Discussion Topic
The meaning of "things close in" in "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty."
Summary:
In "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," "things close in" signifies the pressures and realities of Mitty's mundane life encroaching on his vivid daydreams. This phrase encapsulates how his imaginative escapes are interrupted by the demands and constraints of his actual existence.
How does the quote "things close in" relate to "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"?
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 fantasies in which he is the self-reliant heroic male.
The mundane existence into which Walter Mitty is forced--running routine errands with his wife--is stultifying to Mitty's Romantic imagination. And, sadly, Mitty does not have the strength to break free from this "closing in" of the stifling wife and tedious existence, so he lives a "secret life."
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