QUESTION: How does the influence of others affect walters mitty's life choices Life has many wonderful attributes, we each shape our lives by making different choices. Whether they be good or bad they decide what we become and who we are, no two people have the same lives. In the Secret Life of Walter Mitty,a comedy-adventure film, these choices are explored in depth, by Ben Stiller. Ben Stiller speaks about many different topics throughout the story, such as longing for others and the influence of people. As the movie flows onwards, the character changes becoming dynamic and his true self, he becomes adventurous and daring. Walter Mitty made many life choices to get to where he is, a great factor in his decisions was the influence of others. …show more content…
Peer pressure can be a great factor in your change, many people themselves have experienced this first hand. Walter mitty is twisted into whom he is by the many people in his life. Far before walters monotonous life, he used to be a daring boy and he most likely would have continued along his path in life with the same personality.
Unfortunately his dad had passed away causing Walter, great sorrow and discomfort. Although the event had been an unseemly and unwanted part of walters mitty's life, it completely changed him. As he himself stated, the day his dad died got a job, changed his hair and dedicated all his time to work. This incident has affected his modern-life, he mentioned he was poor and as such had to balance a checkbook every month, even now in his daily life he keeps a checkbook to aid him.The death of his father had put Walter in a shell encompassing his entire body, near the end of the movie Walter breaks out of his shell, becoming the true Walter …show more content…
Mitty. As the story progresses, Walter is drastically changed the difference in his actions are astounding and sometimes unbelievable.
Ben Stiller changes Walter through the use of different attributes one of whom is the influence of others. In disbelief, walter frantically searches for solutions to the loss of negative 25, while in confusion he decides to look for Shaun O'Connell himself. Reluctant at first, he finds clues leading to where he could be and could not decide if he should go. Cheryl Melhoff, a key character in the story and Walters love, supports Walter telling him to go on and find it. This was the key action, causing Walter to journey to greenland and onwards. Along with the threat of losing his job Walter, also goes on the adventure in hope of some recognition from Cheryl. He wants to please her in anyway he can, thus he decides to venture forwards. At this point of the story walter is far more inquisitive, he even decides to do more than what was expected. Many examples of this happen including his decision to venture towards a volcano, which one would seldom do. Ben Stiller is showing through these actions, how one can be significantly influenced by their love life. Walter approaches his journey with hope, hope Cheryl had given him. At times when he had felt scared or afraid, if his determination faltered, the thoughts of Cheryl would help him. This point is proven in the instance where Walter imagines Cheryl singing Major Tom. This give him the extra courage and
insanity needed to jump aboard a helicopter with a drunk pilot. Ben Stiller uses the event to state, even if you’re feeling down or sad a friend will be there to lift you back up. After this he is substantially more confident, taking any opportunity he has to find Shaun O‘Connell. Although he must undertake a significant amount of danger he does it for the one he loves. Ben Stiller shows the amount of work we are willing to do for someone we cherish. Near the end of the film, Walter sees Shaun O’Connell but misses him by a hair. Devastated he goes back, he sees cheryl and his friends fired. He walks back home and hears his mother talk about the instance where he came back, he realizes he can’t stop where he is. With his newfound determination Walter heads forth once more to find Shaun O’Connell. This time all his past experiences rule into play and he doesn’t have one bit of hesitation. For example in the scene where he finds Shaun, he bluntly puts out and says to his superior he made a stupid decision. This requires a great amount of courage to do. Over the course of the movie Walter diversifies and changes. Turning into his true self, but such a transformation was aided greatly by the influence of others as exemplified in the past paragraphs.
He struggles every day to achieve his dream of getting more money. When the $10,000 check came in, it was his shot at success. His mother gave him a big chunk of it and he invested it in a liquor store and lost the money. After that, Walter became very depressed. He had lost the trust and respect of his family.
that a discontented individual is often unable to take ownership of his life until he realizes that he must set a good example for his children. Walter is a protagonist who seems to only care about himself. He is really dependent on his mama's huge insurance check. Walter wants his mama's check so he and Willy Harris can open up a bar. This character continues to go down the wrong path until something tragic happens.
Walter lives with his mother, sister, wife and child Travis. After the receival of a life insurance check from the deceased Walter Lee Senior, Mama makes a decision to give it to Walter to make him feel like the man of the house. She places endless trust into her son; she gives him the money that is needed for his sisters school, and the house payments. She has high hopes Walter would not let her down by the use of it for something that goes against her values. Unfortunately, as he receives the money one can see how hastily he works to use it for a meer liquor store as he confesses his wrongdoings: “Mama… I never went to the bank at all… It’s all gone.” (Hansberry 129). Prior to this moment, Mama had asked Walter to
Walter has no desire to find out about himself through his African American Heritage. He believes he can define himself through money, money is everything to this man. Money is status, money is wealth, money is happiness, money is almost God to him.
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.
Walter brings to topic his importance to the scenario, and decides to break away from the event and think of his answer towards his wife’s information and response. He later is shown the understanding of his wife by the reaction of his mother, who questions his standing on how his father would have reacted. This brings Walter to think of why he should change and not walk out on times of importance. Walter discovers that his turmoil of drinking and appearance on the topic could end up losing the life of his newly developing child. At the discussion over selling the house owned by the family to Mr. Linder, Walter is shown the original faith that the selfish purpose of the money for himself would be better the property that would benefit the entire family, including his child.
Walter has an interesting turn of events towards the end of the book. He is forced to abandon his quest to the North Pole, he is faced with the monster and must hear the monster's plans for self-destruction, he has to watch idly as his new friend, Victor, passes from this world. He has such noble dreams and aspirations, but they are all brought to a halt because of his chance meeting with Frankenstein. Or, was his expedition doom from the start because of the nature of wanting to do what no other man had done? Was it his ambition that led him to untimely failure? The evidence from the text proves that possibly he was never meant to surpass his peers and obtain the glory that he pursued.
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.
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.
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
‘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 Secret Life of Walter Mitty" is a story about a man who prefers to live in his fantasies rather than dealing with real life. The story begins when a military officer shouts an order for his crew to proceed with a flight in spite of the dangerous conditions. The unyielding commander speaks with confidence and courage, and his crew expresses their faith in him by saying, "The Old Man'll get us through, the Old Man ain't afraid of Hell!" (NA, 1499). Suddenly, Mitty is brought back to reality by a sharp reproach from his wife for driving too fast.
The short story of Walter Mitty, an average American man, follows a day in his incredibly ordinary life. Mitty, overwhelmed by the boredom and unsatisfactory conditions of his own life, uses “daydreams” to escape his poor reality and indulge himself in one where he thrives and lives excitedly. These dreams, where he is an adventurous, charismatic hero couldn’t be more contrary to the way he truly lives; timidly, unrespected, and unimportant. His fantasy allows him to get through his day. Mitty escapes his actuality governed by his pathetic life and domineering wife by dreaming of a different identity that is quite the opposite to his reality.
Ring, Trudy. Essay on “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.” Short Stories for Students. Ed. Kathleen Wilson. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 1997. 42. Print.