Throughout recent human history there have been incessant cultural, societal and environmental changes that have continually forced man to adapt and conform to his new surroundings. This rapid change over the last few centuries brought about by unrelenting technological advancements has seen the rise of population, wealth, freedom, health and ease of living. Although this is evident only in industrialized nations. The adverse effects are debatably equal to or greater than the positive benefits to date. Overpopulation, pollution, exploitation and increasingly destructive arms are just a few of the general problems created. Specifically the universal scale of war, destruction, loss of life and the profound effect it has on all those influenced by it , as demonstrated during WWI and repeated on a much larger scale in WWII. Ernest Miller Hemingway(1899-1961) witnessed first hand the savagery of both World Wars and was no doubt troubled by his experiences, and left questioning the present sate of humanity. Other prevalent societal and social problems and the increasingly liberal views of the time added to this questioning, but the Wars in general epitomized man's malevolent potential. Hemingway's short story "A Clean Well-Lighted Place- presents a café in which two waiters converse about their sole patron late one evening as they await his departure and the end of their shift. As they wait the waiters discuss how the "old man who sat in the shadow of the leaves-(957) recently attempted suicide. When the old man asks for another drink the younger of the two waiters becomes impatient and serves him one final brandy before sending him on his way. The older waiter is sympathetic to the old man's need for the café and the light and questions his colleagues haste in closing early then like the old man, goes out for a drink to contemplate the seemingly nothingness of his life.
