A Day's Wait

Heroic fatalism, also called fatalistic heroism, is a common theme in Hemingway’s works. Fatalism is the idea that all things, particularly death, are up to fate and therefore predestined and unavoidable. Heroic fatalism posits that because death and other circumstances are unavoidable, they should be met with grace and dignity. There’s no crying about one’s fate in heroic fatalism.

Schatz, in “A Day’s Wait,” embodies heroic fatalism. Even before he assumes that he’s dying, Schatz accepts his illness as part of life and merely goes about his day. He doesn’t wake his parents to ask them to close the windows; he does it himself. When his father points out that Schatz is sick and should go back to bed, Schatz insists that he’s fine. He then gets dressed and goes downstairs, despite “shivering” and walking “slowly, as though it ached to move” (Lines 2-3). Schatz is visibly struggling yet simply accepts it and moves on with his day without complaint.

This calm acceptance only continues when Schatz believes that he’s dying. Schatz’s prior education in France taught him that a human couldn’t live with a temperature over 44 degrees. Therefore, when he hears