A Clean, Well-Lighted Place
by Ernest Hemingway
Current Events & Pop Culture
Available to teachers only as part of the Teaching A Clean, Well-Lighted Place Teacher Pass
Teaching A Clean, Well-Lighted Place Teacher Pass includes:
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Sample of Current Events & Pop Culture
Let's Learn More about Nothingness
The climax of "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" comes when the older waiter says the Lord's Prayer with the Spanish word nada thrown in a bunch of times. You passed Spanish 1, so you know nada means "nothing," but it also means much more than this in Hemingway's story. The idea that nothing matters is central to this tale. This episode of RadioLab explores why nihilism, or the belief in nothing, continues to be popular.