The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

ENG 125 Introduction to Literature

Ms. Patricia Vineski

February 25, 2012

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty provides the reader an opportunity to visualize the imagination of James Thurber while he daydreams of various jobs. It appears that Walter daydreams as a means to escape from his controlling wife.

Many readers probably would say that this relationship is abusive because of the control that Ms Mitty appears to have over her husband. James Thurber, author of the Secret Life of Walter Mitty depicts various characters interacting in a variety of ways performing tasks through his imagination while escaping from his controlling and overbearing wife.

The story is brief and takes place over a short period of time. During this time, Mitty is traveling with his wife to the hairdresser and will continue on through his imagination to complete several additional errands that his wife had asked him to complete. In Mitty’s imagination, he portrayed himself to his readers as a Surgeon, repair technician and even a Naval Commanding Officer.

Satire is found throughout the short story of the Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Most if not all the scenes in the story support this assumption. According to our text, it states that “the writer of satire exaggerates or criticizes such conditions but blends ridicule with gentle humor—often intending to encourage change or improvement” (Clugston, 2010).

I was in the Navy for 22 years and I can relate to the imagination he was utilizing in the first scene being on the bridge and listening to the Conning Officer or Commanding Officer giving these orders. Many of the other scenes were humorous and kept my attention by changing scenes and keeping my attention because I could not predict what was to happen next.

Throughout the story, Mr. Mitty is viewed as a very timid husband that uses his imagination to cope with his wife and the various aspects of married life.

The genre of the story is comedy; the author provides a...