The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty Daydreams

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“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” is a short story written by James Thurber that follows the main character, Walter Mitty, during a trip into town with his wife. Thurber brings the reader through Mitty’s normal day with interruptions of his daydreams, revealing who he is and how he feels about his life. Throughout this short story, Mitty’s reality is interrupted with vivid daydreams that are opposite to his life. As the story progresses and he continues to switch between daydreaming and real life, it is clear that in his daydreams he is more powerful and important than in his life. Whether he is more appreciated or in control, the dreams paint him as everything he isn’t, or maybe wishes to be. In example, the story opens up with a daydream of him being a really important navy commander trying to get his crew out of a tough situation. His crew looks up to him, seeing him as fearless, and they fully believe he has what it takes to get them out of the situation that they are in. However, in …show more content…

During the first dream, he is in command and the crew believes in him; however, once the dream is over, it is the complete opposite with his wife. Mrs. Mitty tells him to go get shoes that he doesn’t need and to put on gloves he doesn’t want to wear, and he listens to her without much hesitation. Along with his role being an exact opposite in his dream compared to real life, parts of his personality and self are opposites. For example, he is embarrassed when he speaks aloud after remembering something and goes to a store out of his way to distance himself from the people who laughed at him, but in the daydream that opened he was on a witness stand, calm and collected. Each dream is followed by a segment of his real life, where he acts the completely different than he would have in the daydream. This indicates that Mitty daydreaming is a way of escaping the negative life he

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