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Walter Mitty Comparison

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A comparison of what seems to be two completely different stories may not make sense, but they may have a lot in common if you review it carefully! In this case, we are comparing James Thurber's “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” and Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace¨. In James Thurber’s story, Walter Mitty is simply a normal man going down the road with his wife, although in his mind, in which he is daydreaming, he is captaining a hydroplane through a hurricane, while it breaks down. When woken from his dream, he was going 55 mph on an open road with his wife who was terrified by the speed he was traveling at. In Guy de Maupassant's story, the main character is Madame Loisel. She is married to a small clerk, lives in a small shabby apartment, and doesn’t have many friends to go out and be social with. One day her husband comes home and has a special invitation to a social event but she fears she can’t go due to the fact that she doesn’t have any jewels or a nice dress to wear. She buys a new dress, and borrows a necklace from her friend for the event. When the event is over she find that she has lost this “expensive” necklace. Her and her husband end up paying for a new one, only …show more content…

In both Thurber’s and Maupassant’s stories, the main character seems to lead an unhappy life in reality. In “The Necklace”, Madame Loisel is unhappy with her low and simple living conditions. The reason for this is that she is living in an apartment that is very shabby in her opinion. (Dingy draperies, worn looking chairs, etc.) She feels as if she is miserable because she doesn’t own fancy dresses and jewels like the other women of the town. Walter seems to be living an unhappy life, so bad in fact that he daydreams while driving! As he simply drives his wife complains and freaks out because he’s going fifty-five miles per hour, because she doesn't like to go over forty. His life seems very unreasonable and somewhat

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