Walter Mitty Allusion

What would be the consequences of living vicariously through another person? The life of an individual who does not live every day to his or her fullest extent is a restricting one. Humorous author, James Thurber, in his short story, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” shares the tale of Walter Mitty, a man who lives an unhappy life in the city obeying his wife’s every wish and command, daydreams to escape the sad constricting reality of his life. In Ben Stiller’s story-based film, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Walter Mitty takes real-life action to find love, adventure, and respect from a demeaning boss who takes the lead position of remodeling Life Magazine from a physical to an online magazine. Ben Stiller and James Thurber utilize allusion,

Stiller and Thurber utilize allusion to help convey their message that humans cannot shy away from the journey to find the meaning of life. In Ben Stiller’s 2013 film, Walter Mitty works to develop film negatives for the final print cover of Life Magazine but did not receive the specific negative that Sean O’Connell, the famed photographer of these photos, requested for the cover. He embarks on a journey to escape his dreary life and find the film negative, on the way, he boards a ship to Iceland with many other men. When arriving, there was only one bicycle available as transportation and Mitty runs to take it, while running a friendly ship worker says, “stay gold Ponyboy” (Stiller). This alludes to an infamous quote from The Outsiders, a popular 1967 novel, and references the dynamic character Ponyboy who, being forced into growing up very fast, has to adapt to his surroundings. Similarly, Walter’s father’s death forced him to work and support his family from a young age, causing him to abandon his dreams while his little sister got to chase after her aspirations in life. Instead, Walter daydreams to escape the

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