Analysis Of The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty

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Meagan Cone Period 4 Walter Mitty Essay Final
We all have daydreams, but which is better? Action packed, dramatic ones, or ones where you’re famous and everybody loves you? It mainly depends on the life someone is living outside the daydream. Walter Mitty, a character from The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty by James Thurber, has both action packed and dramatic ones in his movie. But in his short story daydreams, he’s witty and famous. His life is very different in each, though, leading one to be better than the other because of the differences between the themes, daydreams, and characters. And which one has the better of those? The movie. First off, Walter Mitty had more daydreams that the audience could better enjoy in the movie than in the …show more content…

One theme from The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty is that your mind and imagination are very powerful. In the story, he dreamed of being a famous surgeon. “ ‘Coreopsis has set in,’... ‘If you would take over, Mitty?’...’If you wish.”(3). By others asking if he would take over with something difficult to treat, it shows how skilled he dreams of being. However, in reality, he is not a surgeon. In the movie, the theme is that imagining you can do something can get you to what you want to do. Walter imagined being with Cheryll and standing up to Ted, the guy who was firing everyone from Life headquarters. At the end of the movie, both of these things happened. The theme in the movie is a more inspiring theme that viewers can …show more content…

In the story, Walter’s wife is that annoying character that no one can bring themselves to like. “ ‘Wait here for me. I forgot something. I won’t be more than a minute.’ She was more than a minute.” This shows that she is demanding of Walter and expects him to do her bidding. With random characters jumbled in the story, there was no room for anyone to like any characters other than Walter. “He kicked at the slush on the sidewalk. ‘Overshoes,’ he said to himself, and began looking for a shoe store.” (4). Walter Mitty was a normal, boring character that the reader couldn’t really bring themselves to like. It’s hard to like a story when there’s really only one character and they live an ordinary, boring life. Having more characters in the movie helped to actually form a plot. “Oh, hey, welcome.. Wait, sorry, not welcome. Not an employee,” Ted Hendricks said to Mitty after he was fired. Ted was the antagonist that made the movie more exciting. It gave Mitty someone to go against, making the movie something to enjoy. Having more characters with bigger personalities and a conflict makes a movie or story more exciting and not boring. All the reasons stated above made The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty movie better than the short story. A plot is important to make something enjoyable, therefore making the movie better. Having a more inspirational theme could also lend to making

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