Ernest Hemingway is one of the outstanding American short-story writers in the twentieth century. His works are so noted for profound ideas and abundant connotations that they are popular with readers. He is a representative of the Lost Generation. His works are based on his own special experiences, the environment and the age he lived in. Almost all of his works reflect the pessimistic nihilism. The short story A Clean and Well-lighted Place was one of Hemingway’s early works. It is a classical short story with nihilism, assuming typical Hemingway’s style, that is, taking Nothingness as the theme and employing abundant simple sentences. In the work, Hemingway, based on the story between the old man and the two waiters, pointed out that Nada commonly exists in human’s life, it is actually the experience of one’s own existence, and the only way to resist Nada is to keep a clean and well-lighted place in the mind.
In order to understand the work and the author’s ideas completely and thoroughly, this thesis makes an analysis of the novel from different angles, including Hemingway’s biography, the writing background of the novel, the main characters in the novel and the theme of Nada. Through the analysis, the thesis encodes the origin and the essence of Nada.
Key Words
Hemingway; Lost Generation; a clean and well-lighted place; Nada (Nothingness)
Abstract ...........................................................I
Key Words ..........................................................I
摘要 ...............................................................II
关键字 .............................................................II
Introduction .......................................................1
I. The Background of the Author and the Novel ......................2
A. The General Biography of Hemingway ............................2
B. The Lost Generation ...........................................3
II. The General Introduction to the Novel ..........................6
A. The Writing Style of A Clean and Well-lighted Place ...........6
B. The Characters of the Novel ...................................6
C. The Theme of the Novel ........................................9
III. Encoding the Theme—Nada .....................................10
A. The Origin of Nada ............................................10
B. The Essence of Nada .............................................12
Conclusion .........................................................15
Acknowledgements....................................................16
Bibliography .......................................................17
