Hemingway & Woolf: Themes, Style, and Literary Analysis

1. Stories

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway

• Genre: Short story, modernist fiction
• Theme: Loneliness and the search for meaning
• Message: Everyone needs a calm, clean place to escape the darkness (loneliness/despair)
• Main characters:
  • Old man: Lonely customer
  • Young waiter: Rude and impatient
  • Old waiter: Understanding and reflective
• Plot: An old man drinks alone at a café. The young waiter wants him to leave, but the old waiter empathizes with his need for a peaceful place.
• Context: Written in 1933, during the Great Depression
• Conflict: Existential—coping with loneliness and emptiness
• Themes: Despair, human connection, purpose in life

The Mark on the Wall by Virginia Woolf

• Genre: Stream-of-consciousness fiction
• Theme: Perception and reality
• Message: Life is shaped by how we interpret and imagine things
• Main character: The narrator, reflecting on a mark on the wall
• Plot: The narrator notices a mark on the wall and starts thinking about life, history, and change, ending with the discovery that it’s just a snail.
• Context: Written in 1917, during World War I
• Conflict: Internal—thoughts about reality vs. imagination
• Themes: Change, uncertainty, and self-expression

2. Author Biographies

Ernest Hemingway

• Born: July 21, 1899, Oak Park, Illinois, USA
• Education: Did not attend college; became a journalist instead
• Lived/worked: In Spain, Paris, Cuba, and the US
• Writing style: Simple, short sentences (Iceberg Theory)
• Topics: War, love, nature, courage, loneliness
• Challenges: Struggled with depression and alcoholism
• Awards: Won the Nobel Prize in 1954
• Death: Committed suicide in 1961

Virginia Woolf

• Born: January 25, 1882, London, England
• Education: Self-taught because women could not study formally at the time
• Lived/worked: In London as part of the Bloomsbury Group
• Writing style: Focused on thoughts and emotions (stream-of-consciousness)
• Topics: Gender, mental health, war, and art
• Challenges: Mental health struggles and depression
• Influences: World War I and women’s rights movements
• Death: Committed suicide in 1941

3. IB Prescribed Themes

Hemingway’s story: Connects to "Identities and Relationships" because it explores loneliness and how people cope with life.

Woolf’s story: Fits "Personal and Cultural Expression" because it’s about how imagination helps us understand life.