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"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," focuses on Walter and his daydreams of
The secret life of walter mitty critical analysis new yorker
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In both James Thurber’s short story, Secret Life of Walter Mitty and Ben Stiller’s adaptation, Secret Life of Walter Mitty, the main character is depicted day dreaming in a fantasy land to escape from his own mundane reality. The two pieces have different portrayals of the main character, Walter Mitty, but both utilized his background, behavior, traits, thoughts, and development in revealing a deeper meaning. The movie’s characters inspire the message of changing dreams into action, while the stories’ characters hold a darker message of failing to live life as you dream.
The movie, Secret Life of Walter Mitty provides a deeper background of the main character, than in the story. In the movie, Walter was very adventurous as a kid. There is
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In the movie his character longs to one-day live life to the fullest but is scared. In one of the scenes his sister, Odessa finds a travel journal and a backpack that his late father had gifted him, he looks at it wistfully, and then later on in the story he uses the same backpack and travel journal on his own journey to find a missing photo for work. In the movie, Walter is also pushed into positive direction from his accused failures. When a photo goes missing at work and his condescending boss blames him, instead of being down on himself, he goes immediately into action. He investigates for further evidence of what could have happened and then later travels to find the lost photo. The missing photo also gave him the chance to step out of his comfort zone and talk to his crush Cheryl, as she helps him find clues of the photos whereabouts. His failure at work was a major turning point in his life. However, the Walter described in the story is not positively influenced by failure. When trying to park the car, he zones out during a daydream and accidentally drives up the exit only lane for the parking garage. The attendant yells at him and tells him to “Leave her sit there,” “I’ll put her away” (Thurber 2) Instead of brushing it off Walter thinks “they’re so damn cocky,” “they think they know everything” (Thurber 3). He then remembers another time he made a mistake with a chain and how a garage man had …show more content…
Thurber gave Walter an overbearing wife in Secret Life of Walter Mitty who serves as another reminder of how he is a failure. After running one of the errands his wife had asked him to do in town he “began to wonder what the other thing was his wife had told him to get. She had told him, twice, before they set out from their house for Waterbury. In a way he hated these weekly trips to town – he was always getting something wrong” (Thurber 3). Walter already feels as though he has failed himself and who he should be as a man, and his wife’s consistent reprimanding only adds to his negativity. On the other hand, Stiller chose Walter to have no wife or girlfriend. Instead in the movie, he pines after Cheryl, a woman he works with. Unlike Walter’s wife in the story, in the movie Cheryl acts as a catalyst that sparks him to take action. When Cheryl and Walter find out the man who shot the photo is in Greenland and Walter is hesitant towards going, she says, “Yeah. Why not? Go! Crack the case” (Stiller). That same day he leaves on a flight for Greenland. Then in Greenland when he is about to give up the chase for the missing photo from fear of getting into a helicopter with a drunk pilot, he imagines her singing lyrics from David Bowie’s Song, Space Oddity, which prompts him to run out to the helicopter and jump. Throughout the movie Cheryl ignites Walter to take action, and is a positive influence. The characters
In the story of Walter Mitty by James Thurber, Walter Mitty is a static character and in the movie Walter Mitty by Ben Stiller, Walter is made a dynamic character so that the movies is more exciting than the book. In the story Walter stays a boring character who doesn’t do much at all, while in the movie he becomes the adventurous character he has dreamed about. In the end of the story Walter was happy about “facing the firing squad”. Since Walter never had the life he wanted he just wanted to die, unlike the movie where he had done so many things that he got himself a date when he was the most happy. In the story Walter kept dreaming throughout the day being triggered by little things to go off into his own world, but in the movie Walter
Walter wants financial freedom, he doesn't want just enough money to provide for his family, but rather he tells his mother "I want so many things. " Walter is materialistic and greedy, corrupted by a superficial “American dream”. Walter has no desire to find out about himself through his African American heritage. He believes he can define himself through money, money is everything to this man.
In the short story, “ The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty” written by James Thurber, it describes a man who while in the midst of everyday life, floats off into daydream that often cause him more trouble than it is worth. His wife, Mrs. Mitty, on the surface does not seem like a well-rounded character. It always seems her life’s mission is to demean Walter and to always use her overbearing nature to nag him. However, there may be more to this character than what meets the eye. I believe that Mrs. Mitty is actually a well-rounded character in the fact that she only acts the way she does only for her husband and his well-being.
After Walter foolishly loses all of his mother's money to his friend, he begins to hate himself, the only emotion that allows him to consider selling out his race and accepting Lindner's offer. It is a good moment for Walter, because Travis is watching him. Walter cannot bring himself to except.
Walter has an interesting turn of events towards the end of the book. He is forced to abandon his quest to the North Pole, he is faced with the monster and must hear the monster's plans for self-destruction, he has to watch idly as his new friend, Victor, passes from this world. He has such noble dreams and aspirations, but they are all brought to a halt because of his chance meeting with Frankenstein. Or, was his expedition doom from the start because of the nature of wanting to do what no other man had done? Was it his ambition that led him to untimely failure? The evidence from the text proves that possibly he was never meant to surpass his peers and obtain the glory that he pursued.
One can infer from this moment that Walter is hav... ... middle of paper ... ... that same rhythm throughout. Whereas in the movie, his fantasies play in active role of pursuing his quest of finding the missing negative for the last Times magazine edition- or he loses his job.
