How does Ernest Hemingway’s A Clean, Well-Lighted Place use psychological conflict rather than action?

In Ernest Hemingway’s short story A Clean, Well-Lighted Place, psychological conflict replaces traditional action to explore existential dread. Rather than relying on plot-driven events, the narrative focuses on the internal state of an older waiter who empathizes with an elderly customer’s need for a "clean, well-lighted place" as a refuge against the "darkness" of life.1

The story functions as a powerful existential statement, utilizing the iceberg theory—a technique where the author conveys deep emotional resonance through what is omitted rather than explicitly stated. The psychological tension is crystallized in the older waiter’s internal monologue, which replaces the traditional Lord’s Prayer with a meditation on nada (nothingness). By stripping away sentimentality and focusing on the characters' shared struggle with the insufficiency of meaning, Hemingway highlights the internal void and the human desire for order in an indifferent universe. The conflict is not found in external battles, but in the quiet, desperate attempt to find comfort against the encroaching silence of existence.12