The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty Comparison Essay

Throughout James Thurber and Ben Stiller's The ‘Secret Life of Walter Mitty Walter leads double lives in dreams and reality I will be exploring how Walter's connection to dreams and reality change over time. Both versions of Walter initially rely on dreams to escape from reality but we see that Walter's confidence and self-belief are tied to the dreams he has. At the end of the film, The film version of Walter learns to make his dreams a reality, while the novel version is more content with who he is.

Walter Mitty relies on his daydreams to escape his reality. He does this because his reality is dull. We see that the Mise-en-scene in Walter's apartment shows greys and blues expressing the mood of Walter and his life. Because Walter's life

His dreams inspire his reality when he jumps into the helicopter because he imagines Cheryl singing to him and encouraging him to just go for it and take risks. Throughout the entire film version of Walter Mitty Cheryl is the main reason Walter changes but unfortunately for the short story Walter Mitty he doesn't have a person like Cheryl in his life so there is no development throughout the short story and by the end of the story Walter is still having daydreams. Short story Walter only changes at the end of the story which is when he Stands up to his wife in reality this is represented when, "I'm just thinking, can't you see I'm thinking" Walter hadn't stood up to anyone the whole story so this talking back to his wife is a big step in his development, Walter also stands up to the firing squad in his daydream which shows some sign of growth. Walter seriously lacks self-belief when he is disrespected by Ted. When Walter is talking to ted he shifts into his daydreaming because Walter lacks the social confidence to stand up for himself, Ted says "hang it up at your next job" to Walter when he fires Walter but after Walter gained the confidence and finished the job he went back to the office and said "put that on a plaque and hang it at your next job" Walter repeats the line back to Ted which shows the development in Walters

Novel Walter doesn't try and change his reality because there is no one pushing him to try new things which keeps him trapped in his daydreams. The only person who is there for Walter is Mrs. Mitty, she notices that he has issues with his daydreams but shows no signs of helping him so Walter's character can never develop and get out of that loop of switching between daydreaming and reality. The difference between the short story and the film is that in the film Walter gets support from Cheryl who tells him to travel and try new things so that he enjoys his reality but short story Walter has no Cheryl in his life and only has other people putting him down which keeps him stuck in his dreams and restricts him from maturing as a character. “Life is about courage and going into the unknown” is what Cheryl says to Walter which gives him a new perceptive on life, it changes him by helping him have the courage to grow out of his daydreams and be aware of what is happening in his reality. "We’re going through!”, as Walter dreams that he is a hydroplane commander being worshipped by his men this is shown when men in his daydreams say, “The Old Man’ll get us through... The Old Man ain’t afraid of Hell!”. Walter's daydream of himself as a man that is respected is then interrupted by his wife's voice, in reality, exclaiming "What are you driving so fast for?” The juxtaposition