The Secret Life of Walter Mitty - 689 Words

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Cadina Odum ENG125 Mary Lounsbury March 17, 2013 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty â€Å"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty† (Thurber, 1939) is a short story by James Thurber. The most famous of Thurber’s stories, it first appeared in The New Yorker on March 18, 1939. This short story deals with a vague and mild-mannered man who drives into Waterbury, Connecticut and his wife for their regular weekly shopping and his wife’s visit to the beauty parlor. During this time he has five heroic daydream episodes, ranging from being a pilot in the U.S. Navy flying boat to being on a secret suicide mission to bomb an ammunition dump. In the following paragraphs I will tell why this story captured my interest,†¦show more content†¦He is using Mitty’s daydreams and â€Å"experiences† to relate to his life. Reference Page Berkow, Ira (1987). Sports of the Times; Secret Life of a New Mitty, New York Times, Late Edition (East Coast) [New York, NY] Clugston, R. Wayne (2010). Journey Into Literature, Ashford University DiscoveryShow MoreRelatedThe Secret Life Of Walter Mitty1086 Words   |  5 Pageslive a life of action and excitement. This concept is the exact idea that James Thurber wrote about in â€Å"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,† utilizing indirect characterization and motifs to highlight those ideas. In â€Å"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,† the characterization through the actions and thoughts of Walter Mitty are employed to expose his personality and subsequently act as a catalyst for the plot development. The story taking place primarily in 1939 Waterbury, Connecticut, Walter Mitty drivesRead MoreThe Secret Life Of Walter Mitty Essay987 Words   |  4 Pages1.) â€Å"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty† is ultimately a tragic, yet entertaining story. The author is trying to send the message of proper roles of men and women, and the proper roles between a husband and wife. I also believe that the author is trying to convey that a wife whom is a nag will drive her husband away. He may never leave her physically, but he will surely leave her mentally. Walter Mitty has not the courage to stand-up to his nagging, mothering wife. So, he creates an imaginary worldRead MoreThe Secret Life Of Walter Mitty1271 Words   |  6 Pages  Look at your life, are you content wi th what you see? â€Å"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 characterRead MoreThe Secret Life Of Walter Mitty1271 Words   |  6 PagesTo begin this essay, I’ll start with some critical thinking about â€Å"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty†, before I transition to my comparison of â€Å"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 upRead More Fantasy in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty1420 Words   |  6 Pageswritten by James Thurber. Mitty and his wife are on their way to do some errands, he indulges in a daydream in which he is a military commander piloting a plane, but his wife interrupts by exclaiming that he is driving too fast. This pattern is repeated several times throughout the drive. When she urges him to make an appointment with his physician, he becomes a surgeon at work, until a parking-lot attendant’s commands call him back temporarily to reality. In reality, Mitty does not do anything veryRead MoreThe movie, The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty956 Words   |  4 Pagesto see behind walls, draw closer, to find each other, and to feel. That is the purpose of life†.- Walter Mitty (Movie). 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 bothRead MoreAnalysis the Secret Life of Walter Mitty Essay630 Words   |  3 PagesAnalysis: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Tara Jackson ENG 125 Introduction to Literature Instructor Alfaro April 18, 2011 The short story that I will do an analysis on is the Secret Life of Walter Mitty, written by James Thurber in March of 1939. This story centers around the hilarious and amusing daydreams of Walter Mitty an ordinary man, who resides in Waterbury, Connecticut, with his overbearing, nagging wife Mrs. Mitty. Throughout this short story Mitty is characterized as being a patheticRead MoreThe Secret Life Of Walter Mitty Character Analysis1147 Words   |  5 Pagesare hard, especially when the couple does not see eye to eye. Walter Mitty and his wife know exactly what that is like. â€Å"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty† is a short story written by James Thurber. The setting takes place at Waterberg, Connecticut. The two main characters in this short story are Walter Mitty and his wife, who play significant roles in making this short story come alive despite being very different in many ways. Walter is the protagonist because he is the leading character, while hisRead More A Deconst ruction of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Essay793 Words   |  4 PagesA Deconstruction of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty  Ã‚      In the short story â€Å"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,† we see the main character as a rejected misfit in society.   He is often unaware of the world around him and reacts in what others would call a negative way to those situations he actually responds to.   However, close examination of the text used by James Thurber to portray him prompts a need to deconstruct the character Walter Mitty.   In doing so, we find that, far from being a misfitRead MoreThemes of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by James Thurber1043 Words   |  5 PagesThurber is the author of â€Å"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty†. He feels inferior to his wife throughout his marriage. He learns to express these feelings through writing short stories and illustrating cartoons. This is a way for him to escape his everyday life with his wife. Critics have acknowledged Mitty motif, which is used to describe his two major themes in many of his major works such as â€Å"The Secret Life of Walter Mi tty† (Morsberger 66). â€Å"The Secret Life of Walter Witty† is one of the most well