Interlacings of Narrative and Lyric: Ernest Hemingway’s A Clean Well-Lighted Place and Sandra Cisneros’s Woman Hollering Creek

Revisits the much-debated controversy about the dialogue between the two waiters, arguing that resolution of the issue lies in examining the second half of the story. Supports Scribner’s 1965 textual emendation that has the older waiter introducing the concept of nada into the story. Phelan analyzes the progression of the reader’s response from temporary ethical judgement to gradual engagement and return to judgement or evaluation. Concludes that Hemingway’s careful construction of the older waiter’s vision suggests that “the story itself stands as a clean, well-lighted place for his audience.” The second half of the article is devoted to a discrete rhetorical examination of Cisneros’s story