What inspires Walter's daydreams in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty?

Various things inspire Walter's various dreams, but I think that they have one thing in common.  What they have in common is that they all show him being really manly in some way.  He is being brave, or smart, or sexy, or some combination of those.

So to me, this is what inspires his day dreams.  He wants to have those characteristics.  He clearly does not have them in his real life.  This means that what inspires his day dreams is his own inadequacy and insecurity.  The man who appears in the dreams is everything that the real Walter is not.

What inspires Walter's daydreams in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty?

James Thurber, the author of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," never openly tells us what inspires his hero's daydreams.

The dreams are prompted by little things that Mitty does in real life.  For example, his dream of being a fighter pilot is prompted by his reading about warfare in a magazine; his dream about facing a firing squad is prompted by his standing momentarily in front of a brick wall.

What really inspires Mitty's dreams?  It would seem that he is stuck in a boring, mundane life, tied down to a nagging wife.  His only escape is to dream.

The Mitty who appears in the daydreams is daring, calm, and highly skilled.  He is a surgeon who saves lives, a fighter pilot who flies "forty kilometers through hell," and a condemned man who fearlessly faces a firing squad.  All of this is in sharp contrast to the real Mitty, who can't remember a shopping list, who tangles chains around his tires, and who mutters "puppy biscuits" as he walks around a shopping district.

What is the climax of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" and where do his daydreams take him?

I think the tragedy of this story is that Walter Mitty actually "becomes" nothing except a sad man who leads a monotonous existence and is dominated by a terrible figure of a wife. In a sense, the exciting and adventurous nature of his daydreams only serves to underscore this fact, as it highlights how little adventure and excitement his life holds for him. He is a man who is forced to retreat into his daydreams as a means of making it through each painful day.

What is the climax of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" and where do his daydreams take him?

When Walter Mitty's wife locates him at the hotel, sitting in the wing-back chair, she is angry that she has had so much trouble finding him.  Interestingly, Mitty does not cower to her wrath this time, "Did it ever occur to you that I might be thinking?" he asks.  Perhaps, there is a chance that Mitty may assert himself.  This new strength evinced at the story's end and the standing of Mitty before the firing squad can, perhaps, suggest the death of his emasculated self, and a rebirth of the man, Walter Mitty.

What is the climax of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" and where do his daydreams take him?

Walter Mitty's daydreams take him into different experiences where he is smart, heroic and living dangerously.  His first daydream has him as a flight commander in a dangerous situation.  Because of the nature of the narrative, there is no set climax.

"Thurber's narrative proficiency is such that he actually writes six stories within one."

"None of the mini-narratives have decisive conclusions: each of the dream sequences, like the entire story, is an abbreviated short story with no clear beginning or end."

It is difficult to identify a particular climax in the story, since the main character goes in and out of daydreams throughout the short story.  

The action slowly rises and slowly falls, throughout, providing no significant climatic point.  At the end of the story, Mitty is the same as he was in the beginning, in the middle of another daydream. 

"Walter Mitty is a daydreamer who imagines himself the hero of his fantasies as a navy pilot commander, doctor, sharpshooter, bomber pilot, and noble victim of a firing squad."

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

The climax of the story is when Walter Mitty stands up to his wife and, when she is haranguing him about putting on his overshoes, says, "I was thinking...Does it ever occur to you that I am sometimes thinking?” While this is a very small revolt, it is rare enough for him to ask for anything from his wife that it constitutes a change in his actions and the climax of the story. He generally gives his wife a passive answer to her nagging questions and remarks, and then he returns to his world of make-believe heroism. He never lets his wife know about the fictions he makes up, and he veers between the real world and the world of his imagination without connecting them at all. In this small but significant climax, he brings together his two worlds and lets his wife know that he has other things on his mind. It's unclear whether this small change in Mitty's behavior will bring about a full-scale rebellion, but it is a change nonetheless. 

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

This question has already been asked and answered here on eNotes.  Here is a link for you:  http://www.enotes.com/secret-life/q-and-a/what-climax-secret-life-walter-mitty-463

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

You could argue that there is no real climax in this story as Mitty does not ever change or reach a turning point. For argument's sake, you could analyze his final daydream. He envisions facing a firing squad as a form of suicide. Is he metaphorically killing his former self in order to become more assertive and stand up to his wife (or act more responsibly so his wife won't nag him so much)? Or does he really dream of dying as a form of escape? In reality, his limited options include standing up to his wife, positively changing his behavior, and/or leaving his wife. He could also kill himself or kill his wife. But considering that over the course of the story he his weak and passive, it's unlikely that he suddenly decides to make a significant change and much more likely that he simply continues to be a doormat to his wife and the firing squad is just the next daydream and many more will follow.

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

At the end of James Thurber’s short story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” Walter’s wife leaves him alone to go into a drugstore. Walter waits outside for her and leans against the wall of the store. He lights a cigarette, and it begins to rain quite heavily. As he throws the cigarette away, he escapes one final time into a vivid daydream which is again much more dramatic and eventful than his real, mundane life.

