The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

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1. 
   sullymonster Teacher
   Community / Jr. College

   The central conflict of this story is man vs. self.  Walter Mitty is a passive and polite man who does what he feels he should.  He works and he takes care of his wife and his mother.  He listens to them and does what they ask.  However, he is unhappy with his simple life.  He wants adventure and he wants to be more of a leader than a follower.  This leads him to daydream about exciting dramas that feature him as a hero.

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   http://www.enotes.com/secret-life/

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   Posted by sullymonster on Monday December 3, 2007 at 2:13 PM
   
   

2. 
   sagetrieb Teacher
   Doctorate

   Walter Mitty has both an internal and external conflict.  His internal conflict concerns the man he is versus the hero he wants to be, and the external conflict involves the pressures society puts on him that, in his mind, disables him as man to act fully in the world.  The external conflict is represented by his wife nagging him, which  undermines his masculinity and causes him to turn inward to a secret life of heroism.  Our culture puts great pressure on men to act as men--be dominant, authoritative, and assertive, and Mitty does not succeed in these traits. His wife represents the woman who does not adhere to the proper role of the feminine woman—she, I have often thought—must be rather frustrated herself to take out her anger on her husband in such a pitiful way. This story shows a war between the sexes with the woman winning

   Sources:

   http://www.enotes.com/secret-life

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   Posted by sagetrieb on Tuesday December 4, 2007 at 4:27 AM
   
   

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