The Secret Life of Walter Mitty | The Universal Appeal of the Main Character
In the following essay, Ring provides an introduction to "The Secret Life of Waller Mitty,'' comments on the universal appeal of the main character, and examines the themes presented in Thurber's story.
Walter Mitty is one of literature's great dreamers. He spends much of his time escaping into fantasies in which he is brilliant and heroic, and his life is dramatic and adventurous. The enduring popularity of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" is undoubtedly due in great part to readers' ability to identify with Mitty; after all, most of us find our lives at times mundane and unsatisfying, and use daydreams to enter a more interesting world.
Mitty is, of course, an extreme case when it comes to daydreaming. In the single afternoon covered by the story's action, he imagines he is a...
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