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liked to sit late in the café—a clean and well-lighted place to buy drunk. Special attention should be paid to that the old man’s deafness was an image symbolizing his separation from the rest of the world. The old man needed a place of refuge from his terrible awareness of that human lives were meaningless. On the other hand, though the old man was in despair, he still kept dignity. In the short story, there are many sentences describing the old man’s dignity. Hemingway once said that a man could be destroyed but not defeated. Moreover, the old man was deaf and lonely, but he was not defeated spiritually. The young waiter was selfish and impatient. He had a wife waiting for him to go home, so he wanted the old deaf man to leave as soon as possible. Therefore, he became angry and impolite. He intentionally poured the brandy out of the cup. His bad service formed a strong contrast with the old man’s cleanness. He did not sense the dignity the old man had about him. Furthermore, the young waiter was ignorant and blindly confident. He was so concerned with the daily routines and desires that he did not care about the others. He could not understand the old man. He did not realize what he had, such as job, wife and confidence, was unreliable because he was young. He thought that money should keep a person be happy. He meant that the old man had no reason to kill himself because he was rich. Poverty, in his opinion, would be the only excuse for suicide. The middle aged waiter was more sympathetic. He knew the importance of a clean and well-lighted place for those who need a refuge to escape from the reality. He knew the old man’s suffering and was sympathized with him. Therefore, he did not think it was bad for the old man to stay in the café late into the night. Through the analysis above, it is known that Hemingway took the two waiters as known information, and the old man as unknown information. There was a sharp contrast between the youth and oldness, between the old and young waiters. In fact, the old man, the middle aged waiter and the young waiter represent the youth, the middle age and the old age in the different stages of life. In each stage, people have different attitudes towards life and they lead different ways of life. At the same time, the three typical characters also reflect the people’s spiritual state after the WWI in American society. C. The Theme of the Novel The short story A Clean and Well-lighted Place was one of Hemingway’s most compact stories. It talks about loneliness, which Hemingway considered to be the principal tragedy of modern life. Nada (Nothingness) was an important theme of this story. Nearly all the characters live in Nada. For the old man, Nada means hopelessness, aimlessness and meaninglessness of life, which was the exact reason for the old man’s suicide. He tried to kill himself, by which he thought he could make himself get rid of the earthly affairs. The middle aged waiter was aware of what the old man suffered. He knew the old man’s today was his tomorrow. He knew the importance of a clean and well-lighted place to those who need a refuge to escape from loneliness. However, he had to leave the café at the end of the novel. The young waiter lived in Nada as well, even if he did not realize it. His ignorance makes a strong contrast with the old man’s wisdom. He was unaware of what he had. For him, the life was another kind of meaninglessness, because he was blindly confident with the unrel