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. His relationship with his wife is portrayed as him being unappreciated from the views of his wife. For example, “ ‘I was thinking,’ said Walter Mitty. ‘Does it ever occur to you that I am sometimes thinking?’ She looked at him. ‘I’m going to take your temperature when I get you home,” The external views of his wife made him have self esteem issues yet his mind was later able to create an imperfect view of himself which set him on a path for greater happiness. The movie has different relationships including; family (sister and mom), Cheryl (his crush), and Ted Hendricks (his boss). Ted Hendricks was a discriminating figure when he pressured Walter to find the missing neg. 25. Likewise, his daydreams began to influence him standing up for
…show more content…
For example in the beginning Walter was mistreated and this created daydreams of him standing up for himself and this continued to happen until he actually did. This conflict led his mind to influence his thoughts for the better. Thurber introduced Walter with a conflict at the very start leaving him conflicted between reality and imaginary. He does this by saying, “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