Throughout time, people have been using their imagination as a way of refuge, where they can run away from the problems that come with being in the real world. This issue is well developed throughout the short story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, written by James Thurber. The short story follows a middle aged man, Walter Mitty, as he goes through fantasies which involve him in situation that are far from his reality. People use imagination to put themselves in situation where they posses certain qualities or a lifestyle which they lack in the real world. Throughout the short story, Walter escapes into event-triggered fantasies in which he can do or be anything he wants to be. Walter uses his imagination to give himself certain qualities, …show more content…
After at a picture of bombing planes in an old copy of Liberty, Walter escapes into his fourth fantasy where he is the captain of a bomber plane in war. During this fantasy, Walter has to make critical decisions because his plane is under fire, and most of his soldiers suffer from shell shock. After receiving news from the sergeant that most of his soldiers suffer from shell shock, Captain walter decides, “ GEt him to bed.. With the others, I’ll fly alone… Somebody’s got to get that ammunition dump,” (Thurber, 711). In this quote, Captain Walter makes the decision to fly the bomber plane by himself in order to give his soldiers, who suffer from shell shock, some time to rest and recover. In this fantasy, Walter is the captain, meaning that he has charge (power and responsibility) over the lives of his crew and himself, and he is also able to make crucial decisions that affect his life and the lives of his soldiers. Walter’s fantasy is opposite to his reality where he has little to no charge of many aspects of his life. In his real life, most of the practical decisions in life are made for him by his wife, Mrs. Mitty. Writer, Ann Ferguson Mann further proves this point by writing about how much control and power Mrs. Mitty has over Walter Mitty’s life. Anne Ferguson Mann writes that Mrs. Mitty, “is there to keep him from driving too fast, to get him to wear his gloves and overshoes, to take him to the doctor,...free him from practical responsibilities of living”. (Mann, 352). In this quote, Ann Ferguson Mann is saying that Mrs. Mitty makes everyday life decisions for Walter and does not let him take charge of his own life and be responsible for his own life. Walter lacks charge of his life in reality, so he makes up for it in his
He left behind a life that will be cherished, remembered, and celebrated for eternity. As a child, Walter is usually irate and belligerent. However, he loves to read and write. He knows that kids might make fun of him for enjoying the subjects of reading and writing, so he tries to keep it a secret.
Don’t be fearful or angry all the time. Ask the question: Do we deserve to kill? And most importantly, have mercy and forgiveness. Since Walter symbolizes the reforming of the justice system, the ways he got out are the ways to reform the system, and Stevenson puts that in the reader's’
Lastly, the relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Mitty do not represent a married couple but instead represent a mother and her child. What intrigued me the most about this story was Walter’s daydreams, which I believe helps him get through with his life. Walter repeatedly has daydreams which are heavily influenced by reality. For example, when he was driving he
For Walter, society is suppressing his dreams from becoming a reality and causing him to live a life he doesn’t want. This is exhibited through Hansberry’s use of the phrase “rich white people”. It shows how the predominately white society of the 1950’s did not allow people like Walter, who were of a different race, the opportunity to have the same luxuries and success that they have. This causes Walter to believe that he will forever be stuck in a bad job and a small apartment where his son has to sleep in the living room, which means he will forever
Is being an introvert a good thing? Introversion is characterized as being inwardly energized. Although approximately *50% of the population is introverted, it is not considered to be a desirable trait. However, is it an advantage or a disadvantage? To help me unearth this truth, two short stories dealing with highly internalized characters will be discussed.
Walter Mitty: The Real and The Fake In the Secret Life of Walter Mitty by James Thurber, Walter creates fantasies based on his insecurities and attempts to make a new, improved version of himself. One insecurity Walter often thinks about is his cowardice, and he combats this by creating fantasies where he is known to be both masculine and brave. For example, while driving to Waterbury with his wife, Mitty fantasies about flying an “eight-engine Navy hydroplane” through a hurricane at high speeds (1). This is a very stark difference from his real life, where he is tense and worried about driving a car at a measly 55 miles per hour, which is much slower than any Navy plane.
