“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” is about Walter daydreaming throughout his day. It shows what boring life he lives through and how he entertains himself. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty ]is about Walter daydreaming in the beginning of the movie. He later gets to live these daydreams by doing crazy things that he never thought he could do before. These two stories have similarities and differences based on plot, character development, theme, and setting. These stories share many similarities, especially through character development. In both stories, Walter Mitty is a boring guy who wanted to change. Instead, they both daydream about the life they would like to have. When Walter gets mad about his wife interrupting his daydreams, “‘I was thinking,’ said Walter. ‘Does it ever occur to you that I am sometimes thinking?’” (5). Walter expresses that he enjoys his daydreams better than his normal life. Another thing both stories share is how Walter in his daydreams …show more content…
In The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, the plot has a climax and a falling action and makes the movie more interesting. However in the story, the plot stays the same and nothing changes. The end of the story shows the Walter does not change and is still sad about this, “It began to rain, rain with sleet in it. He stood up against the wall of the drugstore, smoking…. He put his shoulders back and his heels together,” (5). This also shows that Walter still dreamed about his life even at the end of the story. Another thing that is different between the two stories is setting. The setting of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is New York City, while the setting of “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” is Waterbury. The movie explains the setting, “In New York City, was the Time-Life Building.” This explains where the setting of the movie takes place. These differences are important to the stories because it changes the type of message the reader should
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
The underlying themes of the stories are l valid contrasts between the works. In some portions the themes are of the same facets, such as how in both books two men have a direct conflict between
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.
Unlike Walter's reality his daydreams are exciting, eventful and he is often the hero. Walter Mitty's utilization of daydreams in order to escape reality a live the life he craves solidifies the fact that he experiences maladaptive daydreaming. Lastly, when Walter daydreams he is detached from his surroundings and being unaware of your surroundings while daydreaming is also a symptom of maladaptive daydreaming. Evidence from the story that can be used to support this is when Walter was daydreaming of playing the role of Dr. Mitty in an operating room and suddenly the parking lot attendant yelled at him for almost causing an accident as he could not concentrate on driving because of his daydream. Becoming disconnected from reality as a result of daydreams is a regular occurrence for those suffering from maladaptive daydreaming proving that Walter is more than just an ordinary daydreamer. Based on the arguments above it is palpable that Walter Mitty experiences maladaptive
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.
The differences that were made from the short story create a more detailed plot for the movie. There were many subtle changes that also made drastic changes to the movie for example, the man at the desk. In the movie the man at the desk did not talk much however, in the short story the man played a big part to the plot of the short story. At the beginning of the short story the man explains how Keith was elected for president instead of deutscher but after the incident the man reveals the change in history by talking about how deutscher was elected. Another important difference from the short story and the movie is the one who caused the change in history. In the short story Eckles is the one who stepped on the butterfly however in the movie Middleton is the one who steps on the butterfly. A key difference in the movie compared to
Have you ever stopped for a moment to contemplate where you are in life? If you haven’t, then take a moment right now to imagine where you are and where you would like to be. All of the actions you have taken, thoughts you have had, and the persona you convey have created the life you have lived thus far. In the movie The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, the main character Walter Mitty has a habit of daydreaming to escape his mediocre life for a more “enhanced” life where he fantasizes about a richer and more rewarding existence. Throughout the film, Walter is able to foster
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
Markus Zusak, author of The Book Thief (2005), and Steven Spielberg, director of Schindler’s List (1993), both use their works to portray the theme of racism in Nazi-era Germany. Racism today affects millions of people daily, with 4.6 million people being racial discrimination in Australia alone. However, in Nazi-era Germany, Jewish people were discrimination because they weren’t part of the ‘master race’, causing millions to suffer and be killed. To explore this theme, the setting, characters, conflicts and symbols in both The Book Thief and Schindler’s List will be analysed and compared.
‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’ is about a boring man who has a lot of daydreams. It was originally a short story by James Thurber, but was also made into a movie. The way that the story is presented in both is a key factor in either’s success, and when compared, the two are very different. For example, in the short story, Walter has little to no character development, but in the movie, nearly the entire production is him being put through a lot of situations that let us see more of the true character of Walter Mitty. This example and others is what makes the movie adaptation of ‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’ better than that of the short story.
“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.
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.
...ne the scope ranges from one to those like Walter who slip away almost instantaneously. Those are the people who tend live in the dream and not come back to real life and in the case of Walter Mitty his last daydream is one where him being a criminal facing a firing squad he would not have to return after this sentence. Dreams are usually more exciting than our daily lives and the story of Walter Mitty is a prime example of how our imagination leaves us captivated.
The opening lines of the novel, The Outsider by Albert Camus, set the tone for the book: "Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don't know" (pg. 9), it is a dreary and depressing sentence, so are the thoughts of a character by the name of Meursault. However, the circumstances that took place, plunged him into a spiral of events. Strangely, his thoughts stayed the same, yet his life changed dramatically. Conversely, the story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" by James Thurber, is seemingly contrary to the novel The Outsider. In the beginning of the story, Lieutenant Burg was saying to the Commander, "We can't make it, sir. It's spoiling for a hurricane? The Commander's brave reply was, "e're going through!" (pg. 73) The story promised excitement, fast pace and interesting events full of heroism. There was one small detail; it was a daydream of Walter Mitty whose life was lonely and discouraging. It was his way of dealing with the reality of his miserable life. Even though these stories do not seem to be comparable, by examining them a little closer, is revealed that the characters have many things in common. Meursault and Mitty were trying to escape the realties of their lives; yet, they came face to face with them because of the decisions they made throughout their lives, which led them to their ultimate destruction.