The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• havo
• Leerjaar 5

"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"
What do you expect this story to be about?

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

• The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a short story written in 1939 by James Thurber.
• Appeared in The New Yorker magazine and was later added to his book  'My World and Welcome to It'.
  
• It is one of the most included stories when anthologies are compiled of similar works.
• It has been filmed in 1947 and 2013, as well as performed in theatres.
• These adaptations do not always stick to the original story but expand on its ideas!
  

Now read the story and meanwhile answer these questions:

1. Where is the story set? 
2. Who are the characters in the story and what do you learn about them?
3. Are these characters real? Realistic or charicatures?

Where does the story take place?

Answer these questions:

1. Setting of place? > FANTASY VS REALITY. Mark every part of the story as REALITY or FANTASY
2. Main characters? a passive husband named Walter Mitty and his bossy wife

Mark every part of the story as FANTASY or REALITY. What 'role' does Walter Mitty play in each part? 

What about Walter Mitty's character in real life and in his fantasy world? Watch this trailer and answer the question on the next slide. 

Walter Mitty REALITY VS

1. a driver who drives too fast VS
2. a man entering a no-exit street, unable to park his car VS
3. a man who has forgotten what his wife told him to buy and who talks to himself VS
4. a man being bossed around by his wife
5. a man being bossed around by his wife

Walter Mitty FANTASY

1. a brave unstoppable pilot
2. a famous doctor saving a millionaire friend of President Roosevelt
3. 'a crack shot' being in a court room interrogation
4. an army captain willing to give his own life
5. man bravely facing firing squad 

Text

Match the words with:

the Mitty in reality

the Mitty in dreams

Mastery of intense tasks

Courageous

Skillful

Confident 

Incompetent

Insecure

Useless

Timid

Mister Mitty reality

Mister Mitty's daydreams

Themes

These are the most important themes in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. In pairs discuss why and where you find this in the story:  

• heroism and masculinity
• illness and mortality
• public image and embarrassment

Litcharts.com lists these themes.

CONCEALMENT:

The real-life Walter Mitty keeps his true self hidden, literally and figuratively. Whether he’s reluctantly putting on gloves and overshoes in obedience to Mrs. Mitty’s concern about his health, or planning to wear a sling on his arm to save himself from embarrassment, he believes concealing himself is necessary for his own protection; revealing his true self in any way would mean a risk of exposing his flaws. In his fantasies, however, Mitty is completely in control of what he conceals or reveals, and concealment is always an example of his strength. His heroic alter egos are calm and cool, expert at controlling their feelings—in particular, the enigmatic fighter pilot Captain Mitty remains self-possessed even while drinking. But Mitty won’t accept any concealment imposed by others. In the courtroom fantasy, he refuses to use the sling as a disguise even when it could potentially save him from conviction: he wants everyone to know the truth about him and his abilities. His declaration, “To hell with the handkerchief!” in the final scene is similar—in declining a handkerchief blindfold, not only does he refuse to show fear before the firing squad, but he also refuses to conceal his face.

Symbolism (source: litcharts.com)

The real-life Walter Mitty keeps his true self hidden, literally and figuratively. Whether he’s reluctantly putting on gloves and overshoes in obedience to Mrs. Mitty’s concern about his health, or planning to wear a sling on his arm to save himself from embarrassment, he believes concealing himself is necessary for his own protection; revealing his true self in any way would mean a risk of exposing his flaws. 

Concealment

In his fantasies, however, Mitty is completely in control of what he conceals or reveals, and concealment is always an example of his strength. His heroic alter egos are calm and cool, expert at controlling their feelings—in particular, the enigmatic fighter pilot Captain Mitty remains self-possessed even while drinking. 

Concealment 

But Mitty won’t accept any concealment imposed by others. In the courtroom fantasy, he refuses to use the sling as a disguise even when it could potentially save him from conviction: he wants everyone to know the truth about him and his abilities. His declaration, “To hell with the handkerchief!” in the final scene is similar—in declining a handkerchief blindfold, not only does he refuse to show fear before the firing squad, but he also refuses to conceal his face.

Inscrutability

For “Walter Mitty the Undefeated, inscrutable to the last,” this moment of pride and bravery is triumphant in spite of his death. Yet there’s a sad irony to the fact that he remains “inscrutable”—that is, impossible for others to understand—up to the moment of his death, because this description applies to his real life as well as his fantasy. Just as his wife appears to be a stranger at the beginning, he will always be unknown and unknowable to her, and nobody will ever know what goes on in his secret life.

What type of story is The Secret life of Walter Mitty?

1. This story is a QUEST. Its main character goes on a search to find himself. and we read about his inner life.
2. This story is a TRAGEDY. It is a story about the downfall of a man and we read about all the negative emotions he goes through.
3. This story is a COMEDY. Its main character experiences life and we read about it in a humouristic way.
4. This is a RAGS-TO-RICHES story. It is about a man who is very poor and who turns rich at the end and we learn how this came about.

Why is Walter Mitty both a tragic and a funny story? (see note)

One of the most striking characteristics of Walter Mitty’s fantasies is their silliness. The fantasies may be heroic, but only melodramatically, cartoonishly so; from the fountain pen Mitty uses to replace a piston to the beautiful woman who materializes in his arms, they contain events and elements that couldn’t possibly happen in reality, and read like exaggerated parodies of action movies or adventure stories. Like a child playing pretend, Mitty makes a pocketa-pocketa-pocketa sound effect for machines from airships to flamethrowers, and his vision of the machines is hazy beyond “complicated” dials and wires. His characters shout out nonsensical jargon: “Coreopsis is setting in,” says the imaginary Dr. Renshaw, giving the surgical patient’s condition the name of a daisylike flower. In some ways, Thurber’s humor undermines Mitty even further; he is so pathetically far from having the skills he dreams of excelling in that his fantasies don’t even make sense. Yet the real Mitty is also capable of wordplay—“toothbrush, bicarbonate, carborundum, initiative and referendum?” he muses at one point, free-associating with the items on his shopping list—and his real life can be darkly ridiculous too (“Don’t tell me you forgot the what’s-it’s-name,” Mrs. Mitty will often say). For that matter, Mitty and his wife are such cartoons of the proverbial henpecked husband and nagging wife that their real selves are hardly more dimensional than the characters Mitty imagines, which means that a less tongue-in-cheek rendition of his macho fantasies could come off as self-pitying or misogynistic. Mitty’s secret life is what gives him depth—and the lighthearted, humorous tone of his fantasies is what makes both sides of his character sympathetic.

Technique Used by Writer

the overlap of fantasy and reality

What is the narrative perspective of the Walter Mitty Story? (Do you know the difference?)

1. 1st person narrative
2. 2nd person narrative
3. 3rd person limited narrative
4. 3rd person omniscient narrative

third-person limited, as we only know what Walter Mitty thinks

Is Walter victorious at the end of the story? Is he a hero? Why?

YES

NO

BOTH

The first question asked was what you thought Walter Mitty was about? Were you right?

Yes, I had guessed correctly.

No, I was wrong.

My answer was partly correct.

Do you understand the storyline?

1. Yes
2. No

Do you understand its themes?

1. Yes
2. No

Do you understand the setting of time and place of this story?

1. Yes
2. No

Can you explain what narrative perspective is used in this story?

1. Yes
2. No

Are you able to explain symbols in this story?

1. Yes
2. No

How much did you like reading/discussing The Secret Life of Walter Mitty?

😒🙁😐🙂😃

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