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Structure of the secret life of walter mitty
Reflection on the secret life of walter mitty
Reflection on the secret life of walter mitty
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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”.- 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 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 simply retreats into his daydreams and tolerates his domineering wife, while in the movie he actively pursues finding himself.
Walter Mitty, a timid, passive, henpecked husband, embarrassingly incompetent at ordinary tasks, constantly falls into daydreams in which he assumes such heroic roles as flying through a storm, shooting down German aircraft, and performing delicate surgery. The story begins with a Commander trying to get an "eight-engine Navy hydroplane" through a storm (Thurber). The commander, brave tries to take control of his crew, shouted, “Full strength in No. 3 turret!” The crew, bending to their various tasks in the huge, hurtling eight-engine Navy hydroplane, looked at each other and grinned. “The Old Man’ll get us through,” they said to one another. “The Old Man ain’t afraid of Hell!” (Thurber). Mrs. Mitty stops this fantasy when she says, “Not so fast! You’re driving too fast!” said Mrs. Mitty. “What are you driving so fast for?”. One can infer from this moment that Walter is hav...
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... that same rhythm throughout. Whereas in the movie, his fantasies play in active role of pursuing his quest of finding the missing negative for the last Times magazine edition- or he loses his job. Furthermore, the movie takes the book another step farther by having Walter eventually living these immensely wild fantasies, on his journey to Greenland, when he finds Sean.
Although it toys with the visually fascinating concept of dreams and their possibilities in ordinary life, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" seldom explores the theme with the imagination it deserves. Walter's search, the mysteries he must solve, the completely unsurprising pat ending, and the tiresomely predictable love between him and Cheryl simply overwhelm the notion of the dream life and its connections to what we like to regard as real life, that endlessly fascinating subject for the cinema.
In the story of Walter Mitty by James Thurber, Walter Mitty is a static character and in the movie Walter Mitty by Ben Stiller, Walter is made a dynamic character so that the movies is more exciting than the book. In the story Walter stays a boring character who doesn’t do much at all, while in the movie he becomes the adventurous character he has dreamed about. In the end of the story Walter was happy about “facing the firing squad”. Since Walter never had the life he wanted he just wanted to die, unlike the movie where he had done so many things that he got himself a date when he was the most happy. In the story Walter kept dreaming throughout the day being triggered by little things to go off into his own world, but in the movie Walter
Thurber, James. “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.” 1942. 21 Great Stories. Ed. Abraham H.Lass and Norma L. Tasman. New York: Mentor, 1969. 272-277.
In the short story, “ The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty” written by James Thurber, it describes a man who while in the midst of everyday life, floats off into daydream that often cause him more trouble than it is worth. His wife, Mrs. Mitty, on the surface does not seem like a well-rounded character. It always seems her life’s mission is to demean Walter and to always use her overbearing nature to nag him. However, there may be more to this character than what meets the eye. I believe that Mrs. Mitty is actually a well-rounded character in the fact that she only acts the way she does only for her husband and his well-being.
... middle of paper ... ... In the short story, people can make that they’re an old couple that does these errands on a day-to-day basis. In the movie, people can assume that Walter does not courageously just start taking vacations to find someone who holds the picture for his last picture in Life magazine.
In the movie his character longs to one-day live life to the fullest but is scared. In one of the scenes his sister, Odessa finds a travel journal and a backpack that his late father had gifted him, he looks at it wistfully, and then later on in the story he uses the same backpack and travel journal on his own journey to find a missing photo for work. In the movie, Walter is also pushed into positive direction from his accused failures. When a photo goes missing at work and his condescending boss blames him, instead of being down on himself, he goes immediately into action. He investigates for further evidence of what could have happened and then later travels to find the lost photo. The missing photo also gave him the chance to step out of his comfort zone and talk to his crush Cheryl, as she helps him find clues of the photos whereabouts. His failure at work was a major turning point in his life. However, the Walter described in the story is not positively influenced by failure. When trying to park the car, he zones out during a daydream and accidentally drives up the exit only lane for the parking garage. The attendant yells at him and tells him to “Leave her sit there,” “I’ll put her away” (Thurber 2) Instead of brushing it off Walter thinks “they’re so damn cocky,” “they think they know everything” (Thurber 3). He then remembers another time he made a mistake with a chain and how a garage man had
Walter Mitty was not all that discreet when it came to having his daydreams, he could be talking to someone and instantly drift off into his own little world. His daydreams are a secret though, no one knows what kind of person he imagines himself in his daydreams. On the contrary, nobody would have guessed that the respected town doctor
He has feelings for a coworker named Cheryl Melhoff, but he lacks confidence and is too timid to invite her on a date. He discovers she has an eHarmony online dating profile and this prompts him to set up his own account, so that he can hit a button to “wink” at her. Cheryl's profile states that she wishes to find a brave, adventurous, and creative male. While he sets up his account with a representative over the phone, he is asked why he skipped the “been there, done that” section. Walter states, “I haven’t really been anywhere noteworthy or mentionable.” (Stiller, 2013). Walter digs into memories of his past and cannot find one thing to mention to the representative. Since he believes he has done nothing in life worth mentioning, he now feels that he might not be adventurous enough for Cheryl. His inner language symbolizes himself as unadventurous. While still on the phone with the representative, Walter loses focus and is entranced into a daydream in order to escape from the feelings of being unworthy. He imagines himself jumping through a glass window into a burning building to save Cheryl's dog. After he rescues her dog, he states to Cheryl that he always lives by his ABC’s which stand for adventurous, brave, and creative (Stiller,2013). In this daydream his inner language hypothetically believes that he is actually everything that she wants in a man. These
The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty - Character Study of Walter Mitty & nbsp; In the short story, "The secret life of Walter Mitty," a man by the Walter Mitty goes into town with his wife to get some things done. Throughout this story Walter Mitty shows that he is very forgetful and a a really stubborn man with a vivid imagination. He is constantly being distracted, and starts to day dream often. & nbsp; There are a few hints in this story that show Walter Mitty is very forgetful. Most of this is probably caused by his constant day dreaming.
