Ellery's Summaries****

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place




In the story A Clean, Well-Lighted Place Hemingway uses setting to develop a mood and theme. The story takes place in a cafe at around two a.m. There is a drunken old man at the cafe who is deaf and tried to commit suicide the week before. The story uses the contrast of light and dark to symbolize the young and happy and the old and depressed. The story displays the old man's loneliness and despair as he tries to find comfort in alcohol and company in the waiters. An existentialistic theme is portrayed throughout the story. The older waiter sees himself becoming more and more like the hopeless old man. Even though there is little written in the text of this story, the message is very strong.

A Day's Wait

A Day's Wait is a story of courage and death. In the story, a young boy is sick and a doctor comes to see what is wrong with him. The boy's temperature is one hundred and two. His father tries to comfort him by reading the story, but he can tell that the boy is slightly detached and isn't really listening. The boy's father decides to leave the boy be for a while and go quail hunting. When he returns he discovers that the boy will not let anyone come in his room. The boy's father talks to the boy and the boy tells his father that he is waiting to die. The boy gets the Celsius temperature scale mixed up with the Farenheight scale and thinks that his fever is to high to live. This story demonstrates the courage the boy shows by being completely calm when he thinks that day is his last.

Hills Like White Elephants

This story uses symbolism extentsively. Throughout the story, the girl and the man are discussing a subject very intently. The story never says what the subject is exactly, however, through context clues the reader can discover what it is. The subject that is being discussed is the woman having an abortion. The man wants her to get one and is trying to persuade her to do so. She, however feels as though nothing will ever be the same in her life if she does. She feels as though that, by getting an abortion she sort of trades in her own soul. In the end, the man asks if their is something wrong with the girl and the girl says that their is nothing wrong with him. This implies that she thinks something is wrong with him for wanting her to have an abortion. As a person can see, this story uses tone and mood to give the story a unique texture.

The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber

This short story is a story of pride and vanity. In the beginning, Francis Macomber goes lion hunting with a professional hunter named Wilson. When the lion actually comes around though, Macomber becomes scared and abruptly flees. His wife is there and sees the whole thing, which of course embarrasses him. Then later in the night, his wife goes and has an affair with Mr. Wilson. She denies having done this by saying she was just out for some fresh air. This greatly angers Macomber and empowers him to be a better hunter. The next day at breakfast, Macomber is of course bitter with Wilson and they decide to go hunt wild buffalo. Macomber was really in the zone and is doing an excellent job at hunting these buffalo. He says that a new feeling has come over him and he feels completely different. This is because of his new found confidence. His wife knows now that he now has the confidence he needs to leave her. She can't handle the thought of being left, so she "accidently" shoots him while she is supposedly trying to kill the buffalo. Wilson knows that this was intentional and tells her basicall that if she does what he tells her, he can make it all seem like an accident. This causes her to have to submit to him automatically. This story shows how jealousy and fear can get the best of people.