Look at your life, are you content with what you see? “To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, draw closer, to find each other, and to feel. That is the purpose of life.”, according to Life Magazine. Most people are too preoccupied by the tedium of day to day concerns to take the time to analyze their life and decide what they want it to look like. Walter Mitty is a character who takes a step back and envisages his life through his daydreams. Mitty is the main character in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty written by James Thurber. He is also the lead character in a movie loosely based on the same short story. Both Walters use their daydreams as coping mechanisms and escapism because they don’t like what they …show more content…
The pictures on his bulletin board mock him as he responds to the service representative at eHarmony, “I haven’t really been anywhere noteworthy or mentionable.” Walter is made fun of, ignored and taken for granted by the Manager of Transition as he asks for the photo for the cover of the magazine. He mocks Walter as he addresses him, “Ah, Major Tom!” and hurries him along saying, “All right, let’s do it. Let’s process some quintessence. Come on. Go, now. That’s why I’m clapping” Both of these two Walters have good reason to feel discouraged and the frequency with which they use their daydreams to escape is evidence of their dissatisfaction.
In order to cope with their lives, each of the Walters fall into elaborate daydreams, playing heroic main characters who are valued and revered for their extraordinary talents and bravery. As the Walter from the short story faces the daily nattering from his wife and his menial daily routine, he slips into a daydream where he is an officer flying “through the worst storm in twenty years of Navy flying.” As Walter from the screenplay faces life as a mundane photo-processor, he dreams about epic adventures. When he’s too fearful and socially awkward to stand up to his boss who is attacking him with belittling words, he imagines a face off where he slings a clever quip at him remarking, “you know who looks good in a beard? Dumbledore. Not you.” Both
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a fun adventure movie about a man who wants to be brave
As Walter's dreams become bigger and bigger, he seems to neglect the 'smaller' things such as his family. "Here I am a giant surrounded by ants! Ants who can't even understand what the giant is
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 James Thurber's “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” the movie and short story have much different external conflicts. During the short story, Walter's wife is always nagging at him and making his life difficult, while in the movie and it Walter's boss and co-workers who are giving him a hard time.Walter experiences his wife complaining while on their way into town, ¨Not so fast! You're driving too fast...What are you driving so fast for¨ (Thurber 1). He is not paying attention because he is daydreaming about more exciting things than what is going on in his life. In the movie Walter is very busy and nervous so he messes up an assignment and he goes into a daydream. Walter was sitting in the elevator
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.
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.
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
Although Walter makes the worst mistakes out of any other character in the play, he also undergoes the greatest transformation. His journey takes him from a selfish jerk, who was obsessed with get-rich-quick schemes, to a man worthy of respect. Hansberry shows how poverty and racism can twist and depress people, turning them against those that they love the most. Through Walter Hansberry also shows how these social barriers can be overcome through personal determination and staying true to their
Are you ever struck by a sudden daydream or suddenly start to zone out into your thoughts? In “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” written by James Thurber, Walter experiences many thoughts and daydreams that depict his feelings and problems in life. There are also many different discussion topics such as conflicts, daydreams, and character traits.
Walter asserting his manhood against his mother’s matriarchal dominance can be seen as the principal conflict in Hansberry’s work. Walter’s mother in settled in her traditional and old schools ways and views masculinity as a life-affirming Black tradition, whereas Walter equates manhood and masculinity with how much money one has and being his family’s sole provider. When Walter’s father died his mother received $10,000 in life insurance payments. She takes a portion of the money and uses it to purchase a house in a well-established suburban white neighborhood. In terms of the remaining money, Walter wanted to invest in a liquor store. After much persuading, Mama finally gives in and gives Walter the rest of the money. When the investment goes belly up Walter loses all the money. His attempt to establish his manhood ironically made him
As Walter's dreams become bigger and bigger, he seems to neglect the 'smaller' things such as his family. "Here I am a giant surrounded by ants! Ants who can't even understand what the giant is talking about,? (Hansberry 85). Walter has big ideals, but his methods of achieving his goals and ideals are somewhat irrational. Walter can be regarded as more concerned with becoming self-employed without really thinking about the consequences, which may be imposed on his family. Later in play, Walter learns that he needs to set his dreams aside for the sake of the
Another good thing in the movie is the wide range of characters that it features throughout the film. In the short story it only feature two real characters which is fine but it doesn't give us anything more or less it's just them. While in the movie you have Walter, his sister, his mom, his co-workers, boss man, Cheryl, techdude from eharmony, and Shaun. And all those characters end up playing a part somewhere along the timeline of the movie which lets us, the viewer, really soak up the atmosphere and the overall mood/tone of the story because each one of the characters will have their own personality and traits. But we can’t completely over shadow the story because the reason walter day dreams is that his wife just nags him too the point the only source of happiness in his life is the dreams he can use to escape the nagging. In the movie, all the characters let us see more action of the story which is walter trying to find negative 25 which just turns out to be in his wallet but nevermind that. It shows how the problem just doesn't affect walter but essentially the entire company is at risk at not having a cover for the last magazine.
Walter's frustration festers and his anger turns inward towards his family who, in Walters eyes, do not understand him. Walter's family members do understand him and they also want to amass material dreams, but Walter's family members know that it is going to take work to get there.
A character who changes throughout the story, Walter goes from being a selfish person with no desire for anyone else but himself and their goals to someone who cares for his family and wants what will be the best for them. Throughout the story he realizes that what he is doing making him lose what ca be the best for his family, the reason why he changes from be the selfish man to a loving and caring man. Also his family does accept his new ways and forgets his old
He is envious of the people in the establishment who can afford a higher standard of life, while he is stuck in a two room kitchen apartment, where they must share one bathroom with rest of the floormates. Walter hate seeing man around his age or even younger than him having such a lavish lifestyle because he believes that he would gotten the same type of opportunity if it was not for the color of his skin. Seeing his conversations with his mom, the readers can see that Walter feels that he is hopeless in the American