The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty Character Analysis

” The 18-year-old girl dreams of attending college, and in her family, “no one in her family goes to college (“Where Dreams Come From”, stanza 2, line 7).” She wants to have a proper education and become a figure in the real world. Her family is sitting on the sidelines of civilization and she is sick of that fact. That household is aware of this; nonetheless, she still is not allowed to leave. Walter Mitty is no different. His wife is domineering and infuriating, as she constantly admonishes him and tells him he is doing everything incorrect. For instance, when Mitty accidentally speed up his Buick, his wife screeched at him that, “he was driving too fast (“Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, page 1, paragraph 2),” when he “was up to fifty-five km/hr. while knowing her comfort-level was forty-five km/hr.” She prohibits this poor soul from living his life by controlling his every-being than he does of his own body. He cannot accomplish his dream. His desire is not similar to the girl’s. He yearns of being heroic and the center of attention. However, he is the exact opposite and his wife frequently pushes him off the cliff of confidence, where his spirit is shattered. Not only that, he often questions her, “ If it ever occurs to her that he is sometimes thinking.” And she rubs it

In the beginning of the play, Walter seems to be a childish and self-obsessed person, but he has ambitions of pursuing his dreams. In the play, Walter says, “I’m thirty five years old; I been married eleven years

Basically, people always seem to be either yelling or laughing at him for one mistake or another. This makes him create his own life and have daydreams in which he is the opposite of what he is in reality. On their way to town, he had his first daydream as is a brave military commander piloting a hydroplane, but his wife interrupts by yelling at him, saying: “You’re driving too fast!”. (Thurber,1939) When she insists on him to make an appointment with his physician, he becomes a famous surgeon at work, until a parking-lot attendant calls his attention to come back to reality. Mitty was pissed and thought: “they think they know everything”. (Thurber,1939) Mitty’s third daydream is of being the defendant in a trial, and he is woken by a mental association with dog biscuits, which his wife asked him to buy. At that moment he gets bothered because, “A woman who was passing laughed. "He said 'Puppy biscuit,'" she said to her companion. "That man said 'Puppy biscuit' to himself."” (Thurber,1939) As he waits for his wife to finish at the hairdresser, he daydreams of being a British pilot willing to sacrifice his life for his country, and he is again woken by his wife, who was looking for him. In a moment Walter asked his wife “Does it ever occur to you that I am sometimes thinking?”

Walter struggles in understanding who he needs to be for his family. He wants to take his place as the patriarch of the family, but he feels incapable of providing them with the lifestyle they deserve. This concern is always at the forefront of his mind, and it affects his attitude and outlook. The anxiety that Walter is dealing with creates confrontation with his sister. He fears that her dream will interfere with his own agenda of making a better life for his family. The severity of the tension becomes more and more apparent with Walter’s unwise investment. Walter is dealing with the burden that he has let his family down, while Beneatha is flabbergasted by the reality that her future has been snatched away from her, and she had no control over it. While reflecting on the situation, Beneatha remarks, “ I sound like a human who just had her future taken right out of my hands! While I was sleeping….things were happening in this world that directly concerned me and nobody consulted me—they just went out and did things—and changed my life” (Hansberry 3.15). Walter and Beneatha’s individual issues with the outcome of the situation cause them to find fault with one another during a time when their family needs to pull together to get through such a financial hardship. Walter is in an emotional pit; his turning to alcohol and music instead of his family for support expands the

In the movie and short story ¨The Secret LIfe of Walter Mitty¨ there was very different external conflicts, themes, and ways Walter acted.For example on the short story, walter's wife is always nagging at him for different things, but in the movie it is walter's boss and co-workers that are making his life difficult. In the short story, Walter is dull and not a very entertaining character 9 and has a very boring life, but in the movie he starts out that way but he gradually becomes a more adventurous, entertaining character with confidence. The theme of the short story was escaping reality, while one of the themes of the movie was beautiful things do not ask for attention. The differences in external conflict, ways Walter acts, and the themes between the movie and short story.

    In the movie the movie of Walter Mitty they had more places for the setting, while in the short story the setting only takes place in a city named Waterbury where all they do is run errands. It had basically explained how they were in Waterbury but different places within the city. Due to this the short story didn't have many characters. However in the movie Walter was in the office and traveled many places. He was trying to track down Sean O’Connell to set negative 25 which was the cover photo. Some of the places Walter traveled included Greenland, Iceland, and Afghanistan, while he did these things it showed him that he is an important person. Every time Walter traveled he would always have some type of daydream, an example is when he was on the way to the volcano and he fell due to a daydream he had. Therefore the daydreams that Walter has affects what he gets done and i say that the movie adds much more detail than the short story.

Walter Mitty is forced to adjust because of her wife’s preferences,showing him as limited in the actions he takes as a cause of the relationship. Walter Mitty also considers himself to be helpless when it comes to his wife’s choices. Towards the end of the story, as Walter Mitty

Sometimes when you are in a relationship, you start to wonder what your life would be like if you hadn't been with the person you are with if you aren't happy. In the short story by the author James Thurber called "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", a man named Walter Mitty daydreams about having different lifestyles away from his controlling wife. The theme of the short story is that you can be whoever you want to be as long as you are yourself. Throughout the short story, the literary terms found in "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" are characterization and conflict and they are explained in many forms. They both show how Walter's daydreams relate to his real life and how he wishes his real life was different.

