In Despair About Nothing

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y pues nada y pues nada” (202). As existentialists, men are forced to make all decisions in their lives for themselves, with nothing to believe in except for the positive result of their choices. Existentialists are plagued with dread over their potential confrontation with nothingness, an anxiety that comes with the impossibility of finding ultimate justification for the choices they must make. In contrast, men of religious faith have little fear of nothingness because they believe that there is a reason behind decisions they make based on the intent of their higher power. Light, cleanliness and order play important roles in the story. The artificial light and good order of the café represent the truth, or reason for existence, that the existential man has created for himself. Darkness, in contrast, represents the nothingness of life.
The soldier in the story is an example of the first stage of existentialism in Hemingway’s denunciation of the philosophy. The ...

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The young waiter is in a hurry to leave the café and the company of the old man: “ ‘I want to go home to bed.’ ‘ What is an hour?’ ‘More to me than to him’ ”(201). He “wouldn’t want to be that old. An old man is a nasty thing” (200). The young waiter’s confidence in his own existence is not strong around the old man because he sees nothingness in the old man. He sees it and is fearful that he may soon feel it. The mere presence of the man shakes the weak foundation of his existence. The young waiter is eager to leave so that he can continue to fool himself on the validity of his existential life.

The older waiter is the best example of a successful existentialist in the story. ...

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