It was calm in the café. There was no sound in the air but the hum of the older and younger waiter behind the counter and the sloshing of the old man’s drink. The old man asks for another, but the young waiter rejects him. No more drinks for the old man tonight. He leaves the money on the table, and walked out the door. Those two waiters watched as the lonely old man walked shakily down the street and disappeared into the darkness. In the short story 'A Clean, Well Lighted Place' by Ernest Hemmingway, the old man lives in "the shadows of the leaves of the trees".
The man is living by himself, in a life full of sorrow. He wasn’t just born with this life of alcoholism and depression; it developed over the years of him living in "the shadows of the leaves of the trees". Memories last a long time, and they keep growing and growing through out the years, like trees. People that were close to him, family and friends, left him, just like leaves, seeing leaves come and go. The old man lives in the shadows of his memories of friends and family. From day to day, the pain he has to face throughout his life with no one to love or care for him. So everyday, he is left with that reminder that those are the people he lost and he lives in the darkness of his past. What "the shadows of the leaves of the trees" means, is the depression of his past memories of loved ones, has affected him with the way he lives in life.
His memories have affected his life in many ways. It is a dark place to be living in the shadows, but the old man feels like a shadow. Imagine how that feels. No one knows who you really are. The old man won't go asleep in the dark, nor does he like the dark, because the old man feels that he will be even less noticed then he already is. He have to go to sleep in the light, because of the shadows that the old man casts. Shadows, cannot cast another shadow, so being in the light, it reassures them that people know who they are, because you can't judge a person by their shadow. Seeing shadows have no depth, no feelings; they look like the person, but they aren't.
Living in the shadows of his past, the old man feels that the best way to deal with it, is by drinking the sorrow away. After all, he feels like he isn't noticed without his family and friends.. Maybe when he wakes in the morning people will no who he is, but for now, all he can do is hope.
