The Father

It is the young boy's father who, "clutching" his hand, takes the boy to school. When the boy asks if he is being sent away from home for being a bother, his father assures him that school is not a punishment, but a "factory" which turns boys into men. As he enters the school the boy hesitates, but his father gently pushes him and tells him to "be a man."

The boy's father is an important character in both a literal and a symbolic sense. As a coming-ofage story, "Half a Day" concerns themes of fatherhood and the different stages of human life. The boy's father is seen to represent the narrator himself, at a different stage of life.

He may also symbolize God, who ushers each human being both into and out of life.

The Middle-aged Man

When the narrator leaves the school, he encounters a...