Terrance Love

#1 the setting is dark and lonely. It is grief stricken and full of blind despair. The idea of a well lighted place is significant because the old man seems to always be casted in shadows and gloomy darkness. The café is something that sticks out and is bright with hope for the old man. It may even symbolize hope, maybe even relief from pain.
#2 the characters are nameless because the author wanted to really focus on the story not the characters.
#3 the connection between the old man and the older waiter in the story is clear to me because they have more of an understanding. The older waiter knows that the old man sees the café as a place where he can come to escape the darkness, even if it is just for a couple of hours. The purpose of the younger waiter is too contradict the older waiter and the man. His purpose to me is to not see or understand what they do in the light of the café.
#4 the plot is the fact that the old man is lonely and that leads to him drinking. This cast shadows through his life and makes him want to commit suicide. The rising action would be the waiters talking about why they think he is there drinking all of the time. The complication would be that the old man continues to keep getting drunk and by doing that the waiters seem to think that he is even more depressed. The conflict would be that the old man is lonely and comes to drink the darkness away and keep from killing himself. The climax would be that they found out that the old man tried to kill himself but failed thanks to his niece. The falling action would be that they tell the old man that he needs to leave because the café is closing.
#5 the theme is that even from the darkest places you can always find a well lighted area of hope.
Biographical Summary
Ernest Hemingway used a gun to kill himself. He describes lots of violence in his short stories and lots of people never really knew that this was an expression of trials and emotions that he as a man was really going through. His writing was one of the only things keeping him stable, but he didn’t seem to handle it as well as the characters did in his short stories.