Extended Analysis “To what extent has director, Ben Stiller, used film techniques to adapt John Thurber’s The Secret Life of Walter Mitty to appeal to a contemporary audience?” Characterisation The characterisation of Walter Mitty in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty has been adapted to appeal to a contemporary audience as modern conventions have been used. To start, in both the film and short story, Walter Mitty is portrayed as a 40-year-old man with no aspirations which leads to him to daydream regularly to escape reality.
During the Transcendentalist movement, Henry David Thoreau was a leading transcendentalist whose work focused mainly on nature and adventure. Walden, or Life in the Woods is an exceptional example of a story based on adventure. In Thoreau’s account of his life at Walden pond, he first states, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” Through this quote Thoreau explains that he was tired of the complexity of normal life and desired to go on an adventure to live simply. Additionally, Thoreau states, “I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life…,” which again reveals his motivation for new life by adventure and simplicity.
In the film, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, the viewers are introduced to the main character, Walter Mitty. From the beginning, Walter’s actions and words can lead one to infer that his character is painfully shy, awkward and quiet. In combination with his awkwardness and shyness, he continually has these moments where he enters “his own world,” and fantasizes about the things he’s too timid to do or that he finds heroic. This is especially unusual to his peers and co-workers who try to converse openly with him.
The analysis of literary techniques allows for connections. In the short stories, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by James Thurber and The Story of An Hour by Kate Chopin, the protagonists Walter Mitty and Louise Mallard are trapped in a marriage that does not allow them to express their true identities. While Walter realizes this throughout the story and has daydreams to escape his unsatisfied life, Mrs. Mallard has a cathartic moment when she realizes the freedom she would have after her husband’s death. Connections between the short stories can be made by considering the protagonists' common character traits and the development of their characters. Viewing Walter and Mrs.Mallard through a psychoanalytic lens reveals a theme of oppression.
Consequently, Walter Mitty’s daydreams aid the plot of the movie to move forward. When the story begins, it is possible to see a Walter Mitty who doesn’t express his feelings; he doesn’t communicate his desires nor his opinions. He is always doing what he is told to in his work, sorting negatives for Life magazine’s publications, without complaining. He has a tedious routinely life, he only goes from home to work and back home. Furthermore, he has to take care of an aging mother and a wacky sister since his father’s death.
Walter Mitty feels that through imagination he could be in a place he could really belong but the thing is, by having these “episodes” it excludes him from belonging in reality which poses the question, is it more important to belong with yourself or with others around you? It is clear that Walter Mitty uses his mind to escape reality where he feels he belongs, but it is also interesting to see how he has given up on trying to belong in reality and accepted the fact that he will be useless as time
This quote vividly portrays Walter's ambitious aspirations, symbolizing his determination to reach for the stars and achieve something extraordinary for his family. Moreover, his dreams aren't just about himself, they're about breaking the cycle of struggles his family has faced for years.
An event where Walter matures is the final daydream where Walter imagines himself being shot down by a firing squad after having little argument with his wife. This shows how Walter perceived what happened with his wife and how he identified himself as the bad guy who needed to be killed for his crimes. A quote that shows how Walter Mitty found his identity “ I was thinking. ... Does it ever occur to you that I am sometimes thinking?” This is what Walter said to his wife after a little argument.
One second he's a pilot next second he's being told what to do with his constant nagging wife, this is a familiar situation as Walter zones in and out from reality, but these are not just loose thoughts or fantasies, these are astonishing worlds Walter ponders upon and it is similar to non-other. The secret Life of Walter by James Thurber is a perfectly depicted story by Thurber, he excellently goes in depth on the thoughts that course through Walters' head, Thurber illustrates to the audience the disparity between Walters external and internal relationships Walter has with those in his environment. Nevertheless, in “the secret life of Walter Mitty” James Thurber uses dramatic irony and imagery to convey versions of reality Mitty zones out to escape his meager rather dull life, which in reality Walter is a push-over.
It shows this because Walter diminishes his sisters Beneatha’s dream of becoming a doctor by making a misogynist comment in which insinuates on her settling on being a nurse due to a doctor clearly being an often male dominant profession. Furthermore, Walter is deluded by greed on opening a liquor store which causes him to have no regard for the feelings or desires of others. Clearly, the central idea of the text is that in trying to achieve a dream it can bring out a person selfish tendency because people tend to disparage others dreams in order to attain theirs. The author 's use of conflict is important to the developing the central idea that oneself can become selfish when trying to obtain the American dream because it creates tension.
[F] In the film, Walter is shown to shown to be a very bland, boring person. However, after being criticized and bullied, he goes out on a limb to find the negative by traveling and doing things he would have never thought of doing before. [G] Another interesting man decided to write an article titled, The Secret Of Life By Walter Mitty, in which Moses Ma analyzes and explains the beauty of the film (2013) as such, “ … yet deeply spiritual - because it quietly celebrates the pronounced joy and healing of being fully present. ...ends up jumping out of a helicopter in the ocean, survives a shark attack…” (Ma, 1).
After constantly being beaten down by a world that does not want him and a system that wishes to see him fail, Walter becomes increasingly frustrated and dissatisfied with his life and the possibilities that are all but out of his reach. His unfortunate situation warps any positive outlook that he may have once had into a saddening, dismal case. Even when asked why his perspective of life had deteriorated so much, and why he only ever talks about money, he simply responds that life “was always about money” and that they “just didn’t know it yet” (Hansberry, Act i, Scene ii, 74). The moment that Walter realizes that he does not have to reach
in 1996. Shakur wrote intricate, socially nuanced lyrics: Miranda particularly admired “Brenda’s Got a Baby,” a verse narrative about a twelve-year-old girl who turns to prostitution after giving birth to her molester’s child. Shakur was also extremely undiplomatic, publicly calling out rappers he hated. Miranda recognized a similar rhetorical talent in Hamilton, and a similar, fatal failure to know when enough was enough. There was extraordinary dramatic potential in Hamilton’s story: the characteristics that allowed him to rise also insured his fall.
Walter was introduced as a man who cared about nothing other than his business. He had sacrificed his sister’s dream of becoming a doctor, and held the power to wipe out Mama’s dream for a better home. Walter sees the gender roles as boundaries keeping him from loosening up to his family. He is given the insight that men must be powerful, wealthy, and demanding for them to truly be the head of the household. However, Walter sees past these gender roles, and not only challenges these rigid roles, but he also regains his family’s trust along the
Throughout time, people have been using their imagination as a way of refuge, where they can run away from the problems that come with being in the real world. This issue is well developed throughout the short story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, written by James Thurber. The short story follows a middle aged man, Walter Mitty, as he goes through fantasies which involve him in situation that are far from his reality. People use imagination to put themselves in situation where they posses certain qualities or a lifestyle which they lack in the real world. Throughout the short story, Walter escapes into event-triggered fantasies in which he can do or be anything he wants to be.
