Daydreams In The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty

Daydream- A series of pleasant thoughts that distract one's attention from the present. In the book The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, by James Thurber, Walter, the main character, tries to escape reality by daydreaming about a more exciting life. The main characters in this book are Walter Mitty and his demanding wife. Throughout the story Walter is driving his wife to a hair appointment and running some errands. Walters life is stagnant and he shows this with many traits including, being unadventurous and having a feeling of powerlessness. These traits are important because they explain why he daydreams. The character of Walter Mitty plunges into his daydreams because his real life is monotonous. In an attempt to spice up his life he has

Walter is parking his car when he accidently starts going through the wrong lane. An arrogant attendant comes over and tells him this; “Leave her sit there,’ said the attendant. ‘I’ll put her away.’ Mitty got out of the car. ‘Hey, better leave the key.’Oh,’ said Mitty, handing the man the ignition key. The attendant vaulted into the car, backed it up with insolent skill, and put it where it belonged.”(337) The attendant makes Walter feel incompetent because he can't park his own car. This leads to a feeling of powerlessness. Then as Walter is walking away he starts to daydream. His daydream is about him in court, he is on trial for murder. Walter zones out and he imagines his lawyer saying; “We have shown the defendant could not have fired the shot. We have shown that he has worn his right arm in a sling on the night of the fourteenth of July.’ Walter Mitty raised his hand briefly and the bickering attorneys were stilled. ‘With any known make of gun,’ he said evenly, ‘I could have killed Gregory Fitzhurst at three hundred feet with my left hand.”(338). In Walters daydream he is powerful. Just by raising his hand in the courtroom he is able to silence everyone. Contrary to his real life, people know what he is capable of and they treat him with competence. Walters lives a life where he is underappreciated, and he wants to be respected; this is why he has this

After Walter runs some errands he is sitting at the salon where his wife is getting her hair done. He finds a large leather chair and sits down. Walter starts to think of why he is here; “His wife would be through at the hairdresser's in fifteen minutes, Mitty saw in looking at his watch, unless they had troubles dying it; sometimes they had troubles dying it. She didn't like to get to the hotel first; she would want him to be there waiting as usual.”(339) Walters life revolves around his wife. H e drives how she likes, gets what she wants, and does whatever she pleases. Walter is like a machine on an assembly line, he just goes through the motions. Walter is clearly lacking any sort of excitement in his life. He yearns for an adventure of some sort. As he sits there he picks up an old issue of liberty and starts to look at the pictures of german bombers. He proceeds to imagine his adventure as a soldier in world war two: “I’ll fly alone.’ ‘but you can't, sir,’ said the sergeant anxiously. ‘It takes two men to handle that bomber and he archies are pounding hell out of the air. Von Richtman’s circus is between here and Saulier.’ ‘Somebody's got to get that ammunition dump,’ said Mitty, ‘I'm going over.”(339) In this vision Walter is being a hero by going on this likely death mission. By completing this act he will save many lives at the cost of his own. This is not like him in real life. Walter in real