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A Day's Wait Short Story Essay

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Parents are always fond of telling tales of when children were young and had some silly misunderstandings. Two stories from around 100 years ago also tell of children’s simple, yet funny misconceptions. The story A Day’s Wait is written by Ernest Hemingway and is in the perspective of the father of a son. It is about a little son, named Schatz, who has come down with the flu and the father is wondering why Schatz in acting weird while recovering. Turns out Schatz thought he was going to die, due to a high fever. This misunderstanding happened because he got confused with the difference between Fahrenheit and Celsius. The story A Stolen Day by Sherwood Anderson has a different story, is about a boy who believes he has inflammatory rheumatism because of him aching, but doesn’t …show more content…

He convinces himself to believe it though. There are a several similarities to these stories, yet there are still a numerous amount of differences. A similarity to the stories is that both boys assume they will die. In the story A Day’s Wait states,” He had been waiting to die all day, ever since nine o'clock in the morning. ”(A Day’s Wait)This proves that Schatz makes the accusation that he is going to die. The Boy from A Stolen Day also presumes he will soon die. “It affects the heart," Father had said. That frightened me when I thought of it. "I might die," I thought. "I might just suddenly die right here; my heart might stop beating,” explains the text.(A Stolen Day) This shows that the Boy also believes he was close to death. Another similarity to these books it that they both think they will die of a sickness. In the story of A Day’s Wait it says,”Oh, yes, I am. I heard him say a hundred and two,"answered Schatz. "People don't die with a fever of one hundred and two. That's a silly way to talk," I replied.”(A Day’s Wait) Schatz thinks that he will die of a high fever.

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