Thesis Statement How dialogue, language and the use of imagery in The 'Secret Life of Walter Mitty' depicts what triggers Walter to go in and out of his state of daydream. Introduction (Summary) "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) Main Body (Two Main Points: A & B) A1. Into Daydream (Focus: Use of Imagery) “Thurber …show more content…
accentuates Walter's confusion of his public and secret life by making him borrow objects from the real world and use them as props in his dreams.” (Sundell, 1287) Walter’s Daydreams (Total: 5) Triggers 1. Navy Pilot Driving the Car (Thurber, 1) 2. Surgeon Sighting a Hospital (1-2) 3. Murder Suspect The Westbury Trial (3) 4. Bomber Pilot in the Second World War News pictures of bombing planes (3) 5. Heroically Executed Smoking in the Rain (4) Written in 1939, all of Walter’s daydream correlate with the ‘heroic’ roles assumed by ‘unordinary’ men in the cusp of the Second World War. Each daydream focuses on the idea of being ___ (example: a doctor) not the reality of it. Evidence: “A huge, complicated machine, connected to the operating table, with many tubes and wires, began at this moment to go pocketa-pocketa-pocketa” (Thurber, 2) A2. Into Daydream (Focus: Dialogue + Language ) Dialogue - Use of ellipsis (. . .) - an indicator as to whether Walter is in his daydream or in reality. - Seamless transition: indicates both reality and the daydream blend together for Walter.
- Mitty speaks more in his daydreams; he takes an active/participative role in them. Starts off in the middle of Walter’s First Daydream - Dialogue (Thurber, 1). - Dialogue is use to fuel action and give into the illusion of the daydream. Evidence: the repetition of phrases and terms “Switch on No.8 auxiliary!” (Thurber, 1) (Note: transiting from discussing dialogue to language: jargon) Language - Jargon and Allusion is used to show how much Walter has insinuated himself into his daydreams. (Example: Third Daydream - Murder Suspect) Evidence: “The Judge rapped for order” / “Objection!” / “Pandemonium broke loose in the courtroom” (Thurber, 3) - Active / Action-Packed Language - “Undefeated, instructable to the last” (Thurber, 4) Associated with Walter’s final daydream, but serves another purpose. Relaying that the daydream world prevails and wins against reality. (Note: transiting from discussing Main Point A to B) B1. Out of Daydream (Focus: Use of Imagery + Dialogue) Imagery It's always an individual from Walter’s Reality that draws him out of his daydreams: 1. Mrs. Mitty 2. Parking Lot Attendant 3. Female Passerby
4. Mrs. Mitty 5. None (Walter remains in his daydream) When each daydream ends, there is always someone there to pull him out of his reverie. Describing his wife: “ She seemed grossly unfamiliar like a strange woman who had yelled at him in a crowd” (Thurber, 1) Dialogue Conversations in Reality vs. The Daydream World - Reality: Negative / One-Sided / Imbalance between Walter and Individual. Evidence: “Pick it Up brother!” (Thurber, 1) / “A woman who was passing by laughed.” (Thurber, 3) Inner Monologue (Thurber, 2) - Walter’s lack of interest in reality is not the only reason why he daydreams so often, it is also “antipathy for the real world” where “ society seems to reject him” (Sundell, 1287) Bibliography Sundell, Carl. “The Architecture of Walter Mitty’s Secret Life”. The English Journal, Vol. 56, No. 9, December 1967. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/812415 Thurber, James. “Secret Life of Walter Mitty”. The New Yorker, March 18, 1939. Retrieved from http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1939/03/18/the-secret-life-of-walter-james-thurber
Richard’s own identity, as well as his personal identification of others, is formed through language. For example, in Richard’s encounter with the Yankee, Richard used language to fill in the “yawning, shameful gap.” He used personification to emphasize the awkwardness of their conversation. This awkwardness was a result of the Yankee’s probing questions. Richard described it as an “unreal-natured” conversation, but, paradoxically, he also admits, “of course the conversation was real; it dealt with my welfare.”
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.
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
There are numerous reasons as to why Walter Mitty suffers from maladaptive daydreaming. Firstly, Walter's daydreams are excessively detailed and which is a common symptom of those who suffer from maladaptive daydreaming. In Walter's daydreams imagery is used to create a vivid picture of the daydream in the reader's mind so that it seems as if Walter is actually experiencing the situation he is daydreaming about. For example, in Walter's third daydream he plays Captain Mitty, a character fighting in a war. In this daydream specific expressions such as "the war thundered and whined" "the pounding of the cannon; the rat-tat-tatting of machine guns" "the menacing pocketa-pocketa-pocketa of the new flame throwers" confirm that Walter Mitty's daydreams are much more detailed than those of regular daydreamers proving
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
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.
takes away from the mood of the story. Another reason speech is so important is
For example, when Terry’s father talks about his war experience, it motivates Terry to become a better person. Terry also decides not to be embarrassed by his father ever again. It is also true that the author uses dialogue to create empathy for the characters. For example, “This thing that you want to know - there is so much of it that you cannot know it all, and to know only a part of it is. is awful.
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” 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
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
Dialogue gives the audience a clear view of what is happening in the story, but the