of terrible secret not to be openly spoken about. In that sense, his emotional detachment is a kind of masculine denial of emotion, something he has learned from his father.

The father, on the other hand, has more mundane things to wait for. He's literally waiting to dispense medicine. He knows the boy is in no real danger, so he is also waiting for him to improve, or at least cheer up a bit. His reading of the pirate story is less about entertaining the boy than getting him to hurry up.

At one point, he does leave to go shooting, and Hemingway renders the details of this excursion—how many birds were killed, how the dog was, slipping on ice and dropping the gun—perhaps even more vividly than the details of the actual story about the boy. One way to think about that is that, for the father, the business of hunting and the business of nursing his son are all the same. Hemingway of course makes no comment on any of this; he's good at making dots in that way and leaving it to the reader to connect them.

This concept of "waiting," then, both suggests that the present moment of the story is less interesting somehow than what will come after and highlights the emotional separation of boy and father, who, on the one hand, are too busy "waiting" for various things to emotionally connect, and, on the other, are nonetheless bound to each other through this mutual denial of connection.

The title "A Day's Wait" refers to the time period in which a young boy learns the significant difference between Centigrade and Fahrenheit.

In the story, Schatz is afflicted with a bad case of influenza. He learns that his temperature is a hundred and two degrees. The doctor fails to mention, however, that this measurement of his temperature is in Fahrenheit. Unbeknownst to the doctor, the boy believes he is going to die; he does not realize that body temperatures can be measured in either Centigrade or Fahrenheit.

Fearing that his life is at an end, Schatz wills himself to remain stoic. He reigns in his emotions and tries to face death with courage. Schatz even forbids others from entering his room; he does not want anyone to catch what he has. Meanwhile, his white face testifies to his intense emotional struggle. It is only after his father apprises him of the truth that Schatz begins to relax. So, the title refers to the time period in which a young boy learns the importance of verified knowledge. Schatz comes to understand that there is a significant difference between Centigrade and Fahrenheit.

This wonderful short story by Ernest Hemingway details the illness suffered by young Schatz and his misunderstood seriousness of the diagnosis. Schatz overhears his doctor tell his father that his temperature is "102 degrees." Having attended school in Europe, he is not used to the Fahrenheit scale: Instead, he thinks the temperature is being calculated on the Celsius scale. Schatz realizes that no one could live long with a temperature of 102 degrees Celsius (beyond the boiling point), so he silently and patiently awaits his death during the day's long wait.

A further theme one could consider is the inability of so many people to face up to their own mortality. Although Schatz is only a child, there's little doubt that his inability to come to terms with his inevitable demise is widely shared among adults too. In that sense, one could argue that his malaise has symbolic value for humanity as a whole.

Having settled into a relatively calm, stoical acceptance of death, Schatz's whole attitude changes dramatically when he finds out that he isn't at death's door after all. This would suggest that, if Schatz genuinely does experience a terminal illness in future, he won't know how to handle it. Why? Because his traumatic childhood experience of death has scarred him for life.

Among other things, this will most probably mean that, like a lot of characters in Hemingway's works, he will run away from confronting the uncomfortable fact of his mortality and lead a life characterized by inauthenticity and endless distractions: anything to keep the reality of death at bay.

Ernest Hemingway’s short story “A Day’s Wait” reveals the threat of imprecision in language. This theme is expressed through the narrative itself, but it is also enhanced through the story’s use of irony and juxtaposed sentence structures.

In “A Day’s Wait,” Schatz misinterprets the gravity of his fever when he confuses Celsius and Fahrenheit. Thinking that he is much sicker than he is, Schatz resigns himself to behave stoically in the face of certain death. Schatz’s misunderstanding of the situation is clear to the reader throughout the short story, and it is exacerbated by the minimalist nature of his dialogue with his father. Notice how short the sentences are when the two speak to one another. Through this style of dialogue, we see the theme of imprecise language manifest.

This short sentence structure is juxtaposed with the much longer structure that the narrator uses to describe hunting. This juxtaposition further emphasizes the lack of communication between the boy and his father. Just as the boy withdraws from his father, he withdraws from language itself, refusing to speak or to listen to the stories that his father attempts to read.

