Ernest Hemingway’s “A Clean-Well Lighted Place” was a realistic story about how age can affect the way we act. The young waiter just wanted to rush everyone out and get home to his wife, but the older one had a different view. The old waiter wanted to keep his café open to the weary ones, the ones who were lonely or maybe needed a place to be alone and think. The young waiter did not understand this feeling because he still had a wife to come home to when the older men did not. I can picture in my mind a lonely, quiet, old man who comes to a bar that has no music, few people, and is well light, not to drink because he has problems, but to drink because he has no problems. He has no problems because he has no wife, no children, but plenty of money to spend. Many wonder why is that such a bad life, well without the bad times, how will we ever learn to appreciate the good times? The old man was so lonely that all he did was think about his life and how there was nothing good or worthwhile still in it. I see why he would want to kill himself because he had no one to share his life with anymore and no more struggles to overcome in victory. Instances like this can happen and people do get lonely and think killing themselves is the easiest way out, and that is why I thought this story was a Realism portrayal.
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abbyrmorgan 
Not sure why, but my brain had a tingling sensation when I read “Not to drink because he has problems, but to drink because he had no problems.” I like it.
My brain also chuckled when I read “He has no problems because he has no wife,” but that is besides the point. 😛
I did like how you said they had different views in life, but I think that Hemingway was trying to make a somewhat different point. I felt like he was trying to say life was meaningless. The older man knew that life was pointless, and was explaining it to the younger man who did not quite understand. The younger man still thought that life mattered, but the old man was explaining it was pointless.
Even though he did not have problems I think that he was lonely and that was why he went there. Maybe being at the cafe helped him get away from his lonely life. The younger waiter did not appreciate the older man because he does not understand because he was so much younger, but once he got to that mans age I think his perspective would change and he would have allowed the old man to stay and not want to close up.