Discussion Topic
Overview and Techniques of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"
Summary:
"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" by James Thurber depicts a day in the life of a man who escapes his mundane reality through vivid fantasies. Techniques used include stream of consciousness, juxtaposing Mitty's dull life with his heroic daydreams, and humor to highlight the contrast. The story explores themes of escapism and the gap between reality and imagination.
What type of story is "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"?
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."
Perhaps, if Walter Mitty stopped daydreaming, he could actually becomes a doctor, navy pilot or sharpshooter. The author is suggesting that Mitty is lazy and disconnected from real life.
Although this is a funny story, especially when you factor in the nagging wife, Walter Mitty is a sorry fellow who has let life pass him by. His condition, constant daydreaming, qualifies him for psychiatric analysis.
"Thurber suggests that this ordinary man who hates the reality of middle-class life and his own shortcomings prefers...
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to live in his imagination."
Walter Mitty is headed for a breakdown, and, will end up in a mental hospital at some point in his disappointed life.
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 with his very critical and nagging wife.
The structure of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" is quite unique, but that is also what makes the story so much fun to read. The story oscillates between showing readers how mediocre Mitty's real life is and how exciting and heroic he wishes his life could be. The story seamlessly flips and flops back and forth between the two lives. We get to see Mitty as a weak willed, henpecked husband. Things that happen in that reality then trigger Mitty to begin a daydream that crafts that trigger into a daydream in which Mitty is now the heroic alpha male that confidently and bravely controls a dire situation. He is a confident pilot or surgeon as an example. While Mitty's daydreams are incredibly fun to read about, they should cause readers to see and better understand Mitty's real life discontentment and perhaps even depression. His fantasies are escapism, and they do not help him come to terms with his real life problems.