ENG4U1 Hibba Khan Mr.Nawab G Major Assignment 1 November 5th 2015 The Comparison between “Killings” and “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” Humans are complicated creatures, one are unpredictable and you never really know what one will say, do, or how one will react. It is defined by his or her identity. “Killings” by Andre Dubus and “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” by James Thurber both clarify the concepts of shadows and personas. “Killings” is designed to emphasize the significance of self that is put on for a specific reason, while “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” portrays ones truest self that might by shunned by society; both stories convey the reader that the main characters had a specific purpose in their life that they needed to …show more content…
Him and Ruth have been together for thirty-one years and have a relationship that allows them to cut specifically to the heart of the matter. Ruth’s nervousness and agony towards Franks death triggered on Matt’s entire experience of being a parent, he reviews the efforts that he has made to keep his family safe, secure and alive from the time his kids were born to the time they were adults. It is certain that the readers do get the feeling that what Matt is encountering is the feeling of disappointment in the unexpected passing of his child. In “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” the main characters Walter Mitty isn’t anything special because in reality his wife bosses him around a lot. “He looked at his wife, in the seat behind him, with shocked astonishment. She seemed grossly unfamiliar, like a strange woman who had yelled at him in a crowd (Thurber, 1) “. Mitty also cannot do basic mechanical things and he is somewhat absent minded. It is quite certain that he is not a good driver and people around him appear to be yelling at him or giggling at him for no reason. It also shows that there is a major interference between Mitty and his wife, they don’t understand one another to the point where they appear to be …show more content…
It is important to talk about the fundamental individuals life, what they have been through, and lastly, how this affected the characters. In the “Killings” it showed us that Matt’s youngest son Frank passed away and wanted revenge from the murderer in the ending when he accomplished his plan to kill Richard Strout he felt guiltiness and regret. In “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” Mitty is an ordinary person just like everyone else in the real world. He has some complications between him and his wife and the people around are usually mean and greedy. He escapes into a series of five whimsical fantasies. From these five dreams that he has imagined Mitty has a very innovative creative
Gloves, overshoes, Walters’s actions, and sounds were the foremost uses of symbolism in this short story. Mrs. Mitty continually reminds Walter that he needs to wear his gloves and overshoes. In a conversation between Mrs. Mitty and Walter, “Remember to get those overshoes while I’m having my hair done,” she said. “I don’t need overshoes,” said Mitty. She put her mirror back into her bag. “We’ve been all through that,” she said, getting out of the car. “You’re not a young man any longer.” I believe that she says this in order to protect him from the outside world. Mrs. Mitty doesnt think he is fit to handle the world alone. Although he makes himself seem like a brave man, he is actually the opposite. After comparing what he imagines and what he actually does, Walter is a man who is in a shell, and has no idea how to get out of it. Walter has a mindset that everyone is against him in the world. For example, he gets angry with his wife, he tries to show the garage man that he is not so dumb and has an excuse why and tries to correct what he had said on the street to the young lady. While talking about the chains on his car, the author stated “They’re so damn cocky, thought Walter Mitty, walking along Main Street; they think they know everything. Once he had tried to take his chains off, outside New Milford, and he had got them wound around the axles.” In order to make himself feel like somebody, Walter said
...t is the Rorschach test of what is inside of a person. One work can touch or go unnoticed by its audience; it projects their “secret lives” (159).
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.
To create living people should always be the goal in literature. It is how a writer can illuminate a new facet of existence and can only be achieved through the use of a sympathetic imagination. Hemingway erred however, when he argued, “A character is a caricature” (153). A caricature may be a character sometimes, but it may also be a fully realized and living person at others. As in Watchmen, when a caricature lives, it can be an extremely powerful thing.
becomes possible as reality bends. Since the story and the film take place in two different time periods Walter’s daydreams are bent into different periods and twisted in different ways. The plots of Walter Mitty’s life in 1939 compared to his life in 2013 are very different, but it’s his character to start off with and his dreams in which we find similarities.