Despite his way of dealing with reality being unorthodox, his use of his inspiring imagination to fill a void in his life implies that Walter Mitty possess various, bright reasons to be viewed as an idol. Furthermore, Walter Mitty does not receive the enjoyment of relaxing and dreaming all day, to the contrary, he must endure with his wife’s demands, like when, “Remember to get those overshoes while I’m having my hair done.” Most men around Walter Mitty’s age would sit around all day, but he does not act accordingly, instead, he takes care of the tedious tasks his wife expects him to finish. Also, even though Walter Mitty’s spends most of his time primarily following Mrs. Mitty’s orders, we can see that he decides that rather than complaining, he will make the most out of his life by using his
Both-- because his real life is dissatisfying he is driven to create his own fantasies where he characterizes himself has the man he wishes he could be. This in mind, I interpret the story with little sympathy towards Walter Mitty because he could be making a choice to live out his fantasies and do something great with his life, but he chooses not to even though he has full potential to do so.
Walter Mitty begins as a one-sided character lacking the qualities which protagonists generally possess. His monotone personality is depicted in the dull, monochromatic colour palette of his surroundings. This portrayal is highlighted through the application of similarly bland colours to Walter’s clothing which distinctly blend with the environment. Although his life remains static and invulnerable to change, which can be delineated from the linear characteristics of the opening camera shots; Walter portrays an element of
...“Stop daydreaming Walter!”, said Mrs. Mitty as she rushed out of the drug store, “we have to get home so we don 't miss the opening ceremony for the Olympics!”. Walter followed his wife back to the car and as soon as he got in, the yelling began. “Do you ever not daydream? Do you ever even pay attention?
Walter’s statement tries to tell the women that he didn’t try to make the world the way it is now. Yes, he wants luxurious items for him and his wife. However, even though he seriously messed up, he’s still the man in the family and will continue to make the decisions for the
Walter Mitty is a very ordinary man who has an ordinary life, but at times he would go from reality into his own mind of imagination where he would have wild adventures. In the short story you can tell that Walter Mitty is a man who fears his wife, he would often not talk back when his wife is shouting at him as he is too afraid, he is also a man who feels useless in this world and think better of himself when others try to help him, this is shown when he felt that he did not need the over shoes. In the result of this he feels the need to rely on his imagination to take him places that reality cannot, the author has shown when he moves into imagination by having “…” just before the text. Out of all the different imaginations ranging from the war to being in a hospital the one thing that is similar in all of these are that he is the most important person in that ‘place’. The constant nagging of his wife shows that they do not mix well together, however he is still inferior to her, he never gets a say and never get what he wants.
Mitty’s Wife’s Perspective: I watched as the door shut behind my husband, Walter Mitty. We were in the middle of a couples session, and we were split up into different rooms. The door was shut with a small click, and I turned back to the counselor. A sigh escaped my lips, I had so much to say about Walter and I’s relationship. “Is there any specific topic you would like to talk about?”
In “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” James Thurber conveys Walter Mitty as a bold, skilled hero because the variety of fantasies he plays in his mind. In other words, his “secret life” that he has surrounded himself in is what makes him exceptional. According to Thurber, Mitty takes over a risky operation, having a reputation of pulling off “a brilliant performance”, therefore flawless in what he does (274). Thurber indirectly characterizes Mitty as a powerful man, admired by his peers in awe, for in the operating room, he is a dexterous genius. On the contrary, he can’t do simple mechanical things, making him seem like a kind man that uses his imagination to escape reality, which quite frankly is boring.
Walter Mitty walked out of the Welles Turner Memorial Library to an overcast sky. He had a bag of books over his arm and started walking back to his car thinking about how boring and repetitive his life was. All he really did was work, shop, go home, repeat. When he got in his car he started looking over the books he had picked out, waiting for one to catch his eye when he noticed Casino Royale, the first book in the James Bond series and began to read. As he was reading he thought to himself how amazing it would be to be a real spy, and slowly drifted off…