The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty Comparison

Humans naturally crave what we cannot have. Even when our lives are everything we’ve always imagined, there is still, and always will be, that desire for something more. The unobtainable things in life have driven humans from their very beginnings to acquire great amounts of determination to compete and seek for additional illicit goods in life. The drive to obtain more or become more in life is rooted by boredom in one’s life. In the short stories, “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant, and “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” by James Thurber, both of the main characters live an ordinary and average life. They are similar in that they both crave excitement in their lives, and live in illusory worlds in which their actual lives do not emulate the

Walter Mitty dissociates himself from his mundane world and into a more interesting fantasy life. In the reality, he is your everyday average, submissive old man with mild marital problems. In his diverse fantasies, he is a resilient character challenged with decisive scenarios with physical attributes he lacks in his own reality. Mitty is unhappy with his unexciting and uneventful life, and as a coping mechanism for this reality faced by many people every day, he retreats into his fantasy world. Walter Mitty seems to have some form of cognitive problem. Because of his dwindling relationship with his wife and his poor self-image, he is unhappy with life, and may very well have depression. There are more than 15 million people in the United States today who have been diagnosed with a type of depression. Depression can be caused by nothing at all, or, in Mitty’s case, by a lack of joy in one’s life. For Walter Mitty, his lack of joy also stems from his strained relationship with his wife and his poor self-esteem. Depression can also cause an inability to focus, which Mitty has trouble with as well. Walter Mitty may also have Attention Deficit Disorder too, because he has trouble completing simple tasks and has difficulty concentrating, and he constantly and consistently daydreams, which are triggered by his routine

In each daydream, he is a brave and skilled protagonist. He fantasizes about the authority and power that he is missing in his life. In his reality, the authority comes from his wife, who commands him and cares for him. Most older couples are like this in modern times; the wife is always the one dragging her hopeless husband behind her. With his possible Attention Deficit Disorder, it is fair of Mrs. Mitty to care for him by taking charge of his life, since he cannot do so himself. That is another thing; ADD and depression can have an impact on your daily life in such a way that it can make a person incompetent in doing everyday things. Walter has trouble doing anything, apparently. He has trouble driving, he speeds on dangerous roads, and he drives into “Exit Only” lanes on accident. Furthermore, another example of Walter Mitty’s possible depression can be seen in the very last daydream of the short story; “with that faint, fleeting smile playing about his lips, he faced the firing squad; erect and motionless, proud and disdainful” (Thurber 170). His last dream is about him getting killed by a firing squad, which comes directly after his wife nags him about always being absent minded. When she leaves, Walter daydreams about getting shot to death, which is not a normal thing to dream about unless you are not happy with your life. Suicidal thoughts are not normal, but they are very