The threat of imprecise language is ironically emphasized in the final sentence of the story. While the narrator suggests that “[the boy] cried very easily at little things that were of no importance,” the logic of the story suggests that it is the little things that can be most important. It is the smallest of things—such as the unclear communication of a metric—that produce the narrative’s conflict.

This "slice of life" short story explores the philosophical implications of a few moments in a life that often make so much difference in one's life. Here are two themes to this story:

• Miscommunication can have tragic effects

Nine-year-old Schatz's psyche is shattered after a doctor pronounces his temperature as one hundred and two degrees because he misinterprets this number as Celsius degrees and not Farenheit. Thus, his interpretation of his fever creates traumatic effects because Schatz fears he will die. As a result of his fear, Schatz tries to be brave and tells his father that he can leave his room if he would like. When his father does leave because he does not perceive danger in Schatz's fever, not comprehending the circumstances regarding Schatz's decision, Schatz is affected by what he interprets as his father's desertion. He, therefore, loses his courageous determination,

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.

• A single event can have lasting effects

After his great scare of death, Schatz is no longer the happy, confident boy he has once been. His "hold over himself relaxed too...." He is overly sensitive, crying over insignificant things as the memory of his trauma looms over him.  For, the memory and threat of death has altered Schatz forever.

The title is significant as the "day's wait" is one Schatz spends alone in agony, believing that he will die. When his father notices that his son appears ill, he feels his forehead and realizes that the boy has a fever. So, he calls the doctor who comes to the house, as they used to do. Naturally, the doctor takes his temperature and tells the father that it is 102. Outside the boy's bedroom, the doctor adds that there is nothing to worry about unless it climbs over 104, and he gives the father some medication for his son for influenza. Shortly, the father returns to Schatz's bedroom; the boy's face is very white and he has dark circles under his eyes. The father narrates,

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

But he believes that Schatz is not feeling well and his unusual behavior and look are due to the flu. Schatz tells his father that he does not have to stay with him "if it's going to bother you," and still the father attributes this strange reaction to the boy's illness and the medicine he has just administered to him. So, he leaves the son's room, hoping that the boy will sleep. While the father is gone, "...the boy had refused to let others into the room," telling them they must not catch his illness. Then, when the father returns, Schatz is blanched and staring at the foot of the bed. After the father takes his temperature, Schatz asks what it is. His father tells him that it is nothing to worry about.

"I don't worry...but I can't keep from thinking."
"Don't think....Just take it easy."

Nevertheless, the father sees that his boy is "holding tight onto himself about something." As the father tries to read to his son, the boy asks,

"About what time do you think I am going to die?"
"People don't die with a fever of one hundred and two. That's a silly way to talk."

It is only then that Schatz reveals his belief that because he is in school in France, his temperature has been expressed in Celsius, rather than in Fahrenheit. There the boys have told him that "you can't live with forty-four degrees."

He had been waiting to die all day, ever since nine o'clock in the morning.

This is a wait that the sick boy should not have had to endure. Dismayed that his son has been so deceived and unnecessarily traumatized, the father tries to comfort him. However, the long day's wait has taken a toll upon Schatz, who is very "slack" the next day, and he "crie[s] very easily at little things that [are] of no importance," having let go of his stoic determination the day before.

The short story "A Day's Wait" by Ernest Hemingway tells of a nine-year-old boy who becomes ill with a fever. His father, the narrator, sends him to bed and calls for the doctor. The doctor informs the father in the boy's presence that he has a temperature of 102 degrees. Downstairs out of the boy's earshot, the doctor says the boy will be fine and prescribes medicine. When the father tries to read to his son, the boy seems worried and distracted and refuses to sleep.

After the father returns from hunting, the boy confesses that he is waiting to die. In France where he attended school he was told that people with temperatures above 44 would die, and his is 102. The father explains that the means of measurement are different and that the boy is in no danger. After the explanation, the boy is able to sleep, but the next day he is emotionally sensitive.

The titles of stories are very important, as they are the first things readers notice when they are considering reading a piece of literature. Authors choose titles for several reasons. For instance, some titles reflect the theme of a story, the name of the main character, or the protagonist's occupation. Other titles might use a quote from a famous poem or song.

