One message that readers can take away from this short story is that even those with the most mundane lives crave a life of adventure.

Walter Mitty has outwardly surrendered to a life that is almost completely dictated for him. His wife somewhat forces him to purchase shoes that he doesn't really want and wear gloves that he'd prefer not to put on. He is sent to run errands for her while she enjoys the pampering of a hair appointment. And when she returns, Walter Mitty is criticized for being in the wrong spot while awaiting his wife's return.

Instead of being more vocal about the affairs of his own life, Walter Mitty simply escapes into a world of make-believe. In his daydreams, he experiences the adventure that his own life is devoid of. As he escapes his own mundane routines, Walter Mitty becomes a daring naval commander, a talented surgeon, and a brazen courtroom personality.

In the end, Walter Mitty is left to wait alone in the freezing rain while his wife continues shopping. The daydreams of a grander life bring him no reprieve from his own banal existence because he lacks the courage or the ambition to create a different life for himself. Though his dreams pull Walter Mitty into a different kind of existence, they cannot save him from the monotony of the life he has created.

What is the moral of the story in "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"?

The famous short story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" by James Thurber tells of a man who slips easily from reality into intense daydreams. He is on an excursion to town with his wife, and as they are driving, he becomes lost in the fantasy of commanding a Navy hydroplane during a storm. Soon after, passing a hospital and taking off his gloves makes him project himself into a surgery room where he is the only doctor qualified to save a patient. He next pictures himself in a courtroom as a suspect in a murder trial. As he sits in a hotel lobby and picks up a magazine with a story about the war, he mentally becomes an ace pilot who is willing to brave enemy fire to destroy an ammunition dump. Finally, lighting a cigarette outside a drugstore makes him imagine that he bravely faces a firing squad.

Everybody daydreams to some extent, but Mitty obviously does it to excess, so much so that he loses touch with the real world. Sometimes the result is mere absentmindedness, as when he forgets what he is doing or what he is supposed to purchase, but sometimes his daydreaming can be dangerous, as when he speeds up the car without realizing it as he imagines himself commanding the hydroplane. It is clear that his wife thinks that something is wrong, as she suggests that he should see a doctor and that she wants to take his temperature when they get home.

"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" is often perceived as a character study of a meek, mild-mannered man who escapes into daydreams as a means of avoiding his domineering wife. However, although his wife's comments are mundane, they are always reasonable. It is Mitty whose behavior is unusual, counterproductive, and even dangerous.

The moral of a story is the message or lesson that the writer is attempting to impart. If there is a moral in "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," it would be that excessive daydreaming is self-destructive and can even be dangerous to those around.

What is the theme of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty?

The theme of a work of literature can be defined as the message a reader might take away after reading the work. With this definition in mind, the theme of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" has to do with the link between boredom and imagination.

Walter Mitty, the title character of the short story, desires a life vastly different from the one he actually lives. Walter's day to day existence is dull, and his wife regularly berates him for his various negative qualities, an experience that is also dull. In the short story, Walter loses himself repeatedly in a heroic daydream inspired by something he observes in his immediate situation. Four times, Walter imagines himself far away from his boring existence, and each time, he sees himself to be a remarkable man doing remarkable things.

Thanks to Thurber's creation of Walter Mitty, readers familiar with this short story can use the expression "Mittyesque" to describe a person like Walter Mitty who is trapped in a life he can only escape with imaginative dreams. This theme can lend a positive note to others who live a mundane life; as long as a person has imagination, no situation need be forever dull.

What is the theme of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty?

There is definitely a theme focused on different versions of reality. Walter has a specific reality that his fantasies allow him to escape into. That's a common theme that is discussed in this story, but I like digging a little deeper. Walter escapes into his fantasies because of a general dissatisfaction with his life. His wife treats him like he's completely inept, and the general world around him hardly notices him. That is why his fantasies are so focused on him being a larger-than-life character. He feels needed and wanted in his fantasies, and that gives him a general feeling of satisfaction that he doesn't get in his normal life. Additionally, the characters that he chooses to become all share a theme of masculinity. Walter is a normal man, yet he feels dissatisfied by his lot in life. He believes that he simply isn't "man enough," or he wishes that he were more of a man. His fantasies have embraced the mythic notion that a true man is somebody that is large and in charge. It's somebody that bravely takes control of a situation or of people and leads heroic efforts in the fight against evil. These are fun fantasies, but they do show a theme of Walter's general dissatisfaction with his own masculinity.

