Symbolism In The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty

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Symbolism is the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities and it is found in several places throughout the short story and the movie of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Both the story and the movie use the literary technique of symbolism by using objects or ideas to represent something bigger. This gives these stories a more profound meaning and make the reader think beyond the surface to find the bigger picture that the author or director intended. Whether its skateboards, beards or overshoes, almost any object can be used to represent an idea that the author wants to convey to their audience. In both the short story and the movie, the main character, Walter Mitty, constantly fantasizes about wild adventures that are very different …show more content…

The short story and the movie use different objects to represent this idea, but they are both still present throughout. In the movie, Walter’s new boss at Life Magazine and all of his closest advisors have beards. These beards represent the idea of masculinity and having power. In today’s society, beards are viewed as a way of showing manliness. This is important because Walter does not have a beard for much of the movie, but when he comes back from finding Sean O’Connell, he suddenly has a beard and you can tell that he is beginning to develop as a character (Stiller). When he has the beard, he stands up to his boss and defends himself with confidence. The viewer can tell that Walter has changed and the beard is a key indicator of it. In the short story, the idea of masculinity is not represented as strongly, but it is still present within the story. Cars and driving fast are often associated with being manly. When Walter and his wife are driving into town, she yells at him for going too fast and tells him to slow down. She says, “Not so fast! You’re driving too fast!” (Thurber 1), and yells at him to go slower. This shows Walter’s lack of a masculine side and that he allows his wife to control him, which we never see change in the short story. Nevertheless, masculinity is represented by beards and cars in the stories and exposes Walter’s lack of

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