A Day`s Wait is a story written by Nobel Prize winner Ernest Hemingway and did first appear in the Snows of Kilimanjaro in 1933. The story is told by a young boy`s father and are centered around the boy.

The short story mainly focuses on the day of a nine-year old boy called Schatz (a German term for affection), who spend is whole day thinking his dying, which is a result of a misunderstanding between the boy and his father. Schatz has a temperature of 102 degress Fahrenheit and he has heard from soom boys in France the you can`t live with a temperature of forty-four degrees Cellsius. Thinking these two units are the same, he believes his about to die and his father is clueless about the thoughts of his son. Schatz`s true thoughts isn`t revealed until the end of the story, to the fathers great surprise.

I believe that the story is sat to the late og early winter, because of the ground, which where covered with a sleet that had frozen so that it seemed as if all the bushes, the grass, and the bare trees and ground had been varnished with ice. The creek was frozen and a covey of quail was protecting themselves from the cold under a high clay bank.

Short summary:

When Schatz came in to his parents room to close their windows in the morning, his father could see that he was shivering, that is face was white and that he walked slowly, as though it ached to move. When he asked his son whether everything was fine, he told him it was. Schatz was told to go to bed and his father called for a doctor, who confirmed that Schatz in fact was sick. He had influenza and a temperature of 102 degress Fahrenheit. The doctor told father that there was nothing to worry about and left Schatz some medicine to take throughout the whole day.

Schatz spent is day in bed, distant, while his father tried to read to him, without getting any response from Schatz himself. In the end he decide to take the Irish setter for a walk, but when he returned Schatz refused to let him in to he`s room, fearing his father would get what he had. Later Schatz asked his father: “About what time do you think I`m going to die?” and his father aswered: “People don`t die with a fever of one hundred and two. That`s a silly way to talk”. To his father it might have been a silly way to think, but to Schatz himself it was deadly serious. Schatz settle down with this and finally drifted off to sleep, but was very slack and cried easily the day after.

This story had few characters and was mainly centered around Schatz and his father, but it also seems to be others present on soom occasions, which is suggested in soom lines, for examples here: He came in to the room to shut the windows while we were still in bed and.... (it seems there might be a mother present) and here: At the house they said the boy had refused... (it seems to be someone else present in the house while the father is out walking the dog). A doctor aslo drops by to see to Schatz.

Schatz seems to be a quite normal boy of nine, but in this story he behaves serious and very adult, but he`s still a child that can`t understand everything by himself.

The father seems to be a typical father figure, who care enough for his son to read for him. But still he doesn`t understand that his son is very confused and that he needs someone to tell him what`s going on.

The aim or the purpose of this short story is to shed some light on the importance of clear speace and to try to put yourself in the people around you`s position. Also, to understand have easy it is to misunderstand others or for others to misunderstand you. The smallest thing cant be turned in to something much greater, if you aren`t careful.