It is through his thoughts that we see the story, which revolves around his static behavior. Throughout the story, we become familiar with the prominent tendency of Mitty to daydream. This habit starts out with Mitty fantasizing about his position as the pilot and his leading role managing the crew. As the story progresses, we start to recognize a theme in his daydreams, Mitty “portrays himself as a strong and brave man, usually one who is the best at what he does; the one in charge. When in reality, the people around him control his life, and his wife, Mrs. Mitty, is the one who takes charge” (C). Mitty is static because he doesn’t experience the maturation into a self-assured man that is needed to be characterized as dynamic. This lack of change is seen through his continuous daydreams along with the absence of a change in the routine he has with his wife. Mitty’s lack of change helps us understand the central idea through his desire to live in a fantasy rather than

Life is about finding yourself, each other, and being true to one’s self. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is an extremely original and creative story written by James Thurber. The movie, The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty, starring Ben Stiller, conveys a daydreamer escaping his typical life by disappearing into a realm of fantasies filled with heroism, romance and action. In both the movie and the book, the title character retreats into fantasy as an escape from his mundane reality because in the real world, he is ordinary, insecure, and passive. In the short story, Walter

Second, a lot of character traits are shown for each person in the film. Walter Mitty is very shy and quiet at first but then changes throughout the movie. “To see the world, things dangerous come to, to see behind walls, draw closer, to find each other, and to feel. That is the purpose of life.” This quote can relate to Walter Mitty having a very shy, quiet, and awkward life. After going through all the action, danger, and experiencing all sorts of obstacles to find Sean, he became a person that stood up to everything he didn’t like. He was not afraid to speak up and make a move. Also, he was a braver person. Cheryl was also very quiet and turned out to be a very helpful and supportive person. She helped him

Walter begins to drink, stay away from home, and to constantly argue with his wife, Ruth. Walter's life is contrasted by the role of his recently widowed mother, who holds to more traditional values of acceptance of life's lot and of making the best of any situation. Walter Lee's "Mama" holds Walter's father up as an example of a man with pride and a man that, despite racial injustice in a dualistic society, worked hard to provide for his family. This adds to Walter's frustration. Walter now feels incapable and small in his mama's eyes.

To begin this essay, I’ll start with some critical thinking about “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, before I transition to my comparison of “On the Surface”. One admirable component of this story written by James Thurber in the year 1939, is his sharply observed, usually ironic, small details of human action that reveals distinct perspectives of the character’s personality. The back and forth construction of the story was used to illustrate the protagonist’s realm of thought, however it ends up creating an almost imperceptible observation. An example of such observations could be Mitty racing their vehicle, after being instructed from his wife that he has to have overshoes simply because “he is no longer a young man.” A response that illuminates Mitty’s furtive character. Another observation would be Mitty’s actions after being ordered by an officer to “Pick it up, brother” at a stop light that has changed. Mitty initially is ordered to put his gloves on in their car, by his wife, but then removed them after he had gained enough distance, and thus now Mitty has felt the need to equip himself with his gloves. Which gives us the slight frame of reference that he ranks his spouse equivalent to the officer in terms of authoritarian individuals, who he had been defiant towards in regards to his gage. Though simply instructed to proceed considering the stop light had changed. Mitty’s instinct prompts him to correct all of his unwarranted misbehaviors. Mitty’s obstructed

Mrs.Mitty drives Walter insane and triggers his dreams. Walter can not stand his wife and in response ignores her through his fantasies. In “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, Mrs.Mitty finds Walter in the hotel lobby in a daze while reading a news paper and ask him “Why do you have to hide in this old chair?”(Thurber 47). Walter without realizing has once again found himself in a dream.

First, Ruth, is one of the women in the house who changes Walter’s decisions in the story. Her relationship towards him is poor. Ruth nags at the beginning, saying “Eat your eggs Walter” (Hansberry 34). This angers him because she repeats it multiple times throughout, not understanding him, showing their strained relationship. Ruth is also shown to not be on Walter’s side on multiple occasions. For example, when Walter finds out that Mama spent the money on a new house, he does not like it. Ruth however is not feeling the same way as him, and tells him “Walter honey, be glad” (Hansberry 92). Ruth tells Walter to be glad, because their views are different. Ruth thinks this was beneficial to the family, yet Walter does not. This hurts Walter throughout the story as he feels alone with no one on his side. Walter know this when he says “Cause ain’t nobody with Me! Not even my own mother!” (Hansberry 85). Since he is alone, and believes no one cares about him, he tries to fix his own mistake when he decides he will get more money saying, “That White man is going to walk in that door all to write checks for more money than we ever had.” (Hansberry 143). Ruth does not like Walter’s idea, but he does not care as no one is on his side, which disappoints Ruth.