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The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty Essay

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Walter Mitty, a man living the life of his dreams. The author of “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, James Thurber made his protagonist as an everyday man. The story encompasses around the protagonist’s interactions. His wife, Mrs. Mitty is a women who constantly badgers him. Walter Mitty usually escapes by drifting off into a more adventurous daydream. Boring events such as waiting at a hospital, or even reading a magazine may trigger a daydream, which are usually interrupted by Mrs. Mitty. Walter is described as a timid man who deals with real situations and conflicts with imaginary adventures. The amount of daydreams make me question the story because his daydreams have a masculine storyline, in which he is the center of attention. In my opinion, the themes mentioned in the short story is mostly marriage and masculinity, in which I question his life, doesn’t Walter Mitty feel manly enough? It intrigued me on how he was always daydreaming about being a character who draws all the attention to himself, such as being a pilot or even a surgeon. …show more content…
Through the story, Thurber rejects the typical romantic ideals of masculinity and instead promotes the everyday sort of masculinity that Walter embodies in real life. Day dreaming about masculinity can mean that your regular day life is not interesting so you decide to daydream about intense adventures in which you are the center of attraction and everyone in the daydream considers you brave and heroic. I also tend to daydream about heroic actions in which I can describe myself as a “true man”. The difference between Walter Mitty and I is that Walter Mitty cannot control his

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