Why Does Walter Mitty Choose To Escape From Reality The Way They Do?

Why do the “Poor relation” and “Walter Mitty” choose to escape from reality the way they do? How successful are they?

The short stories of The Poor Relation and Walter Mitty are similar in many ways. In both stories they escape to their imaginary life through visual ques or enthusiasm for what their life could have been. Both men use the dream world to escape from reality as they are unhappy with their current or past life. Escaping from reality allows them a surge of excitement and a sense of meaning that neither of them are able to experience in the real world due to unfortunate circumstances.

The Poor Relation escapes in the context of a story he is telling to a gathering with family and friends. He is “very reluctant” to step up in front

of the family as he feels a sense of shame and embarrassment because he is disappointed with his life compared to others in the room, who have managed to do much better than him. To start with he begins telling his audience his life story, but he gradually makes changes so his life’s outcome is very different and much more interesting than reality. He tells the audience the changes he wishes he could make to his real life, along with his past regrets. He makes these thoughts sound realistic and vivid by lying to his family, making them believe that in fact these imaginary events actually occurred and he is actually a very different person than the one his friends and family perceive him as. All of this is in an effort to intrigue the audience so the poor relation can feel a part of the family.

On the other hand, Walter Mitty escapes by regularly daydreaming, using real life events and elaborating on them extremely to please himself.

He imagines and persuades himself that his life is in fact very different in number of contrasting ways. His daydreams, in a similar fashion to The Poor Relation are about his regrets, and his unachieved aspects of his life. Walter Mitty’s dreams are based on impossible scenarios such as him becoming a world class surgeon or “the greatest pistol shot in the world”. These thoughts stretch reality as they are so ridiculous. Walter Mitty aspires to live his dreams, showing that he has a far larger imagination than that of poor relations. This shows that Mitty is much more confident and open-minded than the Poor Relation and is willing to make an effort in life whereas the Poor Relation seems to have given up on his hopes and dreams. This is why his daydreams are of such an insane manor, because he is more enthusiastic and hopeful to make his dreams a reality compared to the Poor Relation.

Mitty doesn’t fully understand that he is daydreaming so he doesn’t have to make all his stories sensible allowing for a very high level of emersion, resulting in much further stretched dreams. He zones out completely from the real world and when knocked back into consciousness he is very confused and can’t remember what is actually happening, waking up with a disorientated “hmmm” remark. This further proves that Mitty is much more involved in his dreams

because they are very unrealistic and almost crazy.

Walter Mitty’s real life is plain and boring.

In the story we see him going shopping and doing errands while “his wife went to get her hair cut”. This seems to be an often routine, as Thurber describes the real life sections of the story in an uneventful, repetitive manor. With a boring and repetitive life, the only way to escape this harsh reality is through Walter’s elaborate daydreams, giving him an impression of freedom that he otherwise couldn’t experience.

The main problem in his life at the moment is whether or not to “get those overshoes”. This is an example of the tedious events that Walter Mitty has to endure. Walter’s wife likes to boss Walter around, “you were up to fifty-five, you know I don’t like to go more than forty” just because it displeases her. This is another example of Walter being able to experience freedom through dreams as in real life he doesn’t want to displease his wife.

His constant daydreams into another world often result in him making mistakes, for example not being able to park. It is as a result of Walter’s short attention span that he often feels made fun off and mocked by people that are being “so damn cocky”. He is so paranoid he thinks to himself about “wearing a cast on his right arm” to see if people laugh at him then. He feels unwanted and this makes him stressed resulting in a further need to transport into a different world where peoples opinion of him are very different and he is admired among

them.

In The poor relations story a contrasting picture is displayed as he is limited to his pure imagination because he doesn’t experience as much of the outside world. While the poor relations life is still very uneventful, he has a different kind of reality to that of Walter Mitty’s. He follows the same routine every day, unlike the rarer days out of Walter’s life. He is jobless and rents a room he can only stay in at night. He eats the same food every day and can’t afford often even the most basic of things even “fire being expensive”. Similarly to Walter Miity, he spends his time doing nothing exciting, or at all. The reader gets to understand the poor relation as "never met with any particular success in anything", however the reader is made to seem that he has a lack of ambition and that is why he is how he is. Unlike Walter Mitty he is looked down upon for a different reason. Rather than being pressured by his wife or members of the public, the poor relation disproves of himself and his poor life choices that got him to where he is now. The poor relation has separated himself from normal life and has instead “gotten into the habit of speaking low and spirits not being too high”, choosing a path of isolation. He believes that this saves him embarrassment and generally makes him feel more comfortable because he would rather not interact with other people. Although he has no wife, family or friends he still chooses dream about “little Frank” and their adventures. This shows that in his own comfort he would like to bond with family and friends. “Little Frank” doesn’t make the poor relation embarrassed, instead Frank gives him confidence, because he is little in comparison to the poor relation, unlike senior members of the family who are successful in life in comparison to “a person so unimportant to the family”.

Walter’s dreams about his unobtainable ambitions can improve his quality of life. In his dreams he wishes to become anything from a “lieutenant” to “Dr. Mitty”, a world class surgeon, an accused top criminal, “Captain Mitty” the fighter pilot and “Walter Mitty undefeated, inscrutable to the last!” All these careers contain a need of respect and they involve Walter being the best in his business. Walter Mitty aspires to be something or someone that gains him respect and a better image at least than the one he currently has. He realizes perhaps too much that he is a failure. He has a lack of pride in himself, he was "un-business like and credulous" when in fact he might off done well if his uncle approved of his choice of a wife.

Walter Mitty escapes from the reality of his pitying and boring life by daydreaming. Those daydreams it seems are triggered by something in everyday life. For instance when he passes a boy selling papers of the “waterbury trial” he transports into a daydream where he is a criminal in court. All of these events carry the same pattern of Walter wanting to be something important.

To conclude, both characters have their own reasons of regret and plain boredom which propels them into dreaming about a better life, a way of life where they can both mean something and be someone. Walter Mitty cannot control his day dreams, sometimes embarrassing himself as he tries to perform manoeuvres like parking his car, whilst half submerged in a daydream. The poor relations on the other hand elaborates in a more sensible and believable way on his past life and regrets. Both cases are very successful in gaining credibility in what they aspire in life.