“I think of it now as a kind of mask, not an animated mask that expresses the essence of an inner truth, but a mask that falls like dead weight over the human face...” (Griffin 349). This quote directs our attention to how Griffon feels about the “mask” and begins to allow us to look at secrets from another perspective. A “Mask”, in Griffon’s example, is a barrier of secrets and lies concealing the truth of a person. Griffin talks about Heinrich Himmler and the secrets that he hides within himself. Throughout his childhood Himmler’s life was hidden, overshadowed by a mask or barrier formed by his upbringing and culture, his perspective of himself was skewed as he takes who he is and puts it deep away within himself. Hiding in fear and guilt- he told no one until the voice he heard from his father became the one he used on himself- chastising him until his being was at war with itself. Griffon discusses how Heinrich causes an emotional build up that results in the loss of his own emotions or a “void”, because of his secrets that have formed a barrier between him and the outside world, as a result of his upbringing and ideals. Griffon relates with him on an almost emotional level- or rather the lack thereof. “But at this moment in his life Heinrich is facing a void. I remember a similar void, when a long and intimate
Even though The Secret Life of Walter Mitty was written in two different mediums, there are many similarities and variations between the two. The movie and short story both tell the reader his daydreams he experiences. The movie is more suitable because it's easier to comprehend what's happening. The movie is written in a modern time period rather when the short story was taking place in the 1930s. For this reason , the movie is stronger than the written version. For example, in the movie, it shows how he works at Life and is under pressure of finding negative number twenty-five from his boss. (Stiller). On the other hand, they're alike because Walter is also under constant pressure from his wife to stop daydreaming. His wife is always telling
Walter Mitty lives in the era of world war two, this was a time of danger sickness, gangs and drug dealing. This is why Walter imagines being in the navy, being a surgeon saving the life of a V.I.P and being a crack shot that is cross examine on trial. When Walter hears a newsboy shouting about a trial he envisions himself on trial as a skilled marksman, who is cross examine on the count of murder. In the dream the judge asks Mitty if the weapon is his and Mitty replies by saying “this is my Webley-Vickers 50.80” (Thurber). Clearly, the setting that Walter Mitty lives in influences the way he daydreams and overall impacts the identities he chooses. Alice is in her teen hood where teenagers try to find out what identity suits them and will ultimately reflect upon them for their entire life. However Alice faces, the media who claim her to be “a new development in the story of girl x”. The controversy came up because Gail’s mother Mrs. Jarred believes that her daughter is still alive, she does not want to believe that her daughter is gone, thus putting more pressure on
He imagines and persuades himself that his life is in fact very different in number of contrasting ways. His daydreams, in a similar fashion to The Poor Relation are about his regrets, and his unachieved aspects of his life. Walter Mitty’s dreams are based on impossible scenarios such as him becoming a world class surgeon or “the greatest pistol shot in the world”. These thoughts stretch reality as they are so ridiculous. Walter Mitty aspires to live his dreams, showing that he has a far larger imagination than that of poor relations. This shows that Mitty is much more confident and open-minded than the Poor Relation and is willing to make an effort in life whereas the Poor Relation seems to have given up on his hopes and dreams. This is why his daydreams are of such an insane manor, because he is more enthusiastic and hopeful to make his dreams a reality compared to the Poor Relation.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” So how does someone find their own identity in society? Everybody knows people such as Abraham Lincoln, Charles Darwin, and Thomas Edison, but how do normal civilians individual identities, help shape the way people are today. In the story The Cask of Amontillado, written by Edgar Allen Poe, depicts a revenge story that results in the end of the life of Fortunato, but he is the only one to blame. Poe shows how pride drove the motive for Fortunato along with many others in the 19th century.
