The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

The short story depicts Walter Mitty as a daydreamer. The story begins when Walter is in his car, and to escape the monotonous and annoying aspect of his life. He starts to daydream that he is a military commander, a man on the trial for murder, a bomber pilot, and a surgeon. While driving his wife to the salon, he finds himself daydreaming about flying a hydroplane prompting his wife to yell at him for driving too fast.  The wife advises him to see a doctor for that matter. While the wife is at the salon, Walter Mitty gets himself a pair of shoes and begins to daydream that he is a bomber pilot and a military commander who is ready to lead his team through hell.

There are conflicts that the author has managed to portray in the short story; for instance, the man vs. man conflict. The battle is showcased with the numerous encounters that Walter Mitty has encountered with different characters in the story who tries to take him away from his world of imaginations. For instance, when he is from picking his wife from the parlor while driving, Walter stops for a red light while it was a green prompting the policeman to order him ‘’Pick it up, brother!’’The parking lot attendant is forced to yell at him ”Back it up, Mack. Look out for that Buick.” Our hero has just entered the lot on a lane marked “Exit Only.”

The conflict between man and nature is depicted by two of his dreams. In the first dream, he is portrayed as a heroic commander who leads his crew through a strong hurricane while in the second dream, he is a well-coveted surgeon who is requested to help a dying millionaire. His quick thinking helps save the day when he completed the operation. The two aspects of nature depicted in the two dreams are death and time.  The conflict between man and society is also present in the short story. Walter was taken to the witness stand to be examined by the District Attorney, and by having a sling on his right-hand helps him get acquitted of murder.

The author of the short story primarily used the third-person narration. The author uses words like he or she most in the short story. The use of third narration helped create a smooth transition between the external and internal smooth and maintaining the relevance of the story. The narrator’s reference to the past occurrences helps give the audience a clear picture of events that were taking place in the external world and the daydreaming of Walter Mitty. The short story being placed on Walter’s perspective could not work because the character preferred a life of daydreaming. The third-person narration helps the author to describe events from different angles. It helps build the character of Walter Mitty of a daydreamer by explaining the events in the character’s mind chronologically.

In conclusion, the author of the short story has been able to achieve his objective by using the different stylistic devices to bring out the character of Walter Mitty. The short story is relevant to the real world since some of us, at times, find ourselves in the world of fantasy.

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