There are many reasons for one to loose the faith or to gain the faith; however, one also finds that as mass consumption has continued to grow and fall over the years, the United States’ citizen’s faith has been tested. Looking at two specific decades, the 1930s, a time of great poverty in the United States, and the 1950s, a time of great prosperity, will help one analyze how consumerism effects one’s faith, or, in some cases, does not. Ernest Hemingway’s, “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” displays the emptiness of faith and loss of morals during the Great Depression, while contrasting loss with someone of great physical wealth. The mass production and consumption of material goods in the 1950s transforms the religious family into a more “modern” ideal of religion after a time of misfortune that tested the faith of these same families in what Edwin F. Gay calls the “suffering” of the 1930s. Hemingway’s work displays a cycle of religious emptiness in the United States demonstrated by the lack of faith and search for faith in times of prosperity and suffering.

During the 1930s, the United States of America experienced one of its greatest losses of all time, The Great Depression.  Gay quotes Mr. Justice Brandeis in saying, “The people of the United States… are now confronted with an emergency more serious than war. Misery is widespread… the long-continued depression has brought unprecedented unemployment… which threatens our financial institutions” (Gay 529). American people were distressed and downtrodden by the lack of financial income one was able to receive during this period of time. This was a domino effect into ones inability to buy everyday consumer goods. Hemingway wrote “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” during this era of little. Due to this fact, the lack of religion displayed by both of the waiters is a direct representation of their lack of material possessions. The younger waiter has lost his morality- he even tells the old man that he “should have killed [himself] last week” (Hemingway 2). He is not obsessed with the idea that the old man tries to kill himself but with “how much money he has got” and wonders how the old man could think of suicide when he is well off (2). However, because this depression “shows nothing comparable in intensity” in “statistics of prices, production, foreign and domestic trade, and unemployment” one does not blame the younger waiter for his actions, most have felt that God has turned from them in times of despair (Gay 531). The older waiter has not lost his mortality. He constantly tries to find the good in the situation and tells the younger waiter that though the old man is a drunkard, at least “the old man is clean” (Hemingway 3). He also understands that the niece could not let the old man die for “fear for his soul” (2). The older waiter is a perfect example of someone that continues to try to use his faith as a comfort; however, he finds “nada y pues nada y nada pues nada” in the everyday prayers of the Church (4). He does not have as deep of a faith as necessary during a time of great trouble; this is due to the fact that the prayers taught in Church become meaningless as they become utter repetition. They are prayers that are said simply because they are taught. One does not get anything out of these prayers unless one takes the time to truly understand each word and the meaning behind what one is praying. 

In the 1950’s America, there was a consumer production boom. With this boom religion was changed and nearly lost within the excitement of buying new products. Eli Zaretsky argues “religions of antiquity, such as Buddha and Jesus, urged their followers to leave their families for an authentic spiritual community. Eventually, however, according to Weber, charismatic communities themselves become institutionalized” (Zaretsky 328-9). These great leaders called one not to only leave one’s material possessions, but also one’s own family to truly follow the faith. Even in those days, these communities lost what faith truly means and left for a type of organization in which a business could prosper. The 1950s proved to have a similar experience for the United State’s citizens, “rooted in industrialization and urbanization,” (329) that “twentieth-century men and women did not separate from traditional familial morality and enter into the sexualized dream worlds of mass consumption without undergoing a charismatic reorientation to meaning” (330). Because meaning has changed over the year, one does not even realize that one has lost the true meaning of worship and having a relationship with God. If one looks to the beginnings of religion and God, one realizes how much one’s perspective of religion differs from that of one’s ancestors. In “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” the old man represents very few in the 1930s that have wealth, yet he is still unhappy- trying “to commit suicide” last week (Hemingway 1). Because he feels nothing, he tries to fill his void with being “drunk every night” (2). In a way, the alcohol is a worldly possession that helps to distort his religious view and, thus, God’s true self and salvation. This is no way to live and goes to show that no matter the time period—whether Jesus’ time, the 1930s, or the 1950s—having too many worldly possessions can hide, for one, the direct path to God and salvation. These worldly things become an object of worship; worship that is essentially empty and will not bring happiness that, ultimately, blocks the soulful happiness you can find in God and the gifts he has blessed upon humankind. 

Society is tasked with finding a happy medium for religion between ignorance of faith from greater material consumption and loss of faith from being deprived of these same materials. The truth shows there will always be some obstacle that pulls one from one’s faith. With worldly possessions one does not necessarily loose one’s faith; however, it seems to get lost in the chaos of wanting the newest product. The world worships possession over faith, not always knowing this is the case. Once one takes the time to meditate and finds ones self in nature, one starts to realize that one has engulfed ones self in worldly possessions instead of the natural gifts God has given. In this nature, one finds God easily both in painless and hard times.  In difficult times one struggles with lack of substance and feels God has abandoned ones self. Though one may look to God for answers one feels he has forsaken them. Once again, if one would look to the natural gifts of the world instead of the manmade products, one would find beauty in what God has indeed blessed one with. To feel the true meaning of religion one needs to look past the everyday, repetitive prayers of the Church and look into what God means to ones self—looking at the sacrifices he has made for mankind—getting to know him. For once one truly takes the time to know God as friend, one shall never loose the faith.