The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty - Character Study of Walter Mitty & nbsp; In the short story, "The secret life of Walter Mitty," a man by the Walter Mitty goes into town with his wife to get some things done. Throughout this story Walter Mitty shows that he is very forgetful and a a really stubborn man with a vivid imagination. He is constantly being distracted, and starts to day dream often. & nbsp; There are a few hints in this story that show Walter Mitty is very forgetful. Most of this is probably caused by his constant day dreaming.
In the short story, Walter Mitty paints himself as very prestigious characters such as a knowledgeable doctor, a brave man, a military captain, a millionaire, and “Walter Mitty the Undefeated” (Thurber 5). This demonstrates pathos because of the reality of his life is that he cannot even do simple tasks such as backing his car into a mechanic’s garage. Thurber expresses the sad ironic reality of his life which is that he paints himself as a hero in his daydreams but lives a boring and unsuccessful life. Thurber uses Walter’s characteristics to prove one must adventure and explore to find meaning and purpose in life. In the movie, Walter debates getting into a helicopter with a drunk pilot to find Sean’s film negative and continue his adventure or to give up and turn back to his unhappy life. When he daydreams his love interest, Cheryl Melhoff, singing David Bowie’s “Space Oddity,” he decides to bravely jump into the helicopter, quite literally taking a leap of faith. Although a lyric of the song reads, “Here am I floating ‘round my tin can/ Far above the Moon/ Planet Earth is blue/ And there’s nothing I can do” (Bowie). This exemplifies irony because of the story Bowie tells of the protagonist of the song Major Tom. Major Tom embarks on a journey to outer space but communication cuts off from Earth and he realizes he will never come back to his wife and to life. This
The weekly trips into town are somewhat of a disaster each time. Once, he had tried to take the chains off of his tires and they got them "wound around the axle" and had to have a man come from a garage to unwind them. Mrs. Mitty leaves Walter on his own so that he can run errands, while she goes to the beauty parlor to get her hair done. Because of his daydreaming, he ends up losing himself in a court battle in his head. How can anyone expect to remember to buy puppy biscuits when something like that happens?
that a discontented individual is often unable to take ownership of his life until he realizes that he must set a good example for his children. Walter is a protagonist who seems to only care about himself. He is really dependent on his mama's huge insurance check. Walter wants his mama's check so he and Willy Harris can open up a bar. This character continues to go down the wrong path until something tragic happens.
‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’ is about a boring man who has a lot of daydreams. It was originally a short story by James Thurber, but was also made into a movie. The way that the story is presented in both is a key factor in either’s success, and when compared, the two are very different. For example, in the short story, Walter has little to no character development, but in the movie, nearly the entire production is him being put through a lot of situations that let us see more of the true character of Walter Mitty. This example and others is what makes the movie adaptation of ‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’ better than that of the short story.
Walter has accomplished many things prior to finally finding Sean: he jumps out of a helicopter into a boat (well, actually a sea with sharks), he out runs a volcano eruption, he effortlessly skateboards down a highway no one should ever skateboard down. By the time Walter finds Sean, he is energized: no longer escaping into his thoughts as he is rapt by the world around him. Although Walter does not find the photographic negative, his conversation with Sean solidifies the essence of life: Sean is photographing the “ghost cat” and talks about not wanting the distraction of the camera when he really likes a moment. He says, “if I like a moment, for me, personally, I don't like to have the distraction of the camera. I just want to stay in it.” This is exactly what Walter has not been able to do until now—stay in the moment. Be an active participant in his own life. By this point in his journey, though, he is ready to crawl out of his safe, repetitive routine and pursue opportunities and personal desires. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty reminds that adverse situations can come from all kinds of experiences in life and that fearing failure or even rejection is never the reason to stand still: evolve
Adventure, change, exploration. These are things that every human craves, from the average high school student stuck in class, to the average adult suck in a boring and demeaning job. People everywhere want adventure at different times, to shake up their lives. These traits of wanting adventure are shown both in the main characters of Thurber's “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” and Allende’s “Uncle Marcos” and are expressed in many different ways that are found to both help and harm them in their lives. Both characters find their adventures in many different ways than each other.
Walter attempts to reinvent himself through his work and relationships to try and provide for his wife and family. Walter is fighting a battle within his household because he believes that Ruth, his wife, “couldn’t be on [his] side that long for nothing,” even though she is just trying to do what is best for everyone involved (Hansberry 32). Walter cannot see past his dream to realize the impact it would have on everyone else if it failed, so he drowns his sorrows in alcohol. Although “he knows the possibility of failure is also a vital part of the American success story” Walter is not just risking his own future, he is risking his child’s, mother’s and sister’s and without a second thought to his personal relationships, he blindly makes an investment on the chance of having the wealth and house he desires for everyone (Washington 98). Walter is so focused on reinventing his work life and having money that he loses sight of his family’s values and ideas. He does not care about Ruth being pregnant and the possibility of aborting their child as long as he can achieve his goals. Walter is living in a dream where he believes that “anyone can become anything he wants to be,” and that is not true in his case with the social and racial standards that are set against him (Washington 95). Walter sees wealth as ensuring happiness and having everything he desires, which is why he is pushing his family so hard for the money, causing issues. Even though all the odds are set against him in this time period, Walter cannot see past being able to provide for his family and having the American Dream that he most
“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” expresses the theme that satisfaction is harder for those who are not normal. With all of Walter Mitty’s daydreams in between everything that he does, it shows that his actual life is lacking something that he desires.