Author’s Background

• One of America’s well known humorists

• Author and a cartoonist
• Born in Columbus, Ohio, 1894
• Graduated Ohio State University and worked as a newspaper
reporter in Ohio, France, and New York
• Worked for The New Yorker magazine 1927-1933
• Worked with E.B White who wrote well-known children stories like
Charlotte Web and many more.
• Awarded honorary degrees from Williams College and Yale
University.
• Drawings were exhibited in International Art Shows
• Not recognized as a serious writer
• First married to Althea Adams for 13 years, had a daughter with
her and divorced, then married to Helen Wismer.
• Give up drawing in 1940’s because his failing eyesight
James Thurber
• Thurber’s writings became more pessimistic in the 1950’s.
• Died in 1961.
 About “The Secret Life of Walter
Mitty”
• Published in The New Yorker in March 1939

• Thurber wrote 15 drafts of the story before publishing it.

• The “Walter Mitty Type”

• In 1947 Hollywood released a movie with the similar title

starring Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo.
Point Of View
Third person point of view

Third person omniscient- Narrator has access to

Walter Mitty’s thoughts, fantasy, feelings and
flashbacks.
Themes
 Walter Mitty’s
inability to live a
fulfilling external life
causes him to
retreat/escape to an
internal life full of
images of conquest.

Escapism

Walter Mitty
escapes into his
day dreaming
stories to escape
his reality life.
Does not gain
respect as a Walter Mitty
masculine role fails to meet
from any traditional Masculinity
characters in expectation of
the story masculinity
 Mrs.Mitty
Mr.Mitty plays the
prefers to dominant
be character
abstracte
d
Mitty’s
dependent
and
irresponsible
behavior

Marriage (Queen Control)

Settings
 Place
Reality :
• The story occurs in Waterbury, Connecticut
• Located in the city;
• Mr & Mrs Mitty travelling in a car to the city beauty salon, the
streets, parking lot, shoe store, grocery store, hotel lobby.

Virtually :
• The story occurs in Walter Mitty’s imagination;
• Airplane, Operating Room, Courtroom, Dugout, A wall facing the
firing squad.
 Time
• 1938-1939
• The story only occurred in a day or probably a few hours
Characters
 A
Daydreamer

Submissive
Erratic and and plays
distracted passive roles
Walter in marriage

Mitty

Unable to carry
Immature
out traditional
and
masculine roles
irresponsible
and skills
 Dominating

Links
Walter
Mitty to Mrs.Mitty Demanding
reality

Person in-
charge
Figurative Language
 Onomatopeia

pocketa-pocketa rat-tattatting
pocketa: • stimulate sound of guns
• sounds of the pounding of
cylinders
• new anesthetizer
• flame-throwers
Simile
•The commander’s voice was like thin ice breaking
•She seemed grossly unfamiliar. Like a strange woman who had
yelled at him in a crowd

Hyperbole
•I could have killed Gregory Fitzhurst at three hundred feet with
my left hand
 Allusion
• A & P: A superchain market

• Liberty: A magazine

• Archies: anti-aircraft weapon

• Auprès de Ma Blonde: French Folk song composed in 1600’s

• Coals to Newcastle: British city famous for production and

export of coal “like carrying coals to Newcastle”- executing a
needless task
Von Richtman’s Circus:

a) Von Richtmans- allusion of Manfred Von Richtofen:

-an ace world war I German Pilot known as the Red Baron

b) Circus- allusion of the Flying Circus:

-a unit of elite pilots commanded by Richtofen

Webley-Vickers 50.80 (made-up for a gun):

• -Webley and Vickers were separate British companies that
manufactured weapon
Tones
Tones

Gentle Humor

Amused
admiration
Symbols
1. Pocketa – Poketa – Poketa
• Sounds of ‘Navy hydroplane’ that Walter Mitty steers
through a violent storm.
•Mitty fantasy surgery the new anestheizer give way and
makes the same sounds,
•When Mitty imagines himself as British pilot, flame
thrower make the same noise
• It might be is the sound of car engine which Walter hear
when he’s driving into town with his wife.
2.Mitty Bumbling Jargan
• - Mitty fantasies about being Commander or a pilot or a
surgeon or a crap shot but in fact, he is none of these
things and as such he doesn’t really know what he
talking about.

3. Overshoes and Gloves

•Mrs Mitty badgers Walter to buy overshoes at the store.
She also insists that he wear his gloves while driving.
•Its seem to us that a lot of what she does to Walter has
to do with sheltering him from the world. After all she
won’t let him do simple things for himself.
Plot Analysis
 Plot Summary

