Themes and message

The main themes of the short story “A Day’s Wait” by Ernest Hemingway are miscommunication and fatalistic heroism. The themes are explored in a factual, succinct manner in a narrative without too much symbolism.

Miscommunication

As you have seen, the plot and drama of the story start off from miscommunication. Schatz hears that his temperature is 102 degrees and assumes the doctor referred to Celsius degrees, instead of Fahrenheit. This leads him to believe that he is about to die.

This shows that misinterpreting information due to a broken communication can have tragic effects on one’s life, even if it is only for a brief period. The boy becomes clearly tormented and matures abruptly due to his misconception: “His face was very white and there were dark areas under his eyes. He lay still in the bed and seemed very detached from what was going on.” (p. 140, ll. 2-4).

Miscommunicatio...