In the short story, Walter Mitty paints himself as very prestigious characters such as a knowledgeable doctor, a brave man, a military captain, a millionaire, and “Walter Mitty the Undefeated” (Thurber 5). This demonstrates pathos because of the reality of his life is that he cannot even do simple tasks such as backing his car into a mechanic’s garage. Thurber expresses the sad ironic reality of his life which is that he paints himself as a hero in his daydreams but lives a boring and unsuccessful life. Thurber uses Walter’s characteristics to prove one must adventure and explore to find meaning and purpose in life. In the movie, Walter debates getting into a helicopter with a drunk pilot to find Sean’s film negative and continue his adventure or to give up and turn back to his unhappy life. When he daydreams his love interest, Cheryl Melhoff, singing David Bowie’s “Space Oddity,” he decides to bravely jump into the helicopter, quite literally taking a leap of faith. Although a lyric of the song reads, “Here am I floating ‘round my tin can/ Far above the Moon/ Planet Earth is blue/ And there’s nothing I can do” (Bowie). This exemplifies irony because of the story Bowie tells of the protagonist of the song Major Tom. Major Tom embarks on a journey to outer space but communication cuts off from Earth and he realizes he will never come back to his wife and to life. This
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a 2013 American comedy-drama film directed and produced by Ben Stiller. Ben Stiller is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He has been in many films and also produced many films such as Meet the Fockers, Madagascar, and Night at the Museum. This is the second film adaptation of James Thurber’s short story of the same name. This film stars Ben Stiller as Walter Mitty, Kristen Wiig as Cheryl Melhoff, Shirley MacLaine as Edna Mitty, and Adam Scott as Ted Hendricks. In this film, Walter Mitty (played by Ben Stiller) lives in his mundane life where he escape it by excessive daydreaming. In his daydreams Walter is the man of his dream where he is always an undeniable hero.
The daydreams in the movie were shorter and less detailed sometimes, but this made them simpler and more understandable for the viewer. This also makes for the daydreams to go along with the plot, and for the transition between each to really get across the point that Walter is always going on and out of his daydreams at random times. The daydreams in the short story, though they were good, because there was a lack of plot, they didn’t seem to relate to anything except that Walter was a boring man with an overactive imagination, and frankly, that doesn’t make much for a story. For example, at the beginning of the movie, Walter hears a dog barking, and imagines the building behind him is burning, and he saves the day by warning everyone about it. In the book, however, it starts off in the middle of a daydream that doesn’t even sensibly seem to go along with what’s happening in Walter’s life, as it’s him as a commander. This doesn’t make sense because Walter, from what we know, has never been in any form of the military, and the sound of a horn on a car reminding him of a foghorn on a navy ship just doesn’t make sense. The movie’s daydreams went along with the plot, and as the plot progressed and got more exciting, the daydreams started to do the opposite in a way. It was a nice touch for the movie to show how Walter went from being a
Walter attempts to reinvent himself through his work and relationships to try and provide for his wife and family. Walter is fighting a battle within his household because he believes that Ruth, his wife, “couldn’t be on [his] side that long for nothing,” even though she is just trying to do what is best for everyone involved (Hansberry 32). Walter cannot see past his dream to realize the impact it would have on everyone else if it failed, so he drowns his sorrows in alcohol. Although “he knows the possibility of failure is also a vital part of the American success story” Walter is not just risking his own future, he is risking his child’s, mother’s and sister’s and without a second thought to his personal relationships, he blindly makes an investment on the chance of having the wealth and house he desires for everyone (Washington 98). Walter is so focused on reinventing his work life and having money that he loses sight of his family’s values and ideas. He does not care about Ruth being pregnant and the possibility of aborting their child as long as he can achieve his goals. Walter is living in a dream where he believes that “anyone can become anything he wants to be,” and that is not true in his case with the social and racial standards that are set against him (Washington 95). Walter sees wealth as ensuring happiness and having everything he desires, which is why he is pushing his family so hard for the money, causing issues. Even though all the odds are set against him in this time period, Walter cannot see past being able to provide for his family and having the American Dream that he most
“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” expresses the theme that satisfaction is harder for those who are not normal. With all of Walter Mitty’s daydreams in between everything that he does, it shows that his actual life is lacking something that he desires.
This episode illustrates a major conflict throughout the story. As Walter dreams bigger and bigger he seems to leave the 'smaller' things such as his family behind. This movement away from the family is against the furtherance of the values and morals of the family. While his father would have been happy simply working and caring for his family, Walter is more concerned with becoming a 'mover and shaker' without thinking about the resulting consequences for his family.
Have you ever wanted to learn about an interesting short story? Then I have the perfect short story for you. You could think of possibly anything and Walter Mitty would dream about it and make it seem special. The short story is called “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”by James Thurber, it is an interesting story about a guy named Walter Mitty, who has a nagging wife constantly on him, but he goes through his boring life imagining about all the cool stuff he could do. A dominant theme in James Thurber’s “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” is Imagery. He shows imagery in his short story by making his character, Walter Mitty, imagine he's in these obstacles, which he pretends he's something he's not. Throughout the story, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” James Thurber uses literary elements like imagery and allusion to get his theme across to the readers.