very pleasant café. It is well described that the café is nothing like a bar or club, but a nice calming café. It seems like the point of having a well lighted setting is to bring out the positive in life. 

2.       The characters names are nameless because I think the author wanted to make this story relevant to everybody reading it. There are no names so that no one can be identified or and that more people might find similarities in the characters and themselves.

3.       The plot is about an old man sitting in a café drinking alcoholic beverages. The two waiters of the café are keeping an eye on the old man while discussing about his life. The younger waiter of the two wants to close up the café and go home and rushes the old man out of the café. The older waiter feels bad and tries to get the younger waiter to realize the importance of having a nice café open for everybody to visit. The story ends with that the younger man closes the store up and rushes home to relax. The older man talks about the importance of having sunlight.

4.       The story’s theme is that more people need to think about the positive in life.

5.       The younger waiter seems to be more immature and egoistic than the older waiter. The older waiter seems to have more compassion for people and he seems to want to help other people around him. When comparing the waiters to the old man sitting in the café I found the old man very oblivious to what is going on around him. He seems carefree of what is happening, while the waiters seem to worry about everything surrounding them. For example to get home within a decent time versus to making customers and people happy.

Part two

1.       Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21^st, 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois. He was the second child and lived together with his parents.  He was an American author and produced most of his work between the 1920’s and the mid 1950’s. He won the Nobel prize in Literature in 1954. When only 18 he left America for the Italian front and became an ambulance driver during World War one. He returned home within the year due to a serious injury of an act that had given him the Italian silver medal of Bravery.  During his life he had four marriages. Hemingway took his life in 1961, July 2^nd by shooting himself in the head.  The first similarity I found in the story and Hemingway is the suicide discussion. In the story they are talking about that the man tried to kill himself and so did Hemingway in real life. The second thing I found as a similarity is that the old man in the story is very lonely and I think Hemingway seemed to be very lonely too. Even though he had four wives it seems like he was very lonely. The third and final thing I found as a similarity is that the story seems kind of dark in some parts and so does Hemingway’s life.