It was dark inside and at the back of the room three girls were sitting with an old woman. Across from us, at another table, sat a sailor. He sat there neither eating nor drinking. Further back, a young man in a blue suit was writing at a table. His hair was pomaded and shining and he was smartly dressed and clean-cut looking.

The light came through the doorway, and through the window where vegetables, fruit, steaks, and chops arranged in a showcase. A girl came and took our order and another girl stood in the doorway. We notice that she wore nothing under her house dress. The girl who took our order put her arm around Guy’s neck while were looking at the menu. There were three girls in all, and they took turns going and standing in the doorway. The old woman at the table in the back room spoke to them and they sat down again with her.

From “Che Ti Dice La Patria,” by Ernest Hemingway.

In this scene, Ernest Hemingway’s austere prose captures the mood on the homefront in the Second World War in Italy.  His bare words almost devoid of any adjectives convey a gloomy vision of what goes on behind the frontline, the pervading silence, the plain sadness, the cruelty of the reality, even the women’s   seduction bristles with desolation, using the contrast between dark and light for their purpose: “A girl came and took our order and another girl stood in the doorway. We notice that she wore nothing under her house dress. … They took turns going and standing in the doorway.”