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'Inception Vs The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty'

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Inception vs. Descartes. Inception suggests that you can know that you’re dreaming and therefore act and behave accordingly in a dream to achieve a desired outcome. Descartes, states that while in a dream, it is impossible to know that you are dreaming. “His dream argument asserts that we cannot have knowledge because, for all we know, we may be dreaming right now” (Schick, p. 594). In both the movie Inception and Descartes, each postulate that dreams can be so real that can be impossible to know if you are dreaming or not. The movie solves this assertion by introducing the concept that you could have an object that only the possessor knows its properties which can ensure you are awake and not dreaming. On the other hand, Descartes proposes no such simple fix, but states that if …show more content…

Drawing from other films of Hollywood, i.e. Beautiful Minds, the protagonist realizes his schizophrenia pals are not real because they never age; in “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, the protagonist becomes super action hero, and it reality you don’t have to be asleep to be influenced by someone else, advertisers do it all the time. “For whether I am awake or asleep, two and three together always form five, and the square can never have more than four sides, and it does not seem possible that truths so clear and apparent can be suspected of any falsity [or uncertainty]” (Schick, p. 625). I propose that Cobb is Donald Crabtree, biology teacher at the local high school in Monrovia, California. This is his ultimate escape from a nagging wife, boring suburban living, a dull job, with two screaming kids that he has to deal with each and every night upon his arrival at

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PBS’s, Nova What Are Dreams, is a forty-five-minute documentary about how different stages of sleep effect our dreams. Throughout the documentary, we also witness how dreaming is essential for making sense of the world around us. For nearly a century, many thought when one is asleep the brain is asleep as well. Yet not until technology advanced, did scientists begin examining sleeping patients to notice every ninety minutes their patients brain showed activity as if they were awake but were still unconscious.

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This is evident through arguments such as “The Argument from Past Failures”, “The Argument from Madness” and “The Dreaming Argument”. In Descartes’ famous “Dreaming Argument” Descartes argues that “there are never any sure signs by means of which being awake can be distinguished from being asleep.”, giving an example where he thought he was sitting next to a fireplace, unaware he was actually in bed dreaming (13). This argument challenges the idea of the senses again as it presents the idea that we can never know if what we are currently experiencing is real as we may be in a dream. Proving that there is no way to differentiate between reality and a dream, resulting in the idea that our whole life may have just been a dream, Descartes provided a counter argument to elaborate on the “Dreaming Argument” known as the “The Painting Analogy”. This analogy explains how like a painting and painter, dreams derive their material based on experiences we have while awake (13).

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Throughout the short story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” by James Thurber and the movie based on that short story, the main character, Walter Mitty, faces daydreams to counter his boring reality. He struggles to understand the difference between who he is and what he wants to be. Both the outer world and his mind affect his personality using his relationships with others, his views along with emotions towards the world, and conflicts whether internal or external. For instance, the short story introduces Walter as a middle aged man with a pushy wife and a forgetful tendency.

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Is there any way daydreaming can help with story development? In both the print and film versions of “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, the main character does exactly this to further the plot. In the realistic fiction film version of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, directed by Ben Stiller, it portrays a large variety of literary details such as archetypes, conflict, and character development that help to further progress the plot and understanding.

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1212 Words | 5 Pages

Something that we as humans all do is create a false sense of who we are in order to hide our true identities. For some people, this is only a meaningless act within our heads, but for others, it becomes somewhat of a reality. In James Thurber’s adventurous short story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” Walter Mitty lives half of his life in his imagination. Walter and his wife, Mrs. Mitty, are taking a trip into town. Throughout the trip, Walter is shown to be unable to complete simple tasks, such as driving correctly.

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