The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Cadina Odum
ENG125
Mary Lounsbury
March 17, 2013

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” (Thurber, 1939) is a short story by James Thurber. The most famous of Thurber’s stories, it first appeared in The New Yorker on March 18, 1939. This short story deals with a vague and mild-mannered man who drives into Waterbury, Connecticut and his wife for their regular weekly shopping and his wife’s visit to the beauty parlor. During this time he has five heroic daydream episodes, ranging from being a pilot in the U.S. Navy flying boat to being on a secret suicide mission to bomb an ammunition dump. In the following paragraphs I will tell why this story captured my interest, describe an analytical approach and evaluate this work and the meaning of the story. This story using great detail with descriptive, imaginative wording brings the reader in and allows you to visualize what he is daydreaming. This is the type of writing that draws me in and allows me to imagine what is going on. This work is a good example of farce (a comedy; a short play, in which both subtle humor and hilarity are developed through improbable situations, exaggeration and (often) ridiculous antics) (Clugston, 2010). Selected to show how humor can be used imaginatively in a story to illustrate the need for communication in human relationships: Mitty’s immersion in extraordinary matters of his dream world blocks him from sensitivity to his wife’s ordinary life concerns- and from knowing whether her “making him” do things expresses true caring or just nagging (Clugston, 2010). This selection stands out to me as a great example of imagination and visualization to me ““We’re going through!” The Commander’s voice was like thin ice breaking. He wore his full-dress uniform, with the heavily braided white cap pulled down rakishly over one cold gray eye” (Thurber, 1939). With the descriptive words used such as heavily braided, cold gray eye, these words allow me to visualize what they look like and what is going on. I believe the analytical approach that works for this story is Reader-Response. This is when you find a personal link or imaginative entry into a story, poem or play. For me the following passage is where I find an imaginative entry into this story, “Not so fast! You’re driving too fast!” said Mrs. Mitty. “What are you driving so fast for?” “Hmm?” said Walter Mitty. He looked at his wife, in the seat beside him, with shocked astonishment. She seemed grossly unfamiliar, like a strange woman who had yelled at him in a crowd. “You were up to fifty-five,” she said. “You know I don’t like to go more than forty. You were up to fifty-five.” Walter Mitty drove on toward Waterbury in silence, the roaring of the SN202 through the worst storm in twenty years of Navy flying fading in the remote, intimate airways of his mind. “You’re tensed up again,” said Mrs. Mitty. “It’s one of your days. I wish you’d let Dr. Renshaw look you over” (1939). This draws me in personally as I can see myself and my husband having a similar conversation and because of that I am drawn in on a personal level, but I am also drawn in on an imaginative level as well because I can visualize this scene happening in my head because of the wording and the way it is written. Another good example of this is from the article written by Ira Berkow when he says “Is this what they'll be proud to tell their grandchildren? ''Sonny boy, you should have seen it. I went through hell, like Walter Mitty, dodging eggs and cabbages thrown at me by the striking free safeties and nose guards.'' (Berkow 1987). He is using Mitty’s daydreams and “experiences” to relate to his life.

Reference Page
Berkow, Ira (1987). Sports of the Times; Secret Life of a New Mitty, New York Times, Late Edition (East Coast) [New York, NY]

Clugston, R. Wayne (2010). Journey Into Literature, Ashford University Discovery Series