Everyone has a daydream there are just some who choose to live in the dream because it seems so much exciting than reality. This story of a man who no matter what the situation or task he is performing drifts away to dreams of fantasy and splendor. We don’t know much about Walter Mitty at first except that his wife is the keeper of his safety and keeping him on task. The story captured my interest because I can think on the times when I just go away in my mind to a place or time that gives me the pleasure of being someone else, or living the life I have always pictured. The story starts and we are already thrust into one of his ongoing day dreams. “We’re going through!” The Commander’s voice was like thin ice breaking. The crew are very wary of what is going on in this situation with one of them telling the commander “We can’t make it sir. Just the description of the storm and the 8 engine hydroplane trying to battle the elements and make it home is gripping you want to sit and read and find out what happens next. Thurber did a very great job in making sure that the audience one they picked up this literary piece they would want to continue on with most losing themselves to the story. We see his wife automatically notice that he is not paying any attention to the present so she informs him that he is traveling fifty-five mile and he knows that she does not like for him to reach this rate of speed. We also see that it takes a bit of time for Walter to enter back into reality from his day dreams as presented when he takes a look at his wife with shocked astonishment. The comparison to a stranger yelling at him in a crowd. You can feel the tension and the silence that is present during the rest of the trip into the city. The tr... ... middle of paper ... ...ne the scope ranges from one to those like Walter who slip away almost instantaneously. Those are the people who tend live in the dream and not come back to real life and in the case of Walter Mitty his last daydream is one where him being a criminal facing a firing squad he would not have to return after this sentence. Dreams are usually more exciting than our daily lives and the story of Walter Mitty is a prime example of how our imagination leaves us captivated. Works Cited R. WAYNE CLUGSTON (2010). JOURNEY INTO LITERATURE. ONLINE Available at: https://content.ashford.edu/books/AUENG125.10.2/sections/ch00. Last Accessed 30 MARCH 2014. DAVID EVANS, (1/26/2014). THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY. McClatchy-Tribune Collection. (), pp. ADAM SCOTT, (1/2/2014). THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY BEN STILLER'S DREAM LIFE. CORPORATE RESOURCENET. 1 (1), pp.1
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
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
...ey are still dreaming. Once people begin to notice irregularities and they realized they a dreaming, “At that point many people temp to panic about it, others that already know about lucid dreaming may continue the dream”. (McNamara 1-2). In the short story “An occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” the idea of Dream and Reality is exemplify in a different way. Peyton Farquhar has a dream in the last minutes of his life. At that moment he sees himself escaping from death, but he could not avoid reality. (Bierce 203)
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.
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.
In conclusion, the Mitty motifs are the themes that include: disharmony between the sexes and males escaping routine. Another theme James Thurber includes in his work is the life as a married couple. Thurber has accomplished many great short shorties in his life, but “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” his most popular work. He has learned to live his life through his short stories, expressing his feelings in his writings. Many individuals have been inspired by his writings. James Thurber has made his mark on the world and will be forever known and never forgotten.
“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 stopped for a moment to contemplate where you are in life? If you haven’t, then take a moment right now to imagine where you are and where you would like to be. All of the actions you have taken, thoughts you have had, and the persona you convey have created the life you have lived thus far. In the movie The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, the main character Walter Mitty has a habit of daydreaming to escape his mediocre life for a more “enhanced” life where he fantasizes about a richer and more rewarding existence. Throughout the film, Walter is able to foster
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.
James Thurber (1894-1961) ranks as one of America’s most popular humorists. He is most renowned for his short story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” a meek, absent-minded hen-pecked’ character who suffers the sharp-tongued ire of a dominant bossy wife.
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
Evidently, Walter Lee?s judgment becomes significantly impaired and all because of his dreams. In the world today, people still struggle with the same problems and desire the same things Walter does. Success is a seemingly huge necessity. In the course of ones life, each person is destined to face personal conflicts and contradictions. These problems, with the ability to overcome them is truly how to achieve greatness. As Mr. Langston Hughes questions so powerfully in his poem, ?What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?? With the help of Walter Lee Younger, the answer becomes evident. Dreams never dry up? they just change.
The daydreams in the movie were shorter and less detailed sometimes, but this made them simpler and more understandable for the viewer. This also makes for the daydreams to go along with the plot, and for the transition between each to really get across the point that Walter is always going on and out of his daydreams at random times. The daydreams in the short story, though they were good, because there was a lack of plot, they didn’t seem to relate to anything except that Walter was a boring man with an overactive imagination, and frankly, that doesn’t make much for a story. For example, at the beginning of the movie, Walter hears a dog barking, and imagines the building behind him is burning, and he saves the day by warning everyone about it. In the book, however, it starts off in the middle of a daydream that doesn’t even sensibly seem to go along with what’s happening in Walter’s life, as it’s him as a commander. This doesn’t make sense because Walter, from what we know, has never been in any form of the military, and the sound of a horn on a car reminding him of a foghorn on a navy ship just doesn’t make sense. The movie’s daydreams went along with the plot, and as the plot progressed and got more exciting, the daydreams started to do the opposite in a way. It was a nice touch for the movie to show how Walter went from being a
Through the film we follow Walter on his journey and are subject not only to the reality of the situations that he finds himself in and the experiences that he is accumulating, we are also subjected to the daydream like situations that Walter is seeing in his figment of reality in which due to the fact that out of his view of not doing anything noteworthy in his life he then projects his dreamlike and amazing fantasy form of reality out into the world for us to see and experience. For example, in one scene of the movie Walter is talking on the phone with a technical advisor for a dating site in which he is having difficulties with, and the technical advisor states to the fact that Walter had left most of his profile blank, to which he replies that he hadn’t done anything noteworthy enough in his life to fill his page with. As Walter says this we are cast out into his dreamlike subjective reality on what he thinks would be optimal for him and noteworthy as he dives off of the subway terminal and into a building and saves the dog of his romantic interest as it explodes behind him and is forced back into the “real”