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My experience with literacy
My experience with literacy
Literature and culture
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The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, the power behind the imagination is revealed. The use of the narrative point of view, the clear juxtaposition of Mitty’s real life and imagination, as well as the diction, allegories, and symbolism used contribute to the theme in various ways.
The story is set in a third person limited omniscient narrative point of view and shows what Mitty is thinking as well as the general actions within the story. For example, when Mitty “drove past the hospital on his way to the parking lot” (Thurber 34), his imagination displaying him as a surgeon is shown and connections between his real life and fantasy life can be made. The ability to understand his mindset and fantasies develops his character and theme through the juxtaposition of Mitty’s reality and his imagination.
The contrast between reality and fantasy is quite evident. In reality, Mitty lives a dull and controlled life where he feels belittled. He is constantly being told what to do by his overbearing wife and the people around him. Mitty’s way of escaping and coping with his controlling life is through his imagination. His fantasies are lively and exciting in comparison to his actual life. Another difference would be that Mitty is the one who is in control and giving orders. For example, when Mitty is a surgeon, he takes the leadership role by staying calm in a frantic situation, ordering his co-workers to “‘give [him] a fountain pen!’” (34) and informing them that they should “‘get on with the operation’” (35) because the fountain pen “‘will only hold for ten minutes’” (35). To demonstrate a clear transition between reality and fantasy, certain triggers are used. Mitty incorporates sounds, objects, and people from his surrounding environment into ...
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...s leads him to be proud in reality and reinforces the theme of being confident happy, and not letting other people control what is not theirs to control, the lives of others. Furthermore, the theme is reinforced in the final line when it states that “he faced the firing squad; erect and motionless, proud and disdainful” (37). The firing squad symbolizes the people who control him and constantly belittle him. This final line is him coming to terms with who he is and being proud of that.
Overall, the combined use of the narrative point of view, and the theme portrayed by the juxtaposition of reality versus imaginary, symbolism, allegory, and diction all display the power behind the imagination. “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” shows that the imagination is so powerful that it can not only serve as a way of escaping the hardships of reality, but as a coping mechanism.
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 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.
Thurber, James. “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.” 1942. 21 Great Stories. Ed. Abraham H.Lass and Norma L. Tasman. New York: Mentor, 1969. 272-277.
What would be the consequences of living vicariously through another person? The life of an individual who does not live every day to his or her fullest extent is a restricting one. Humorous author, James Thurber, in his short story, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” shares the tale of Walter Mitty, a man who lives an unhappy life in the city obeying his wife’s every wish and command, daydreams to escape the sad constricting reality of his life. In Ben Stiller’s story-based film, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Walter Mitty takes real-life action to find love, adventure, and respect from a demeaning boss who takes the lead position of remodeling Life Magazine from a physical to an online magazine. Ben Stiller and James Thurber utilize allusion,
...oncluding passage to his narrative for a specific purpose: to create a more profound connection with his audience on the basis of his experiences and thoughts. He creates a vision of relief in the beginning of the passage by means of diction, similes, and an impeccable amount of imagery. Douglass also applies an approach for the application of syntax, diction, and connotative sense to amplify the feelings of loneliness and paranoia presented after emancipation. The result is the masterpiece that fluently runs from one state of mind following his escape to another. It is a masterpiece with a timeless sense of moral values being unconsciously taught to its audience, whether or not they succeed in deciphering it.
He uses the values and expectations to try to define himself. All that comes from that was him having to fake it to make it, still not finding out who his is as a person. Later on in the story when the narrator chooses to join the Brotherhood, he doing this is because he thinks that he can fight his way to racial equality by doing this. Once he enters in to this he figures out that they just want to use him because he was black. While at the place where this battle royal was going to take place is where some of the most important men in town are "quite tipsy", belligerent and out of control. When he gets in the ballroom there is a naked girl dancing on the table at the front of the room. He wants her and at the same time wants her to go away, "to caress her and destroy her" is what is states in the story. The black boys who were to take part in the battle were humiliated, some passed out, others pleaded to go home. But the white men paid no attention. The white men end up attacking the girl, who is described as having the same terror and fear in her eyes as the black boys. Over all, the narrator comes to conclusion that the racial prejudice of others influences them to only see him as they want to see him, and this affects his ability to act because
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.
It reminds the narrator significally of his grandfather, a man repressed by the system who went through his entire life trying to obey but at the same time hating all the men in power. At the end of the novel, the narrator continues to fight for his community. He feels betrayed and now he wants to destroy “The Brotherhood”. His plan does not work out.
Although it toys with the visually fascinating concept of dreams and their possibilities in ordinary life, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" seldom explores the theme with the imagination it deserves. Walter's search, the mysteries he must solve, the completely unsurprising pat ending, and the tiresomely predictable love between him and Cheryl simply overwhelm the notion of the dream life and its connections to what we like to regard as real life, that endlessly fascinating subject for the cinema.
But with the same fantasy, he also tortures himself, by imagining exactly why the man’s death might be such a horrible tragedy. O’Brien feeds his guilt by imagining that the man he killed was in the prime of his life. By imagining that the man he killed wrote romantic poems in his journal and had fallen in love with a classmate whom he married before he enlisted as a common rifleman, O’Brien can more easily identify with his victim and understand the terrible nature of the killing. O’Brien also details some of the soldier’s aspirations. O'Brien creates this fantasy to make the dead man more realistic, causing the reader to think of him as a man, not just a body or an enemy.
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.
...he thought it was beauty or about goodness.” Things that he’d no longer any way to think about at all.” (McCarthy 129,130). “The man” still shows acts of kindness towards strangers here and there in hopes that the boy will not follow in his footsteps and give up fate as well; he wants “the boy,” as McCarthy states it, to continue “to carry the fire.”
‘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.
The story is basically a compilation of the complicated circumstances that every man has to go through in life. The reader finds that life is full of inequities, although possibly not intentionally, it is forced upon everyone by themselves. The will of the mind is stronger than the invisible judge that is society, therefore if one should wish to be different then it is important that they push through with the change. It is important to free one's self, and claim individuality. Hence, I believe, that this story is a remonstration against the capitalist system that we abide by. It is a clear objection to the dehumanization that most members of society suffer from. Indeed, there could be no better way to object openly than through a short story.