What is the narrative point of view in "A Day's Wait"?

Ernest Hemingway's "A Day's Wait" is narrated from the third-person limited point of view.

In this type of point of view, the knowledge of internal states is restricted to the narrator. In this story, in which the narrator is the father of Schatz, it is his restricted point of view that is the crux of the problem. The father fails to comprehend the emotional state of his son because his perception of the boy's state is limited to the external observation that Schatz is physically ill with a fever that the doctor advises is not dangerously high. It is indeed unfortunate that the father does not realize that his son, who misinterprets his temperature as measured in Celsius, feels great anxiety because he is convinced that he will die with such a high fever. In this observation, for example,

He lay still in the bed and seemed very detached from what was going on.

If the narration were not limited as it is, the reason why Schatz is "detached" would be given, and the outcome of the story could be entirely different. Thus, the third-person limited point of view plays an integral part in this "slice of life" story. It contributes to the theme of the misunderstandings that can exist even with those a person loves the most.

The story is told from the father's point of view. It is first person, so that we are perceiving all of the events through the father's eyes, as if a video camera is mounted on his shoulder. We can only see and hear what he sees and hears.

In this story, the point of view is centrally important as the whole story pivots on readers having access to only one point of view.

The father takes the situation of his son's fever very casually, knowing it will soon pass. The son, however, thinks his temperature of 102 means he is going to die.

The father knows his son is acting strangely, but doesn't think much of it. It is only at the very end of the story that he—and we as readers—understand the communication mix-up. The ending has the surprising impact it does on us because of our being limited solely to the father's point of view.

What is the narrative technique used in "A Day's Wait"?

One narrative technique employed by the story is the use of a first person objective narrator. This means that the narrator is a participant in the events that take place—he is, in fact, the father of a young boy called Schatz who gets the flu and thinks he's going to die—and that he narrates these events after they have already taken place. He uses the first person pronoun "I" as well as past tense verbs, and these help us to identify the point of view.

Using this narrator allows for the misunderstanding that compels Schatz to believe that he is going to die of his illness. The narrator, his father, can only report what Schatz says or how he looks because the narrator does not know the boy's unspoken thoughts or feelings (as a different perspective narrator might), and so he does not realize that Schatz thinks he's going to die as a result of his fever (the boy is comparing his Fahrenheit thermometer reading to a Celsius thermometer reading).

Another narrative technique employed is the elimination of phrases like "he said" or "I said" in many places where there is dialogue. This means that there are fewer words and there are often no words in between characters' speech to one another. This lack makes the dialogue seem more stilted, more abrupt than it typically would. It leaves us with the sense that there is a lot unsaid which, of course, there is. The reader and narrator both don't find out until the end what Schatz has been thinking, but not verbalizing, throughout the story.

Who is the narrator of "A Day's Wait"?

The narrator of the story is Schatz's father. This is important because he has only a limited perspective on things, which is entirely appropriate, as it's the father's lack of understanding of his son's condition that forms the basis of much of the story's action.

At no point in the story does the father truly grasp the full measure of Schatz's fraught psychological state. Due to the dangerously high temperature, he's running, the boy's got it into his head that he's going to die. Unable to comprehend the seriousness of Schatz's emotional condition, the narrator has no compunction in leaving his son's bedside to go outside for a spot of quail hunting. Meanwhile, back at the house, poor Schatz is convinced that he's going to die, all because he doesn't known the difference between Celsius and Fahrenheit.