In this final daydream, Walter Mitty faces a firing squad. He refuses to be blindfolded, saying "to hell with the handkerchief," and he stands very still while he waits to be hit. It is interesting to consider that Thurber does not focus so much on the events that are occurring in this daydream but rather on how Walter approaches the situation. He writes:

Then, with that faint, fleeting smile playing about his lips, he faced the firing squad; erect and motionless, proud and disdainful, Walter Mitty the Undefeated, inscrutable to the last.

In this final daydream, Walter Mitty faces his executioners with no resistance and no fear. He casually flicks his cigarette away in the face of this imaginary death. It is interesting to note that the story ends with a daydream, just as it began with one. This choice emphasizes how Walter’s daydreams overpower his thoughts and are the most significant aspect of his dull life.

What is the rising and falling action of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty?

James Thurber's short story about a mediocre man whose fantasy life impinges upon his real life is both humorous and tragic.

Immediately in the exposition, the reader is immersed into the imaginary world of Walter Mitty. Then, abruptly his wife invades this world and scolds him and gives him instructions on what to do while she is at the hairdresser. 

RISING ACTION

The rising action involves heroic daydreams of Mitty mixed with his mundane errands and weak attempts to rebel. 

• As he drops Mrs. Mitty at the beauty shop, she tells Walter to put on his gloves; he does so, but quickly pulls them off after she gets out of the car. Soon, a policeman barks at him, "Pick it up, buddy!" and the intimidated Mitty puts his gloves back on. This action triggers another imaginative escape as he imagines himself as a medical specialist.
• Mitty's brief interlude from the vicissitudes of life is interrupted as he hears, "Back it up, Mac! Look out for that Buick!" The insolent parking attendant tells Mitty that he will park the car, and a humiliated Mitty walks off remembering another "young, grinning garageman" who took the snow chains off his tires. As he walks toward the stores, he tries to remember what the second thing is that he is supposed to purchase.
• The frustration of trying to remember his errands sets off another daydream. This time Mitty, a "crack shot with any sort of firearms," is on the witness stand during a murder trial. But, suddenly Mitty remembers the puppy biscuits that he has temporarily forgotten. A woman who passes him laughs. She tells her companion what Mitty has said, and Walter hurries away in embarrassment.
• Walter Mitty quickens his steps to the hotel where he is supposed to wait for his wife. Finding a large leather chair that faces a window, Mitty retreats into the seat as he waits.
• Another daydream takes Mitty away from the insipid and demeaning life he leads. This time Mitty is a war hero. However, this dream is interrupted by the arrival of Mrs. Mitty, who typically scolds her husband.

FALLING ACTION

• After the berating of his nagging wife, Mrs. and Mr. Mitty leave the hotel through the revolving doors. As they walk the two blocks to the parking garage, they stop at a drug store. "Wait here for me. I forgot something...." Mrs. Mitty orders.

Walter Mitty lighted a cigarette. It began to rain, rain with sleet in it. He stood against the wall of the drugstore, smoking.....He put his shoulders back and his heels together. "To hell with the handkerchief," said Walter Mitty scornfully.

The story concludes as Walter Mitty "the Undefeated, inscrutable to the end" faces a firing squad.

What is the rising and falling action of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty?

In The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, I think you can point to several points across the plot for the rising action. At the point when we see Mitty's second day dream and he is a doctor, we are into the rising action. We have seen the first trigger that puts him into his dream world: a cranky, nagging wife: her introduction is what I would call the inciting incident. It begins the rising action. After his experiences as a doctor, we see continued rising action as the parking lot attendent catches him mid-daydream. Next, he tries to go buy whatever he was supposed to for his wife. He turns into a courtroom witness (daydream). Then he goes to buy a buscuit for the dog (real life). He then becomes a heroic bomber (daydream).

The climax occurs when he finally catches up with his wife again... the potential source of his need to daydream about being successful.

The falling action is fast in this one, she claims she is going to check into his health and goes into a store. He remains outside.

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

The climax to this story isn't easily identified. I've read commentaries on this story that say the story doesn't have a climax. To some extent, that does make sense—the story weaves through Mitty's reality and fantasies so seamlessly and quickly that it doesn't follow a typical plot structure. However, the story does have a conflict that runs throughout the story. This is the conflict and tension that exists between Mitty and his wife. She treats him like he's incapable of thinking and doing things for himself. Consequently, Mitty loses himself inside of his fantasies, envisioning himself as a brave, take charge-kind of guy. Mitty wishes that he was more like his fantasy personas, and readers get to see a little bit of that come through in his reality. Near the end of the story, Mitty's wife is reprimanding him once again; however, this time he stands up to her (if only for a brief moment).

“Couldn’t you have put them on in the store?”

“I was thinking,” said Walter Mitty. “Does it ever occur to you that I am sometimes thinking?”

She looked at him.

“I’m going to take your temperature when I get you home,” she said.

I believe that this brief sequence could be viewed as the story's climax, because it is the moment when Mitty meets his main conflict/antagonist head on. Readers get the impression that his wife is stunned at his words. She's so stunned that she believes that something must be wrong with his health for him to act so out of character.

