The action in Ernest Hemingway's short story, "A Day's Wait," takes place over the course of one day. In the opening of the story, Schatz (the son) has been running a fever. His father, who remains unnamed, calls for a doctor. The doctor diagnoses Schatz with the flu and tells him that a temperature of 102 degrees should not be any concern, until it reaches 104 degrees.
Schatz's father maintains a bedside vigil until Schatz's preoccupation with his illness overcomes him. Schatz's father decides to go out to take the dog for a walk and hunt, while Schatz sleeps. Upon returning, Schatz's father takes his temperature (which has not changed). Schatz asks his father about his temperature and his father lies telling him it is only around 100 degrees.
After a conversation about the differences between the measurements of Fahrenheit and Celsius, Schatz's worry seems to change.
The...
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next day it was very slack and he cried very
easily at little things that were of no importance.
Therefore, the title of the story is justifiable given the way Schatz's feelings seem to change after a day has gone by.
Justify the title of "A Day's Wait" by Ernest Hemingway.
A very appropriate and significant title, "A Day's Wait" has both denotative and connotative meanings. As a "slice of life" story, the narrative takes place during a moment of life which should be fairly ordinary; however, Schatz's misinterpretation of reality magnifies for him the existential meaning of this one day.
For, while the father calmly waits on the boy's fever to diminish after the doctor has visited, reading to him about pirates--perhaps metaphoric for the concept of stealing--Schatz lies in bed wondering when death will steal his life from him because he has misinterpreted the severity of his fever by confusing Celsius degrees for Farenheit. Thus for Schatz, this "day's wait" has been for death, and when his father leaves to go hunting since Schatz is really in no danger, the boy, having said "You don't have to stay in here with me...if it bothers you," believes that his father has left him because he cannot bear to watch him die.
Truly, a day's wait has made a life-changing difference in Schatz. His gaze becomes "very slack" and "he cried very easily at little things that were of no importance." And, most significantly, one day has irrevocably changed Schatz who has been so traumatized by his assumption of the approach of death. With all the fears that have attacked him in this delusion, Schatz loses his former sense of reality and becomes detached.
How is the title "A Day's Wait" justifiable in Hemingway's story?
There is an old expression, "Oh, what a difference a day makes!" and in the narrative of Schatz, the day that he spends waiting to die--he believes--changes him irrevocably. Left alone by his father, who does not realize that the boy has a misconception of the gravity of his temperature thinking it has been measured in Celsius rather than Farenheit degrees, Schatz spends a day absorbed in existential struggle that greatly burdens one of his young age.
Hemingway's is a "local color story" that revolves around a slice of life and its philosophical implications. The "day's wait" of Schatz is life-changing as after his lonely battle with fear, there is a backlash to this day's traumatic experience and he loses his stoic courage:
But his gaze at the foot of the bed relaxed slowly. The hold over himself relaxed too, finally, and the next day it was very slack and he cried very easily at little things that were of no importance.
Surely, this one day has had a lasting effect upon the psyche of the young boy, making him more detached and less innocent than he should be for one so young.