A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

“In the day time the street was dusty, but at night the dew settled the dust and the old man liked to sit late because he was deaf and now at night it was quiet and he felt the difference.”

The old man is deaf, which isolates him from society to a degree, yet he chooses to be further isolated by sitting late at night when it is quiet and people are no longer out and about. There is tension between the old man’s simultaneous desires for comfort and solitude, lending to the story’s mood.

“‘Last week he tried to commit suicide’ one waiter said.

‘Why’

‘He was in despair.’

‘What about?’

‘Nothing.’”

The old man’s attempted suicide was not caused by a tangible event but by an overwhelming sense of despair, which sprang from nothing. Life’s purposelessness drove him to attempt suicide, alluding to the theme of Despair as a Human Condition.

“He has plenty of money.”

The old man can buy things, which should make him comfortable and content. However, he still faces despair and meaninglessness. Money cannot prevent this existential dilemma, alluding to its universality.