The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Group at eNotes

In "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", "Things close...

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 19:11:01 PST

In "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", "Things close in" is Mitty's response to his wife's query as to why he hides in an old chair from her at the hotel. He tells her further, "Does it ever occur to you that I might be thinking?"Reality "closes in" on Walter Mitty's imagination. With an unimaginative and domineering wife who will not allow him to be in charge, Mitty feels forced to escape through...

How is the quotation "things close in" related to "The...

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 12:09:47 PST

How is the quotation "things close in" related to "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"?

Walter Mitty, the main character in "The Secret Life of Walter...

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 08:14:57 PST

Walter Mitty, the main character in "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," is a daydreamer. He spends a good deal of his time imagining that he is someone else. His daydreams all have him as a successful, courageous, heroic individual, who is called in to save the day."He imagines himself the hero of his fantasies as a navy pilot commander, doctor, sharpshooter, bomber pilot, and noble victim of a firing squad. Mitty is married...

What type of character is Walter Mitty?

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 08:02:06 PST

What type of character is Walter Mitty?

Walter Mitty's daydreams are inspired by what is happening in his real...

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:24:31 PST

Walter Mitty's daydreams are inspired by what is happening in his real life. For instance, when he is driving his wife to an appointment, he daydreams he is commanding a crew flying through a dangerous storm. At the end of the story, Mitty's wife suspects something is wrong with him and says she is going to take his temperature when they get home. The implication is that she is going to start to question him about his behavior and may try to...

In "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," why does Walter Mitty...

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:15:01 PST

In "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," why does Walter Mitty imagine himself facing a firing squad?

Walter Mitty is with driving his wife doing various errands during the...

Mon, 1 Sep 2008 20:36:52 PST

Walter Mitty is with driving his wife doing various errands during the story. Because Walter is such a daydreamer, he imagines himself as the hero of various fantasies that are suggested by events that occur in his real life. For instance, when the story begins, Walter is driving his wife to a hair styling appointment but, as he drives, he images himself to be a commander of an airplane crew flying through a dangerous storm. This is Mitty's...

Walter is out shopping with his wife. He drops her off at the...

Mon, 1 Sep 2008 20:30:37 PST

Walter is out shopping with his wife. He drops her off at the hairdressers, then goes to park the car. After, he stop to get a few items at the drug store, then goes to the hotel lobby to wait for his wife.

Who is Walter with and what is he actually doing during the story...

Mon, 1 Sep 2008 19:58:43 PST

Who is Walter with and what is he actually doing during the story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"?

Walter Mitty's daydreams take him into different experiences where he...

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:18:08 PST

Walter Mitty's daydreams take him into different experiences where he is smart, heroic and living dangerously. His first daydream has him as a flight commander in a dangerous situation. Because of the nature of the narrative, there is no set climax."Thurber's narrative proficiency is such that he actually writes six stories within one." "None of the mini-narratives have decisive conclusions: each of the dream sequences,...

Climax, Absurdity, and "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 23:33:26 PST

What is the climax of the story, what is absurd in day dream and where does his ''secret life" 'take him and what does he become?

His first daydream in the story is interrupted by a parking lot...

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 08:06:31 PST

His first daydream in the story is interrupted by a parking lot attendant."His thoughts are interrupted by the attendant at the parking lot, where Mitty is trying to enter through the exit lane." "He is constantly being upbraided by policemen, parking lot attendants, and his wife for his erratic, distracted behavior." Sometimes Mitty wakes himself out of his fantasy world without any intervention. But his wife is the...

Who woke up Walter Mitty during his daydream in "The Secret Life of...

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 23:40:21 PST

Who woke up Walter Mitty during his daydream in "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"?

Although this story is entertaining and funny, it is also a cautionary...

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 16:20:50 PST

Although this story is entertaining and funny, it is also a cautionary tale. In "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," the author is giving the reader a chance to see a life wasted on daydreaming. In fact, Walter Mitty daydreams so much, that he is emotionally absent from his present-moment living. "He is constantly being upbraided by policemen, parking lot attendants, and his wife for his erratic, distracted behavior."...

James Thurber's most famous story, "The Secret Life of Walter...

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 06:49:32 PST

James Thurber's most famous story, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," is a fantasy escape story. The main character, Walter Mitty, escapes from his normal life in which he is hen-pecked and stressed out by his inadequacies to fantasy situations in which everyone loves him, expresses their faith in him, and where he is the hero. This is Walter's way of surviving and bouying his character and spirit in order to get through life...

What type of story is "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" and...

Tue, 8 Jul 2008 23:13:25 PST

What type of story is "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" and please explain.

Yes, I do think it makes the story more interesting. By shifting back...

Fri, 9 May 2008 11:01:25 PST

Yes, I do think it makes the story more interesting. By shifting back and forth between the different stories, Thurber shifts between two levels of reality. In one, we get what is actually happening, while in the other, we get what Walter is daydreaming about. However, Thurber makes the daydream as vivid and credible as the reality, and so it is clear that the daydream is very important to Walter. It's how he makes it through the day.

Do you think that the method of stories within the story makes the story...

Fri, 9 May 2008 07:25:25 PST

can you just explain in simple way.

The protagonist of James Thurber's story "The Secret Life of Walter...

Wed, 7 May 2008 07:27:32 PST

The protagonist of James Thurber's story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" has lent his name to the type of ineffectual, self-glorifying daydreaming that the short story revolves around, in the same way that the Marquis de Sade's name was borrowed to form the word "sadism." References to "Walter Mitty syndrome" can be found in such works as the Handbook of Psychological Assessment by Gary Groth-Marnat (2003). It...

What kind of impact did the short story have on?

Wed, 7 May 2008 06:53:10 PST

What kind of impact did the short story have on?