Response to (outstanding) Hemingway Post

Liz, What you're doing here is biographical criticism, and it is outstanding. You definitely have an essay springing up here, so all this writing, research, and thinking were well worth it!
The main thing about this story that caught my eye was on the last page: The lords prayer (certain parts changed slightly and words replaced with the Spanish word for 'nothing') and then about half of the Hail Mary (again, words replaced, but this time with just the English 'nothing'.) I was fascinated with this, because, of course, Ernest Hemingway wrote quite a bit about Spain, a primarily CATHOLIC place. Upon further investigation, I found that he himself was born into a family that worshiped with the First Congregational Church and then converted to Catholicism. This confused me; most people who believe in Catholicism (e.g., a person who converts to it) would not change the Lords Prayer or Hail Mary. Well, the character isn't Hemingway himself, but I can see your point; you wouldn't expect him to suggest that there is no spiritual force to comfort us. (I, myself, was born Catholic but hold no religious affiliation currently; however, 12 years of church taught me a lot about the ... rules of prayers.) I know what you mean. I grew up Catholic, too, and any time I go to a different demonition's service, I find myself missing the rules and prayers I know by heart. There's comfort in ritual, I guess. Upon even further investigation, he converted to Catholicism to marry his second wife, Pauline. Although this could be evidence to his not believing, just wanting to marry someone, he wrote "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" in 1933, when they were married. (During the Spanish Civil war four years later, however, he sided with the 'anti' catholic side.) Thus, I believed that the changes were important to the story. Very interesting research! This story, then, foreshadows Hemingway's own religious disillusionment.
Anyways, introduction aside, here are the words that he replaced with 'nada', in order; Father, Heaven, Hallowed, come, done, Earth, Heaven, day, bread, forgive, trespasses (note he didn't make his 'nada' plural for this, but he did for the singular 'trespass' later on,) forgive (he changes this entire phrase however,) lead, temptation, evil, and the last phrase of the Lord's Prayer is gone. In the Hail Mary, he left out Mary, grace, and the Lord, plus the last phrase. These two prayers are not only the most recognizable of Catholicism, they are also the central prayers of praying on a rosary, in the order they're put in the story. (You'd say the Lord's prayer approximately 6 times and Hail Mary 53 times.)
Although this has been a religious post so far, I don't believe the meaning is completely. If you note what is not there, instead of what is, you notice a pattern. He never says God once (for the purposes of this reading, I shall assume this was just so he didn't use the Lord's name in vain,) Well, I think it's more significant than that! Nada is there plenty, but God isn't--says a lot about the religious theme! but the main things he skipped are words like "trespass," "forgive," "lead" us not into "temptation," and "evil." He even changes the entire phrase "forgive those who trespass against us" to "as we nada our nadas." I believe this is simply a statement of what happened to this older waiter's wife and why he doesn't have to go home. (As with all Hemingway stories, you have to go back and figure out who is saying what.) Although when he says "[the old man drinking] once had a wife." he knows a lot about the man that you probably wouldn't know/care about, even if the old man was a regular drinker at a cafe, such as defending him by saying the man might be better with a wife, and getting aggravated that the other waiter wouldn't let the old man sit and drink. I also noticed that the man who wasn't in a hurry didn't go home; he went to a bar. The older waiter probably was once like the younger one; wanting to go home early to see his wife. Now he's thinking about the Lords Prayer and half of the Hail Mary in a slightly mocking/cynical way.A few other things that stuck out to me. For one, during the Lord's Prayer, he said the Spanish word for nothing, "nada" and during the Hail Mary, he said the English word. Although Hemingway was fascinated by Spain, it was odd that he'd change languages, but not words in the middle of a paragraph. Another thing was that he cut off both prayers, with the Hail Mary omitting "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus." And THERE is your evidence to suggest there's a connection between this religious crisis and the old waiter's failed relationshiop. Additionally, although the waiter implies that a clean and pleasant cafe is a good place to drink your sorrows away, he goes to a bar.I think perhaps Hemingway is making a statement about the way that a marriage is sort of a way you are connected to God; if your marriage goes sour, so does your relationship with God. IN-TER-ES-TING! Further, I think its possible that the older waiter, like the old man, tried to kill himself maybe, and failed. (Hemingway tried to kill himself later on, failed, and then succeeded a few months after his first attempt.) The waiter gets mad because he sees the man as similar to himself, in a way. God didn't help when his wife cheated, and he definitely didn't help when He saved him.
Holy cow, Liz! (Pardon the pun :) So much going on here. Ok. To make this work, you'll need to tighten the focus. Your "so what" seems to be that the loss of romantic love leads to this crisis in faith. Evidence: biographical link for Hemingway, close reading of Old Waiter's relationship issues and faith crisis. The suicide and the bar parts probably aren't necessary; you don't want to end up doing too much. FYI: If you go with this, you must correctly cite all your research on Hemingway's life.