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Ernest Hemingway's story, "A Clean Well Lighted Place," is primarily set in a cafe late in the evening as two waiters wait for their last customer to leave so they can close shop for the evening. The younger of the two waiters is impatient to get home to his wife and warm bed, the older waiter has more patience because, in part, he has no one and nothing to go home to. He will leave …

…the Lost Generation. This refers to those who felt that humanity had evolved over the centuries, but not improved. The wars clearly showed that man's greatest skill is in his ability to destroy himself and others. This renders all of humankind's accomplishments absurd. The belief that the world is an absurd place is often attributed to a concept known as existentialism. Certainly the older waiter in the story described above would agree with that concept.