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

The climax of this wonderful little story is when Walter Mitty faces the firing squad. However, what exactly does that mean? It's not fully clear due to the nature of Thurber's story. To be specific, Mitty's fantasy life is much richer than his dull, limited, and henpecked daily existence. He regularly escapes into fantasy, and that's what he does at the end when his wife takes too long.

In doing so, he essentially commits himself to living in fantasy, rather than reality. Now, there is some ambiguity as to what that will mean here. Sometimes there's a close connection between fantasy and reality (the sound of one engine becomes the sound of another), but it's not fully clear how close it is here. It's possible that the firing squad is all in his head—but it's also possible that this is Mitty's wife "firing" questions and accusations at him.

Greg

What triggers and ends each of Walter Mitty's daydreams in "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"?

With his own brand of wit, irony, and humorous distortions of speech, James Thurber creates a comic Everyman in Walter Mitty. Mild and submissive, Mitty dreams of being heroic and non-conforming, but he cannot quite pull his character up to the necessary level and is frustrated in his society and is berated by his wife. So, he compensates for his meek nature by means of his imagination.

Thurber's narrative begins with

• Mitty's imagines that he is the commander of a Navy hydroplane, a SN202, that fights its way through an approaching hurricane, but Mrs. Mitty interrupts, scolding him, "Not so fast! You're driving too fast!" 
• As Mitty drops off his wife at the shop where she gets her hair done, she orders him to buy overshoes and to wear his gloves. Walter Mitty puts on his gloves, but after she is gone, he defiantly removes them. However, when a policeman yells at him, "Pick it up, brother!" as the green light comes on at the intersection where he has stopped, Mitty quickly puts his gloves back on his hands, and steps so hard on the accelerator that the car lurches forward.
• After driving aimlessly around for a while, Mitty drives past a hospital, and another daydream takes hold of him:  In this dream, Mitty is a top surgeon who must operate on a millionaire banker and close friend of President Roosevelt. The heroic Dr. Mitty is able to repair a malfunctioning machine by removing the faulty piston and replacing it with a fountain pen.
  Just as he is ready to operate, Dr. Mitty is pulled from this daydream and reduced to his meek self by a parking lot attendant: "Back it up. Mac! Look out for that Buick!" Shaken by the scolding, Mitty becomes nervous and forgets to leave the key in the ignition, only to be scolded again by the insolent attendant.
• Then, as he tries to remember what the other item is that he is supposed to purchase besides the overshoes, Mitty hears a newsboy calling out a headline about a Waterbury trial. Now Mitty is the defendant on the witness stand who is handed a gun by the District Attorney. "This is my Webley-Vickers 50.80," Mitty says quietly. When it is insinuated that he has shot someone, Mitty fearlessly states that although his left arm is in a sling, he could have shot Gregory Fitzhurst with his left hand. When the District Attorney strikes a pretty young woman, Mitty defends her, calling the attorney, "You miserable cur." Suddenly, he is shaken from his reverie by remembering--"Puppy biscuit" that it was dog biscuits that he is supposed to also purchase. Then he walks into the grocery store to make a purchase.
• Mitty leaves the store and goes to the hotel where he is to wait for his wife. He picks up an old copy of a World War I magazine, Liberty, and regards it. Another daydream begins in which he is Capt. Mitty, a pilot whose mission is to fly near a squadron of German planes. As he waves goodbye to a sergeant, Mitty hears the voice of his wife asking if he bought the shoes and remembered the puppy biscuits. She complains that she has looked all over the hotel lobby for him.
• Mitty tells her in brief defiance, "I was thinking....Does it ever occur to you that I am sometimes thinking?" But, his wife merely answers that she is going to take his temperature when they arrive home. As they leave the hotel and pass a drugstore, Mrs. Mitty tells Walter to wait there as she buys something. Mitty leans against the wall of the drugstore, imagining that he is before a firing squad.

"To hell with the handkerchief"....He faced the firing squad; erect and motionless, proud and disdainful, Walter Mitty the Undefeated, inscrutable to the last.

This is the end of the story, so Mitty has no real experience after this action.

In "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", what are two of Mitty's daydreams?

Mitty also fantasizes about being the captain of an ice-breaker, a defendant on trial for murder, and then a war pilot.  In this last daydream, he imagines that he has been captured by the enemy and is facing with dignity, even distain, a firing squad. As he flicks away his cigarette and refuses the blindfold, he pictures himself a a hero, "Walter Mitty the Undefeated, inscrutable to the last."

The alter-ego of the henpecked husband in overdrive!

In "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", what are two of Mitty's daydreams?

The very first daydream that Walter Mitty has at the start of this short story is one in which he is a Navy pilot (or co-pilot) on an airplane which is flying through a hurricane and one of the worst storms on record.  He pretends that he and his fellow pilots are trying to fly quickly through this hurricane in order to save the plane and crew.  He has this daydream while he is driving into town with his wife who is complaining about how fast he is driving. 

A second daydream that he has occurs as he leaves his wife who is about to get her hair down.  Mitty drops one of his gloves and begins a daydream in which he is a doctor.  He is in the process of performing surgery on a "billionaire banker" who is suffering from "Obstreosis of the ductal tract".