Comparing Secret Life Of Walter Mity And Mirror Image

Sandesh Jagessar

Mrs. Rochester

ENG 3U1.20

September 28, 2015 Faces “Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.”(Oscar Wilde). In James Thurber’s “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, Walter Mitty proves to be an inept man, lost in his own mind where he eludes himself from the real world and enrolls several different identities. As a result of his daydreaming, Mitty proves that his natural identity is diverse and composes all of the characters he imagines. In contrast to Lena Coakley’s “Mirror Image”, a teenage girl name Alice has a brain transplant and has to adjust to her new life in a different body. In spite of that, she struggles to decide if is she is still herself. Overall, both authors

Walter Mitty lives in the era of world war two, this was a time of danger sickness, gangs and drug dealing. This is why Walter imagines being in the navy, being a surgeon saving the life of a V.I.P and being a crack shot that is cross examine on trial. When Walter hears a newsboy shouting about a trial he envisions himself on trial as a skilled marksman, who is cross examine on the count of murder. In the dream the judge asks Mitty if the weapon is his and Mitty replies by saying “this is my Webley-Vickers 50.80” (Thurber). Clearly, the setting that Walter Mitty lives in influences the way he daydreams and overall impacts the identities he chooses. Alice is in her teen hood where teenagers try to find out what identity suits them and will ultimately reflect upon them for their entire life. However Alice faces, the media who claim her to be “a new development in the story of girl x”. The controversy came up because Gail’s mother Mrs. Jarred believes that her daughter is still alive, she does not want to believe that her daughter is gone, thus putting more pressure on