Life choices define who one truly is, whether they are right or wrong. In The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, an adventure film of dreams and confinement, these choices are explored in depth by the director Ben Stiller. Ben Stiller shows us a plethora of unique topics throughout the story, such as the influence of people and the longing for others. As the movie progressed onwards, the protagonist, Walter Mitty, transformed. Eventually Walter becomes a dynamic character and develops a greater sense of self awareness. His transformation was largely in part due to the influence of those around him. Peer pressure can be a great factor in interpersonal growth. Ben Stiller discussed the impacts of others on one’s life choices through Walter Mitty’s
We are introduced with Walter Mitty dreaming about being a pilot in a navy hydroplane in mist of a hurricane. Later, the setting changes to a man in a car driving his wife to salon. His wife reminds him to achieve overshoes while he runs errands. With the shoes in his hands, He forgets another errand he needed to do which could be the conflict of the story. He then daydreams of being in a court and on trial where he remembers he needs to get puppy biscuit. He goes back to the hotel with the overshoes and puppy biscuit. His wife seems to get annoying to Walter Mitty because he outbursts saying, “Does it ever occur to you that I am sometimes thinking?”. Then the couple goes to a drug store because Mr. Mitty forgets to get something. Outside the drug store smoking a cigarette, Walter Mitty dreams about death by standing in front of a firing squad, still bold and strong. The two main characters involved in the story are Walter Mitty and Mrs. Mitty. Other minor characters introduced in Walter Mitty’s day dreams include: Lieutenant Berg and Dr. Remington from New York. Other characters mentioned in the story were Dr.
Walter Mitty dissociates himself from his mundane world and into a more interesting fantasy life. In the reality, he is your everyday average, submissive old man with mild marital problems. In his diverse fantasies, he is a resilient character challenged with decisive scenarios with physical attributes he lacks in his own reality. Mitty is unhappy with his unexciting and uneventful life, and as a coping mechanism for this reality faced by many people every day, he retreats into his fantasy world. Walter Mitty seems to have some form of cognitive problem. Because of his dwindling relationship with his wife and his poor self-image, he is unhappy with life, and may very well have depression. There are more than 15 million people in the United States today who have been diagnosed with a type of depression. Depression can be caused by nothing at all, or, in Mitty’s case, by a lack of joy in one’s life. For Walter Mitty, his lack of joy also stems from his strained relationship with his wife and his poor self-esteem. Depression can also cause an inability to focus, which Mitty has trouble with as well. Walter Mitty may also have Attention Deficit Disorder too, because he has trouble completing simple tasks and has difficulty concentrating, and he constantly and consistently daydreams, which are triggered by his routine
...Mitty to escape the life that he is discontent with. However, his daydreaming does not solve the main problem for Walter Mitty. In the short story, he has trouble with his lack of confidence. The only way he can solve this problem is to try to do something that has meaning where he could be successful in. In the movie, Walter Mitty main problem is that he does not take initiative. However, he is able to overcome this weakness with the influence of his coworker, which he likes a lot. While daydreaming may not always be a way to bring accomplishment to real life, it does serve as a reminder of some of the future goals and ambitions, which has an important role in the movie. Walter Mitty's character continues to be a reminder that daydreaming is something that everybody does to escape reality every once in a while and he will be happily looked back on for years to come.
Walter Mitty uses his fantasies to avoid his wife. Ferguson points out that Mr.Mitty’s dreams usually occur during or after one of his dreams(433). Walter falls into his dreams to escape his wife even though sometimes he does not realize it. Ferguson further explains Walters flaws by explaining how he is to weak to stand up to his wife; therefore, using his dreams to escape his life with her(433). Walters wife is an obstacle that he learns to overcome with his dreams. Walters dreams allow him to avoid running errands with his wife. In “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, Walter escapes the errand running with his wife by taking a drag of a cigarette and slowly falling into one of his fantasies(Thurber 47). This shows us that Walter could care less about running errands with his wife and uses his dream to get away. Walter is happier in his dreams than he would be running errands with his wife. Critics label Mrs. Mitty as a scape-goat which allows Walter to use Mrs.Mitty fall into his dreams(Cheatham 608). Walter uses Mrs.Mitty as a reason to be able to dream. Ferguson explains how Mrs. Mitty is the reason that Walter is driving into town in the first place; he has to wait outside the drugstore and in the hotel lobb...