What is the theme of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty?

One of the most important themes is the relationship between fantasy and reality. Walter Mitty yearns to escape from his boring, workaday existence, and fantasizes about being a hero, being "somebody" in life. As the story progresses, the distinction between the worlds of fantasy and reality becomes dangerously blurred. Mitty feels so much more comfortable in his self-constructed fantasy world, but he cannot fully escape the real world, which keeps on intruding upon the products of his vivid, overactive imagination. As such, his whole identity becomes uncertain; the more that fantasy and reality overlap, the less sure he is of who and what he really is at any given time. He might know what he wants to be, but he never really knows exactly who he is, either. At best, fantasy can be a harmless diversion, but in the case of Walter Mitty it acts to estrange a man from his true self, seriously complicating his whole identity.

What is the moral of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty?"

I wouldn't say that there is an obvious moral to this story. I suppose you could say that retreating into your imagination is a way of avoiding problems in your external, social world. In that sense, the social moral is that Walter should put the same energy he uses to daydream into transforming his social world and his marriage. His wife seems too condescending and Walter seems to come across as a hopeless dreamer. This is a chicken and the egg situation. Is it Mrs. Mitty's nagging that turns Walter to his imagination, or is it Walter's mental absence that drives his wife to frustration? Here the moral or lesson is that neither is engaging the problem. The problem, it seems to me, is they are bored with the redundancy of their lives. 

When you talk about social morals or mores, this includes ways we should behave in society, matters of ethics and more broadly (in terms of mores) what is deemed normal or typical. For example, in terms of gender roles, men, in certain cultures and contexts, tend to be portrayed as rational and express themselves through action. In similar cultures and contexts, women are emotional, intuitive and express themselves more verbally. Clearly, these are stereotypes and since they are referred to as gender 'roles,' you can say that being a man or woman is a way of acting. Therefore, the woman can be rational and expressive through action just as a man can. Walter never changes externally because he rarely deviates in his outward behavior of inaction, the antithesis of his action-packed imaginary world. 

In this story, it is Mrs. Mitty who is the dominant figure (at least externally) and it is Mr. Mitty who retreats into his own mind. This story also comments on the dullness of the middle-class adult. In this case, we sympathize with Mrs. Mitty's frustration but we also understand Walter's need to escape from the dullness of the repetitive, responsible life of an adult. 

Walter's feelings of alienation may have started with some bad breaks beyond his control, but his alienation is sustained by his own daydreaming. To me, this is more of a social commentary about the working class than a moral. However, Walter could benefit by using his imagination in his external life. This may lead him to social and personal successes and might end the rut he is in. Were he to do this, Walter might even create an alternative 'role' for the so-called typical American male. 

Walter would benefit from Ghandi's quote, which I would consider a moral worth living by. "We need to be the change we wish to see in the world." 

What is the theme of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"?

“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” revolves around the twin themes of imagination and identity. Let's explore these.

Walter Mitty believes that he lives a boring life, and indeed, running errands with his wife is far from interesting or exciting. So Walter gives in to his daydreams. He becomes a military commander, a pilot, a surgeon, an accused murderer on trial, and a prisoner facing the firing squad. These identities are much more interesting to Walter than his own, for in real life Walter tends to mess things up and forget what he is supposed to be doing. He is not actually very good at anything.

Even Walter's imagination is a bit on the cliché side. The roles he chooses come out of the stories and movies he knows, but they do allow him to try on new characters, to experiment in becoming someone else, and to see what he would do in various situations. Of course, he is always a hero or a rebel in his daydreams, and this likely shows that he has a strong desire to be a hero or a rebel in real life, too, or at least to show the world that he is something more than plain old Walter Mitty.