James Thurber (1894-1961) was an American journalist, writer and cartoonist. For many years he worked for The New Yorker, a literary magazine. He lost one eye early in life and, as a result, he was not able to play sports like his peers. To pass the time he would escape into a rich fantasy world. He wrote many stories and memoirs. He often illustrated his stories with his own drawings.
To read more about james Thurber, go to www.ThurberHouse.org
The story takes place on a snowy day during World War 2 (1939-1945) in an American town called Waterbury. Walter Mitty, an elderly man, is taking his wife to town so that she can go to the hairdresser and he can do some shopping while she is there.
As Walter Mitty drives his wife into town, does his errands and waits for her, he escapes into the following five fantasy worlds of his “secret life”. These are:
The title includes the words “secret life”, which encourages the reader to read the story in order to discover what this life is, and why it is “secret”.
A main theme in the story is the conflict between fantasy and reality. Mitty appears to be a hero to himself in his fantasy world, but in his real world he is weak and inadequate.
Another theme is the power of fantasy and imagination. It is only by escaping into his fantasy world that Mitty can find some sense of power and relief from his real world where he is the object of ridicule in his wife’s and others’ eyes. Walter Mitty represents all of us who aspire to a life of glamour and heroics to brighten up our everyday reality.
The setting of the story is an American town called Waterbury. Although much of the action takes place in a car, we also follow Walter Mitty as he goes shopping and waits at the hotel for his wife.
The story is structured so that it has two layers:
Mitty’s real-life problem is to find something to counteract the nagging of his wife and the boredom of the real world. These problems rarely have satisfactory resolutions, because he is often forgetful and feels inadequate.
In his fantasies, however, Mitty has a number of problems and complications to solve. These problems, however, he always resolves brilliantly.
In each of the fantasies Mitty is faced with a situation that is at crisis point or has reached a climax:
In each of his fantasies Mitty plays the part of a highly respected and heroic man. Not all his fantasies reach a resolution as they are often interrupted and he has to return to the real world. In his real life the complications rarely have satisfactory resolutions because he is so forgetful and inadequate. The end of the story is an anti-climax as Mitty is left standing in the rain waiting for his wife. However, even then, he imagines himself to be “Walter Mitty the Undefeated”.
The main characters in the story are Walter Mitty and his wife.
Walter Mitty is the protagonist or main character in the story. His wife is the antagonist as she is mostly in opposition to him. She constantly nags him and reminds him to do things, which leaves him feeling weak and inadequate. For example:
Whenever Mitty does try and answer his wife she implies that he is old or ill:
The character of Mrs Mitty is a good example of a caricature, which is an exaggerated representation of a type of person. She is a typical nagging, bossy wife. She is also an example of a stereotype. She is a stereotype because the writer has not given any additional features to her character.
By contrast, all the characters in Mitty’s fantasies are distinguished by their youth, inexperience or reverence for Mitty:
The other characters we meet in the story besides Mitty and his wife in the real world are mainly like his wife - they are authority figures who make him feel small and pathetic. These are:
At the end of the story Mitty finally escapes from all this torment to a world where he will face the firing squad heroically.
The strength of the story lies in the writer’s use of contrasts.
For example, Walter Mitty is a timid, inadequate, forgetful, absent-minded man who is constantly being picked on by his wife. By contrast, his wife has an attitude of certainty and control. Whereas he listens to her without comment, Mrs Mitty constantly comments on his behaviour, as she thinks he does everything wrong and she knows better.
She often treats him as if he were a child. For example:
“I’m going to take your temperature when I get you home.”
She gives the impression that it is she who will get him home, but in reality it is he who will drive. As a result of being controlled in this way, Mitty feels humiliated and seeks to find an escape from her demands. It is not surprising that his fantasy world forms a pleasurable contrast to his real world. Here, at least, he is the brilliant, brave and dependable hero who saves the day and whom everyone admires.
The narrator is not one of the characters in the story. The narrative is told using the third person.
