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A Day's Wait Short Story Essay

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Parents are always fond of telling tales of when their children were young and had some silly misunderstandings. Two stories from about 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 his son. It is about the 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. A Stolen Day by Sherwood Anderson has a different story, is about a boy who believes he has inflammatory rheumatism …show more content…

Schatz is for sure sick, but thought he was going to die because of confusion between Fahrenheit and Celsius. In the text A Day’s Wait, it states,” At school in France the boys told me you can't live with forty-four degrees. I've got a hundred and two." (A Day’s Wait) This shows that Schatz made a mistake of the different thermometers. While in the story A Stolen Day it says,” It was then that my own legs began to hurt. My back too. I went on to school but, at the recess time, I began to cry. I did it when the teacher, Sarah Suggett, had come out into the schoolhouse yard.”(A Stolen Day) The Boy was not sick, but he later convinces himself that he is. Another difference in the text is how the boys react when they get attention. In the story A Day’s Wait, it says,” After a while he said to me, "You don't have to stay in here with me, Papa, if it bothers you, said Schatz. "It doesn't bother me," I said. "No, I mean you don't have to stay if it's going to bother you," answers Schatz’s.”(A Day’s Wait) In the story Schatz does not want any attention and wants to accept his thought to be “fate”. The Boy on the other hand desires attention. In A Stolen Day, it explains,”So," I thought, "they'll miss me and there'll be a search made. Very likely there'll be someone who has seen me sitting by the pond fishing, and there'll be a big alarm and all the town will turn out and they'll drag the pond." I was having a grand time, having died. Maybe, after they found me and had got me out of the deep pool, Mother would grab me up in her arms and run home with me as she had run with the Wyatt child. I thought.”(A Stolen Day)This text proves that the Boy wants

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