“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” has a few different ideas flowing throughout, but the most noticeable and important aspect is his daydreaming. Walter daydreams a total of five times throughout the story, each time a bit more dramatic than the last. Throughout the paper, the reader will see many different reasons why Walter daydreams. Out of each smaller theme running through the story, the major theme is escapism because Walter Mitty is constantly fantasizing about who he could be if the world would just let him, which he shows throughout his daydreams. Walter Mitty does not like his monotone and non-important life, who would, though? He is constantly being controlled by others. He wants to be the hero and leader of his own life for a change that is why he daydreams, or at least that is one of the reasons why. In each daydream, Walter saves the day from some disastrous event, for example, in daydream number two he fixes a complicated medical machine …show more content…
In his last daydream, Mitty envisions that he is about to be executed by a firing squad and he is casually leaning against the wall smoking a cigarette. As Roshan Pnair states: In this sense, Walter Mitty can be seen as an example of an existentialist hero. Existentialism (to make a long story short) is a philosophy that looks at people being lonely, isolated and overpowered by an uncaring world; the most a person can do is choose a path that is true to his or her own character and not give in to what someone else has chosen for them. [Walter Mitty, in his mild little way, chooses his own path and refuses to give in to the demands of his wife or society at large]. One could say that this is Mitty’s destiny to overcome his boring life. He will finally have a life as exciting as his daydreams. Mitty will learn to not do everything someone else tells him to do (Pnair