Now, without thinking further, he would go home to his room. He would lie in the bed and finally, with daylight, he would go to sleep. After all, he said to himself, it's probably only insomnia. Many must have it.
This shows that the older waiter also needs a place to get himself through the night and experiences similar feelings as the old man. It is more though, than just the loneliness of not having a wife and someone to go home to. It is something deeper that bothers both the old man and the older waiter.
This something that bothers both the old man and the older waiter is explained by the concept of nada. As Hoffman (91) explains, "Although the old waiter is the only one to articulate the fact, all three figures actually confront nothingness in the course of the tale." The concept of nada essentially refers to nothingness, but especially in a spiritual sense. Hemingway narrates this as he describes the older waiter,
What did he fear? It was not a fear or dread. It was a nothing that he knew too well. It was all a nothing and a man was a nothing too... Some lived in it and never felt it but he knew it all was nada y pues nada y pues nada (Hemingway).
This expresses the problem for both the old man and the old waiter. They both have an awareness of nada, which means that they both understand the nothingness of their lives. Hemingway also links this to spirituality or God where he describes the older waiter saying his version of the Lord's Prayer,
Our nada who art in nada, nada be thy name thy kingdom nada thy will be nada in nada as it is in nada. Give us this nada our daily nada and nada us our nada as we nada our nadas and nada us not into nada but deliver us from nada; pues nada. Hail nothing full of nothing, nothing is with thee (Hemingway).
This shows that the nothing they sense is related to spirituality. While some people find the meaning of life in God, for them there is no meaning of life. Nada then is an ultimate form of emptiness. Hoffman also notes that all three characters...
This perspective gives us insight into the human condition in that it reveals that life experience is worth something and that notion is something young people simply cannot grasp fully. The young are more confident because they have not experienced as many hardships. For example, the younger waiter is "all confidence" (96) while the older waiter is not. In fact, he can relate to the old man more than
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Ernest Hemingway The author Ernest Hemingway specialized in what is known as naturalistic writing. He tells the reader only the basic information about what is going on in a particular short story or novel. Much is told about the natural settings of the stories, but very little is given about the characters in his stories. Instead, the facts about the people, including their personalities and characteristics, have to be inferred by
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