Throughout Walter Mitty’s life he lives a second, more thrilling, life where he is a renowned doctor, war pilot, and even more.James Thurber’s short story, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, was a book about how a quiet man is bossed and bullied throughout his life, forcing him to daydream to find happiness.Walter Mitty feels the need to escape into his daydreams because his wife doesn’t allow him to make any decisions, his wife bosses and bullies him, forcing him to daydream to assert his manliness, and he is bored with his life, and wants to be recognized for something in life, and you can see him inserting himself in these positions throughout all of his daydreams.
One big reason why Walter Mitty daydreams is because his wife doesn’t let make any decisions.In his daydreams he shows his leadership and makes large decisions like when he imagines that he was a Doctor and must think quickly, when the machine keeping this man alive was breaking down, by fixing the machine with a ballpoint pen.This simply proves that Walter Mitty longed to make his own ideas, to do something to help other people, and to be known throughout the country.Another large reason why he loves to make his own choices in his daydreams is because his wife, and other people are continually telling him what to do.Just like when Walter Mitty had to drive his wife to the place where she gets her hair done, only to be thanked with a list of things that he needs to buy. Then promptly after that she yells at him, like hes a five year old, for not wearing his gloves! This goes to show that he rarely gets respect, or even to make his own decisions. Another large reason why Walter Mitty always daydreamed was because he wanted to be more manly, especially since almost ever...
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...s together. This all just goes to show that he knows exactly what he is daydreaming and longs for a better, more exciting, and more influential life.
Walter Mitty feels the need to escape into his daydreams because his wife, and other people he runs into from day to day always tell him what to do, his wife is making him look like a child by yelling at him in public, robbing him of his manliness, and he is bored with his life and wants to become a more important, and more influential so he can have a positive impact on other peoples life since nobody has a positive impact on him. So, when you look throughout the story, within his daydreams you can see all the reasons why he feels the need to escape to his daydreams rather than real life.
Works Cited
Thurber, James. "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty." The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.
In James Thurber's wonderful short story, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", I get the feeling that he may be a victim of Attention Deficit Disorder, rather than just being a daydreamer. Throughout the story, Walter changes personae several times. He flips back and forth between reality and fantasy so much he may have a problem with his attention span.
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
While Walter does not have much determination when he’s in reality, when he fantasizes he’s determined regardless of whatever role he is in. For example, when Walter Mitty is dreaming as a navy commander, he displays a strong determination as he gives orders. Another example is when Walter doing the operation. “He began fingering delicately a row of glistening dials. “Give me a fountain pen!” he snapped. Someone handed him a fountain pen.” (p.35). This proves Walter to be a determined character when he is dreaming. Similar to Greta, she also is a determined character. For example her determination to doing the everyday labour, despite the crops getting smaller every year, and her barn wearing
Daydreaming is something that everybody does to escape reality from time to time, and it has been proven to have many benefits. Daydreaming gives the ability to be more creative by working both sides of the brain. It can also remind a person of their future goals and ambitions. Daydreams help to ease some bad memories as well. James Thurber takes this simple idea of daydreaming and applies it to his famous short story, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty." The story follows Walter Mitty through his daydreams, allowing him to take the roles of bold and courageous people. To this day, the affable daydreamer's legacy lives on with his name even being in the dictionary. "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" has also seen multiple movie remakes with one being released recently. While daydreaming is something that everybody does, the way Walter Mitty daydreams excessively is dangerous to him and people around him, especially when driving. It also affects Walter Mitty socially when he blocks out his surrounding and goes into a reverie when around other people. In the recent movie and the short story, Walter Mitty uses his daydreams to escape from a life that he is dissatisfied with into an alternate world where he can delve into his aspirations. Walter Mitty expresses his dissatisfaction towards his life through his daydreams because he wants to have excitement and accomplishments, power and authority, and he wants to be a person or have traits that he lacks.
This episode illustrates a major conflict throughout the story. As Walter dreams bigger and bigger he seems to leave the 'smaller' things such as his family behind. This movement away from the family is against the furtherance of the values and morals of the family. While his father would have been happy simply working and caring for his family, Walter is more concerned with becoming a 'mover and shaker' without thinking about the resulting consequences for his family.
The story is about Walter Mitty, a henpecked and daydreaming urban man, who often depends on daydreaming to escape real life. As the story begins, Walter Mitty is driving his wife to town for an appointment at a beauty shop. Triggered by the wild storm, he begins to imagine himself as the commander of a Navy hydroplane.
[F] During the wide known film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Walter is well known for zoning out, and dreaming about all the adventures that he could possibly go on. [G] In the review article “The Secret of Life by Walter Mitty, Ma writes “Stiller...examines the life of a man with great potential who has sacrificed his dreams to support his family after the death of his bankrupt father” (Ma, 1). [H] This talks about how he spends his time living so much in reality that he isn’t able to live his dreams, and therefore imagines them instead. [I] Walter Mitty wants to travel the world and follow his fantasies of adventure. [J] Walter Mitty finally gets to live his dreams and go on an outstanding adventure that fulfills all the fantasies he may have had while working in his office. [K] In the film review while talking about the crucial moment when Walter meets the photographer, ma writes “it is not what he says but how he experiences that particular transcendent moment, that irrevocably transforms Mitty and helps him turn his life around” (Ma, 2). [L] When Walter Mitty followed his dreams, his life changed drastically, even though the change seemed to be in his perspective and thoughts on his daily life. [M] Dreams were a crucial part of the story of Walter Mitty in telling his life, and without them, the story wouldn’t exist. [N] Hopes, dreams, and goals are key to living a successful life, whether in a fictional story like Of Mice and Men or The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, or in
In The Secret life of Walter Mitty the plot revolved around Walter and his vivid daydreams....
In both the short story and the movie, the main character, Walter Mitty, constantly fantasizes about wild adventures that are very different
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.
The film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, directed by Ben Stiller, thoughtfully explores the timeless theme of identity: through Walter (played by Stiller), Stiller reminds that adversity is necessary in one’s life in order to bring about growth and change. Through the detailed presentation of the minutiae of Walter Mitty’s day, the viewer understands that he is a man stuck in a rut of existing rather than living. The film opens with images of Walter’s apartment: nothing out of place, nothing with colour, even Walter, himself, is dressed in black and white. Despite this mundane opening, there are elements of humor (an error sending a wink on a dating site and dreams of super-human rescue missions), and this accurately depicts Walter’s internal
“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.
Have you ever wanted to learn about an interesting short story? Then I have the perfect short story for you. You could think of possibly anything and Walter Mitty would dream about it and make it seem special. The short story is called “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”by James Thurber, it is an interesting story about a guy named Walter Mitty, who has a nagging wife constantly on him, but he goes through his boring life imagining about all the cool stuff he could do. A dominant theme in James Thurber’s “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” is Imagery. He shows imagery in his short story by making his character, Walter Mitty, imagine he's in these obstacles, which he pretends he's something he's not. Throughout the story, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” James Thurber uses literary elements like imagery and allusion to get his theme across to the readers.
‘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.
Life is about finding yourself, each other, and being true to one’s self. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is an extremely original and creative story written by James Thurber. The movie, The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty, starring Ben Stiller, conveys a daydreamer escaping his typical life by disappearing into a realm of fantasies filled with heroism, romance and action. In both the movie and the book, the title character retreats into fantasy as an escape from his mundane reality because in the real world, he is ordinary, insecure, and passive. In the short story, Walter simply retreats into his daydreams and tolerates his domineering wife, while in the movie he actively pursues finding himself.