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The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
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“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”
Plot. The short story is about Walter Mitty driving his wife to Waterbury, Connecticut for their weekly shopping. During their trip he has five heroic daydreams. The first is as a pilot of a U.S. navy flying boat in a terrible storm. Then he is a famous surgeon, and then an assassin testifying in court, then as a Royal Air force pilot on a suicide bombing mission. And finally he imagines himself in front of a firing squad. Characters: Walter Mitty: • Walter is a vague, somewhat boring, man. He is feeble, and his wife pushes him around. • He escapes his life in his fantasies and daydreams. In his daydreams, he depicts himself as a brave unconquerable figure who wins everybody’s admiration. Mrs. Mitty: • Mrs. Mitty is Walters dominating wife. She nags him and appears overly controlling. • She is Walters’s link to reality; she prevents him from losing his grasp on everyday life. Setting: The story takes place in Waterbury, but there are four other settings in Mittys’ mind. The first is inside of a Navy flying boat with eight huge engines. The next is in a hospital with a broken anesthetics machine. And the next two are in a courtroom full of people and the inside of an Air force bomber. They are not described in great detail because Mitty has so many daydreams. Theme: Daydreaming and withdrawing to your mind is a way to escape from an unhappy reality. Authors Devices I like Thurber’s use of irony. It is ironic that Mitty is ...
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