Meagan Cone Period 4 Walter Mitty Essay Final
We all have daydreams, but which is better? Action packed, dramatic ones, or ones where you’re famous and everybody loves you? It mainly depends on the life someone is living outside the daydream. Walter Mitty, a character from The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty by James Thurber, has both action packed and dramatic ones in his movie. But in his short story daydreams, he’s witty and famous. His life is very different in each, though, leading one to be better than the other because of the differences between the themes, daydreams, and characters. And which one has the better of those? The movie. First off, Walter Mitty had more daydreams that the audience could better enjoy in the movie than in the
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One theme from The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty is that your mind and imagination are very powerful. In the story, he dreamed of being a famous surgeon. “ ‘Coreopsis has set in,’... ‘If you would take over, Mitty?’...’If you wish.”(3). By others asking if he would take over with something difficult to treat, it shows how skilled he dreams of being. However, in reality, he is not a surgeon. In the movie, the theme is that imagining you can do something can get you to what you want to do. Walter imagined being with Cheryll and standing up to Ted, the guy who was firing everyone from Life headquarters. At the end of the movie, both of these things happened. The theme in the movie is a more inspiring theme that viewers can …show more content…
In the story, Walter’s wife is that annoying character that no one can bring themselves to like. “ ‘Wait here for me. I forgot something. I won’t be more than a minute.’ She was more than a minute.” This shows that she is demanding of Walter and expects him to do her bidding. With random characters jumbled in the story, there was no room for anyone to like any characters other than Walter. “He kicked at the slush on the sidewalk. ‘Overshoes,’ he said to himself, and began looking for a shoe store.” (4). Walter Mitty was a normal, boring character that the reader couldn’t really bring themselves to like. It’s hard to like a story when there’s really only one character and they live an ordinary, boring life. Having more characters in the movie helped to actually form a plot. “Oh, hey, welcome.. Wait, sorry, not welcome. Not an employee,” Ted Hendricks said to Mitty after he was fired. Ted was the antagonist that made the movie more exciting. It gave Mitty someone to go against, making the movie something to enjoy. Having more characters with bigger personalities and a conflict makes a movie or story more exciting and not boring. All the reasons stated above made The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty movie better than the short story. A plot is important to make something enjoyable, therefore making the movie better. Having a more inspirational theme could also lend to making
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
In conclusion, details involving the characters and symbolic meanings to objects are the factors that make the novel better than the movie. Leaving out aspects of the novel limits the viewer’s appreciation for the story. One may favor the film over the novel or vice versa, but that person will not overlook the intense work that went into the making of both. The film and novel have their similarities and differences, but both effectively communicate their meaning to the public.
James Thurber's The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. 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 persona several times. He flips back and forth between reality and fantasy so much he may have a problem with his attention span.
Mitty is just nagging Walter and does not really respect him at all. However they would be wrong. In a part of the short story it states, “Something struck his shoulder. ‘I’ve been looking all over this hotel for you,’ said Mrs. Mitty. ‘Why do you have to hide in this old chair? How did you expect me to find you”(Thurber 7 8)? This might look to some as she is nagging him of where he was and why he was not in plain sight, but she is actually very worried about him. She knows of his daydreams, however does not know exactly of what her husband is daydreaming about. This worries her, and how he almost has several accidents in the streets, and cannot remember simple things because of them, she worries his mental health is extremely fragile. That it could snap at any moment, with one, little, daydream. This proves that Mrs. Mitty truly cares for Water, and wishes him no
The first reason I believe that Walter is the protagonist is because he isn’t a selfish man. What I mean by this is when he is talking about issues he tends to discuss family issues above his own personal things. Though at times in the play when he is drunk and loses his temper he does start speaking selfishly, I believe that his overall attitude in the play is for his family to move up the world. I believe that Walter’s son Travis is the main reason why he acts so unselfishly. He seems to want the best for this son and doesn’t want his son to feel that there isn’t anything he can’t have or do.
Unlike Walter's reality his daydreams are exciting, eventful and he is often the hero. Walter Mitty's utilization of daydreams in order to escape reality a live the life he craves solidifies the fact that he experiences maladaptive daydreaming. Lastly, when Walter daydreams he is detached from his surroundings and being unaware of your surroundings while daydreaming is also a symptom of maladaptive daydreaming. Evidence from the story that can be used to support this is when Walter was daydreaming of playing the role of Dr. Mitty in an operating room and suddenly the parking lot attendant yelled at him for almost causing an accident as he could not concentrate on driving because of his daydream. Becoming disconnected from reality as a result of daydreams is a regular occurrence for those suffering from maladaptive daydreaming proving that Walter is more than just an ordinary daydreamer. Based on the arguments above it is palpable that Walter Mitty experiences maladaptive
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
We can see throughout the story that he daydreams about all these different scenarios, including: navy pilot commander, doctor, sharpshooter, bomber pilot, and noble victim of a firing squad. It states in the outside source, “Mitty is married to a woman who treats him more like a child than a husband. This is due to his immature tendency to escape into fantasies rather than live in the real world.” This quote is impactful because we can infer if he didn't have a nagging wife, that's constantly on him, he probably would've had a better life, instead of imaging about interesting missions.
"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" by James Thurber (1939) is a story about a daydreamer named Walter Mitty going about town on an ordinary day tasked with simple errands by his imperious wife. Through the power of imagination, Walter transports himself into alternate, exciting realities where he is a fighter pilot or a world distinguished surgeon - he gets drawn into these daydreams so much he disregards his responsibilities and reality. (+ Thesis Statement)
There are great variations in the film adapted from the short story The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. The short story Viewers rarely have any interest left for tacked-on praise on the displaced workers, the found photo’s contents and the success of Walter getting a date. However, some scenes capture ones attention. These include the periods of Mitty’s daydreams performed in a quietly moving, broadly comic and in effect driven --rambunctious.
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. Walter Mitty, a timid, passive, henpecked husband, embarrassingly incompetent at ordinary tasks, constantly falls into daydreams in which he assumes such heroic roles as flying through a storm, shooting down German aircraft, and performing delicate surgery.
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.
“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.
James Thurber and Ambrose Bierce both show identical connections with their short stories. In the short story, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, Peyton Farquhar is on the railroad bridge about to be hanged with northern soldiers around. Right before he dies, he starts to think about his wife and kids, and why is he there. He uses his imagination thoroughly in the story and we find out that it was all a dream and he died in the end. In The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Walter also uses his imagination to be better in life. Daydreaming helps ease the minds of both of these main characters. In these two stories, the protagonist’s show how dreaming can help get out of the real life as well as boosting self-esteem. Being happy is what the main
‘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.