The way the writer uses figurative language and literary devices is very effective in the story.
The story can be read as a satire revealed to us by the fantasies that Walter Mitty has about himself. The satire works through the irony used throughout the story because, in his fantasy life, Mitty is completely different from what he is in reality. In his fantasies he is always respected and admired for his bravery and ability to save others in dangerous situations. In his real life he is the opposite of this.
Onomatopoeia (words that imitate real-life sounds) is always used in the fantasies. Sounds like “pocketa-pocketa” are used to show the reader that Mitty is in his “secret life”. It indicates the sound of the hydroplane and the aneasthetiser. The “rat-tat-tatting” indicates the sound of guns and flame throwers used by bomber pilots.
Note also the use of grammatical punctuation marks, namely the ellipsis, to indicate when Mitty is entering or coming out of one of his fantasies.
In order to add humour to the story the writer makes use of a number of malapropisms (words that sound like the correct one but are wrong) and neologisms (made-up words). For example, in Mitty’s hospital fantasy the malapropisms “Obstreosis of the ductal tract” and “streptothricosis” sound like medical conditions, but they are not the correct terms. The gun in the courtroom fantasy is called by the neologism “Webley-Vickers 50.80”, but there is no gun with that name in reality.
When the story starts we are in the middle of one of Mitty’s fantasies. The tone in this fantasy is excited and optimistic, conveyed by the writer’s use of multiple exclamation marks:
“We’re going through!”
“Rev her up to 8500!”
“Full strength in No. 3 turret!”
The next fantasy has Mitty in the middle of a life-threatening situation, so the tone is serious, but confident. Later, when he imagines himself facing a firing squad, the tone is scornful, “proud and disdainful”.
This contrasts with the tone Mitty’s wife uses when she speaks to him. She is usually irritable and scolding:
“What are you driving so fast for?”
“Why don’t you wear your gloves? Have you lost your gloves?”
“Why do you have to hide in this old chair? How do you expect me to find you?”
The dreariness of Mitty’s real life is emphasised when Mitty’s wife leaves him waiting in the cold rain while she goes shopping. This creates a tone of sadness – we feel pity for poor, clumsy Mitty as he tries to create a richer life for himself. We almost welcome his last fantasy, when he faces a firing squad, because at least he is strong and brave even though he is facing death.
Mood: How does this story makes you feel? Happy, sad, angry or indifferent? What are the reasons it make you feel this way?
Read the extract below and answer the questions that follow.
[Walter waits for his wife.]
He found a big leather chair in the lobby, facing a window, and he put the overshoes and the puppy biscuit on the floor beside it. He picked up an old copy of Liberty and sank down into the chair. ‘Can Germany Conquer the World Through the Air?’ Walter Mitty looked at the pictures of bombing planes and of ruined streets. 5 |
Answers to Activity 13
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Read the extract below and answer the questions that follow.
[Walter and his wife drive in to town.]
“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.” He raced the engine a little. “Why don’t you wear your gloves? Have you lost your gloves?” Walter Mitty reached in a pocket and brought out the gloves. He 5 put them on, but after she had turned and gone into the building and he had driven on to a red light, he took them off again. “Pick it up, brother!” snapped a cop as the light changed, and Mitty hastily pulled on his gloves and lurched ahead. He drove around the streets aimlessly for a time, and then he drove past the hospital on his way to the parking lot. |
Answers to Activity 14
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Words to Know
Definitions of words from the short story: | |
rakishly | jauntily, smartly |
hydroplane | a plane that can land on water |
grossly | hugely |
overshoes | shoes worn over ordinary shoes to protect them from the snow |
aimlessly | without direction |
distraught | worried, upset |
haggard | tired |
glistening | shining |
vaulted | sprang |
insinuatingly | suggestively |
bickering | arguing |
pandemonium | chaos |
lobby | entrance room |
“auprès de ma blonde” | a French song |
erect | upright |
disdainful | scornful |
inscrutable | impossible to understand |