Literary Analysis Of The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty

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Justin Weeks
ENC1102 #2519 Fri. 9:30AM
April 13, 2016

Literary Analysis of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
The one word I would use to describe this amazing movie, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, would be ‘planned.’ All aspects of this movie serve a single purpose. Ben Stiller is the director and is also the lead character in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Ben Stiller is remarkable in his part as Walter Mitty, a photo developer at Life magazine that has little courage to take on the unknown. Stiller proves to many that he is an amazing actor in all of his films. Stiller is mostly known for his roles in more comedic movies, but we view a movie like The Secret Life of Walter Mitty where a very comedic actor chooses a more serious role. I …show more content…

I would like to elaborate on this a little more. I believe that it is one of the finest details about this movie. The film starts simple then transitions to beautiful. Walters’s character reflects this from start to finish of the movie. Walter begins to change into a courageous character as the movie advances forward. As he closes in on that point of change, the Life magazines motto appears in a title sequence during his journey to Greenland. This starts that transition in his character as Walter starts to sneak out of his comfort zone. The scenery changes into vast and beautiful landscapes and colossal snowy mountains when Walter finally breaks free of his comfort zone. It’s another reflection of his nature as he begins braving the unknown and taking life by the horns. One thing that stood out to me was Walters jump into the frigid waters from the helicopter. Walter’s dive is a representation of being bold enough to break free of his limitations. Instantly facing his fears by coming face to face with a man eating shark, and beating the shark in the face with a metal briefcase. Not very realistic I’m sure but it gets the point across. Walter’s jump was completely intentional, this was the turning point in his character. The dive into the frigid waters shows us all that Walter is taking a bold step into the unknown. This was Walter telling us that he was going pedal-to-the-metal for this journey as he dove into the water. This scene is nicely foreshadowed by Kristin Wiig playing Space Oddity, by David Bowie, referring to Major Tom leaving the relative safety of his space

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