A Cover Story

In the end of “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” the old waiter is making sense of the way he feels. He blankets his problem with the idea that it’s just insomnia, something plenty of people have, and there is no major problem. I don’t believe the old waiter is having an epiphany, On page 345, “Now, without thinking further, he would go home to his room. He would lie in the bed and finally, with daylight, he would go to sleep.” I believe that this is his everyday routine, and that his thought process isn’t anything new. Everyday he goes through this struggle of not being able to sleep. This insomnia is a superficial problem that covers a deeper, more serious problem. The old waiter has trouble dealing with his life where he feels doesn’t have much meaning. Insomnia is a cover story for the old waiters much more real issue, depression.