I. Introduction
Ernest Miller Hemingway (1899 - 1961), the American short story writer and novelist, was born in Illinois, USA, the son of a doctor. After working as a Kansas City reporter, he served in 1981 as a volunteer with an ambulance unit on the Italian front, where he was wounded, then worked as a reporter for the Torento Star before set¬tling in Paris among the American expatriate literary group.
Among Hemingway's important works are 'The Sun also Rises' (1926), 'A Farewell to Arms' (1929), 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' (1940), 'Across the River and into the Trees' (1950), and 'The old man and the Sea' (1952). Hemingway who is known for the economy of style and the stiffness of writing, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954, As he grew older, he was tormented by failing powers, both physical and intellectual. He committed suicide in 1961.
II .. Summary
'A Day's Wait' tells the story of a small boy who lay in bed waiting for death, the result of a simple misunderstanding.
Schatz was a nine year old boy. He came into the room of his papa to shut the door. He looked ill and he was shivering. The doctor came and took his temperature. The thermometer showed one hun¬dred and two.
The doctor left three different medicines in different coloured cap¬sules. One was to bring down the fever, another a purgative and the third one was. to overcome an acid condition. The boy was suffering from flu and there was nothing to worry about if the temperature did not go above one hundred and four degrees.
The boy's father sat in the boy's room. Schatz's face was very white and there were dark areas under his eyes. He lay very still in bed and seemed very detached from what was going on. His father read aloud from Howard Pyle's 'Book of Pirates'. But the boy was not following what he was reading. The boy could not sleep either. He was holding some secret to himself. He was sure that he was going to die. He did not believe the medicines would do him any good. The boy asked his father how long it would be before he died. The astonished father asked him what made him ask such questions.
The boy told his father that he heard the doctor say that his tem¬perature was 102 degrees. At school in France the' boys had told him that they could not live with forty four degrees.
The father got me reason behind Schatz's fear. He explained to the boy the different scales used in measuring human temperature. On the thermometer used in France thirty seven is normal. But in the Fahrenheit thermometer it is ninety-eight. He further explained that it was like miles and kilometers.
The boy understood the difference. He began to recover swiftly. The next day he was all right. What tormented the boy had been a misunderstanding between the centigrade and Fahrenheit scales used in thermometers’ .
Questions and Answers
1. How did Schatz look when he was ill ?
When he was ill, Schatz was shivering, his face was white, and he
walked slowly as though it ached to move.
Where do you think Schatz slept - on the ground floor or upstairs? What gives you the idea? .'
Schatz slept upstairs. The first sentence of the story 'He came into the room to shut the windows while we were still in bed ..... ' and ' But when I came downstairs ..... ' suggest that Schatz had slept upstairs.
What did the doctor say about Schatz's iIlness ? What medicines did he give?
The doctor took the boy's temperature and said that he was suffering from influenza. He gave three different medicines - one to bring down the fever, another a purgative and the third to overcome ~\ <, "'V',
an acid condition.
2. Why was Schatz unable to follow the story read to him ? I •
Schatz was unable to follow the story because his mind was preoccupied with the thought of death. He seemed very detached from what was going on.
3. What made the narrator think that the boy was perhaps a
little light-headed
The boy persisted that his further did not have to stay if it was going to bother him. This made the narrator think that the boy was perhaps a little light-headed.
4. Why didn't Schatz allow anyone to come into his room?
Schatz did not allow anyone to come into his room because he did not want others to get what he had. He thought that he was going to die or the killer epidemic flu. .
5. Why did Schatz conclude that was going to die ?
At school in France the boys had told him that people can't live with forty-four degrees and he had got a hundred and two. So he concluded that he was going to die.
