Psychological Analysis of Ernest Hemingway's "A Day's Wait"

Abstract

The object of this study is the psychological analysis of short story of Ernest Hemingway “A Day’s Wait” that deals with the familiar Hemingway theme of heroic fatalism or fatalistic heroism, namely courage in the face of certain death. The story is based on the fateful misunderstanding between a nine years old boy named Schatz and his father. The purpose of this study is to see and to find out that why the child aspired the death so much. This study focuses on the main character viz. Schatz and his motivation to die. His behaviour has been analysed in the light of three significant and widely researched theories of psychology. The first theory is a Cognitive theory i.e. Rational Emotive Behaviour Theory which concludes that Schatz was not emotionally disturbed due to unfortunate circumstances but he constructed his views of such situations in this specific way. The second theory is Freudian Psychoanalytic theory which concludes every human being is born with two types of instincts: Eros— the life instinct and Thanatos— the death instinct. Schatz’s behaviour was simply instinctual mainly governed by Thanatos. This was stimulated by his mal learning in the school and apparent behaviour of his father. The third is a social psychology theory i.e. terror management theory (TMT) which concludes that Schatz was having a psychological conflict that resulted from having a desire to live, but realizing that death is inevitable produces terror. The more he avoided cognitions about death, the more he gets terrified of it. Ultimately he suppresses his fear by withdrawing his resistance and accept the death as inevitable. But when his father debriefed him about his misunderstanding, he is having a sigh of relief. In the last it is shown the child comes back to life while take some time to lose temper and cry for minor things but it seems everything is going to be alright.