"A Day's Wait" has a seemingly very simple title. When you first hear it, you might think of waiting for a train or a bus, waiting for a special person to arrive, or waiting for an important event. However, the title takes on great significance when you realize that the boy has not merely been waiting for an important situation or circumstance. Fully convinced that his sickness is beyond cure, the boy has been waiting to die. All day he has been waiting for his very existence to be snuffed out. When you look at the title from this perspective, it has special meaning, so yes, it is a good title.

Ernest Hemingway chose the titles of his short stories with considerable care. They tend to be either allusive and descriptive ("Hills Like White Elephants," "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber," "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place") or very short and simple ("Indian Camp," "The Killers," "Cat in the Rain"). The latter style predominates and one has the sense that Hemingway preferred his titles as simple and direct as possible unless there was a very strong indication within the story of what the title ought to be.

"A Day's Wait" falls very firmly into the short and simple category: three monosyllables with approximately the same vowel sounds (exactly the same if you decided, admittedly rather artificially, to pronounce the initial "A" as "ay" rather than "uh"). Moreover, "Day's" sounds the same as "daze," a state of bewilderment and stupefaction which affects both father and son, while "Wait" is a homonym for the "weight" both have on their shoulders.

This aside, the title "A Day's Wait" perfectly suits Hemingway's iron control of his prose style. The boy is waiting for death and spends the day after the revelation of his mistake crying at things of no importance. The author, however, will not permit such hand-wringing in his prose style, which remains, like the title, laconic and unemotional.

A shattering, metaphoric significance to the title of Hemingway's short story is the fact that is the wait of the day by the father that has made all the difference in the boy's psyche.  For, the miscommunication between son and father regarding the meaning of his temperature as well as regarding the boy's implication of "You don't have to stay in here with me, Papa, if it bothers you" that effects the detachment of Schatz.

When the father departs his son's bedside to walk the dog and shoot quail, Schatz is left with his despairing thoughts of imminent death.  It is this "wait," this moment in real life, that presents the philosophical implications of Hemingway's story.  That is, Schatz faces, like all men, existential questions alone, and in so doing, he experiences the terrible aloneness of man--Hemingway's "nada"--that causes Schatz's detachment from then on.  

Ernest Hemingway's short story "A Day's Wait" can be deemed appropriate based upon the movement of the text.

In the beginning, Schatz is ill. His father, worried about his condition (a temperature of 102 degrees) calls a doctor to examine Schatz. The doctor tells Schatz that he has the flu. After telling Schatz not to worry about his temperature until it reaches 104 degrees, the doctor leaves Schatz and his father alone.

Schatz's father, worried about his son, stays beside his bedside until Schatz seems to grow weary of his company. Schatz's concern for his fever grows to be too much for his father, and his father leaves to hunt. When his father returns, he takes Schatz's temperature again and lies about it going down.

It is not until the end of the story that supports Hemingway's titling of the story. During the first day, Schatz is completely obsessed with his fever and of dying. It is not until the next day that Shantz's concerns dissipate.

The 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 appropriate given the change which takes place over the course of one day to the next. The wait between one day to the next makes all the difference in the world to Schatz.

I believe Hemingway came up with the perfect title for his short story, "A Day's Wait." The story deals with a boy, Schatz, who has come down with the flu and overhears his doctor and father discussing his temperature--102 degrees. We find later that the boy has mistakenly believed the temperature to be Celsius, not Fahrenheit; he knows that no person can live with such a high temperature, so he spends the next day awaiting death. When his father discovers the reason for Schatz's hopeless mood, he laughs and explains that all will be well. We can only imagine what went through poor, young Schatz's head during those long 24 hours--dealing with his impending death alone and in an admirably brave manner, not wishing to upset his father--who, in the boy's eyes, seems somewhat unconcerned. Of course, the father understands that the flu will pass. However, in the end after the illness had passed, the boy reverted to crying "very easily at little things that were of no importance."   

(It) suggests how easily the reader too can misinterpret information. Was this the boy's regular reaction to the little things in life (had he in fact returned to normal), or had his long day's wait for death affected him forever?