The story begins with a Commander trying to get an “eight-engined Navy hydroplane”
through a storm. The scenario turns out a little more than a fantasy in the mind of Walter
Mitty, who isn’t so much piloting anything as he is driving his wife into town. Mrs. Mitty
complains that he is going too fast. Walter drops his wife to get her hair done and gets
ready to do the list of errands she has prepared for him. Mrs. Mitty reminds him not to
forget to buy his overshoes (rubber rain boots) and insists that he wear his gloves while
driving. Mitty drives away and is chastised by a cop for dawdling while putting on his
gloves. He drives past a hospital and launches into another fantasy. This time, he’s a
famous doctor trying to save a millionaire and friend of the president’s named Wellington
McMillan. In this fantasy, Mitty is introduced to the other doctors performing a surgery on
the millionaire. They both express admiration for Mitty as a doctor. When one of the
machine breaks during the operation, Mitty deftly uses a fountain pen to fix it, buying the
surgeons ten minutes to continue. When the other doctors get stuck, Mitty steps in to save
the day. Walter’s fantasy is interrupted by a boy shouting at him to back up. It seems he
entered the parking lot through the exit lane. The parking attendant just tells him to leave
the car there, and he will park it properly. Mitty leaves the car and muses that people like
that parking attendant are always so arrogant. He remembers once trying to take the
chains off his tyres himself and getting them tangled. The mechanic grinned at him the
same way the parking attendant did. Now Mrs. Mitty makes him drive the car to the
garage every time he wants to remove the chains.
Walter thinks of wearing his arm in a sling next time so that the men at the garage won’t
laugh at him. Walter remembers that his wife wants him to buy overshoes and makes the
purchase at a shoe store. Then he can’t remember the second thing his wife told him –
twice- not to forget to buy. As he runs through a list of possible items, Mitty decides that
he hates these weekly trips to town that they make. While he’s thinking, a newsboy goes
by shouting about the Waterbury trial. This leads Mitty to another fantasy. This time, he’s
a great pistol shot being interrogated in a courtroom. His defence lawyer argues that
Mitty could not have killed the victim, since his right arm was in a sling on the day the
murder took place. But Mitty interrupts his lawyer and shouts that he could have killed
the man with any gun of any make with his left hand from three hundred feet away.
‘Puppy biscuit,’ says Mitty. He suddenly remembers the thing he’s supposed to buy-
puppy biscuits. A woman passing by laughs at him and thinks he is a crazy who just said
“puppy biscuit” for no reason. Mitty goes into a store to buy puppy biscuits, but can’t
recall the right brand name is. He has to describe what the box looks like to the clerk
instead. After the purchase, he goes to the hotel lobby to wait for his wife and notices a
copy of Liberty magazine with pictures of German bombers on it. Thus, he fantasizes
himself as an Air Captain, willing to sacrifice his own life for the good of his country.
Walter is then interrupted by his wife’s arrival. She scolds him for not putting on the
overshoes he bought. “I was thinking,” responds Mitty. “Does it ever occur to you that I
am sometimes thinking?”. Mrs. Mitty responds that she is going to take his temperature
when they get home. The two of them leave the hotel lobby together. Mrs. Mitty runs
into a drugstore to grab something, and Walter is left standing against the wall outside.
He imagines he is about to be shot by a firing squad, but faces it boldly and bravely.
 Plot diagram

climax climax climax

No falling action

resolution resolution resolution

• The climax in the story involves all the daydreaming and imaginings of
Walter Mitty.

• There is no falling action after the climax before reaching resolutions

in each part of the story.

• There is no falling action due to the sudden awakenings from his

daydreams. Some of his daydreams are also stunted and not finished
completely.
Conflict

• Internal : Mitty in the real world versus Mitty in his fantasy world
• External : Mitty versus his wife and the society especially his
struggle to follow conventional social norms. (society looks down
on him)
• The story employs the use of ‘stories within a story’ style in a mix of
fantasy and realistic fiction.
• Focuses on escapism from mundane life into the world of fantasies
triggered by stimuli :
e.g. Speeding car, hospital building, gloves, a shouting newsboy on
Waterbury trial, etc.
Technique : Stories within a story

Advantages Disadvantages

Creates
Builds suspense.
confusion.
Provides variety Readers may lose track of
to the readers. the story.
Makes the story Spoils the flow and
interesting. enjoyment of the story.
Shows a change in
character.
The 5 day dreams of Mitty
 The pilot of a US Navy
Hydroplane
-Commander Mitty-

Fearless Mitty – Mitty’s A surgeon, a

fearlessly facing
Fantasies famous doctor
the firing squad

A royal Air Force

Pilot An Assassin
-Captain Mitty-
1. The pilot of a US Navy hydroplane – Commander Mitty.
• Walter Mitty is driving too fast so he thinks he is a Naval
Commander. Mrs. Mitty brings him back to reality (the resolution).
• Mrs. Mitty is characterized mostly through her interaction with
Walter and his jolting back to reality. She is going to the beauty
parlour and Walter is going to get overshoes and have the chains
taken off the tyres from winter.
• Doctor Renshaw is Walter’s doctor. Mrs. Mitty wants him to go and
have a checkup as he is acting strangely.
• Walter drives around a while and passes a hospital. Then he begins
to fantasize that he is fixing a machine in the hospital with a broken
piston with a fountain pen.
2. A surgeon – He is a famous doctor.
• The parking lot attendant jolts him back to reality (the resolution).
• The attendant makes fun of him and embarasses him. He said that next
year he would wear his right arm in a sling. Then he leaves to get the
overshoes. He had forgotten the item that Mrs. Mitty had wanted him
to get.
3. An Assassin.
• On the street he hears about a trial, and fantasizes that he is a famous
assassin on trial for murder.
• Finally during the fantasy he remembers the puppy biscuits and said it
out loud (the resolution).
• A woman passing on the street laughed at him because he was talking
to himself.
• He goes in the A & P and buys the biscuits whose name he has also
forgotten. All he remembered was ‘Puppies bark for it’ was on the box.
• His wife would be finished in 15 minutes, so he goes to the hotel where
he meets her and begins to read an ‘Old copy of Liberty’ probably
published during World War 2.
4. A Royal air Force pilot – RAF Captain Mitty.
• He dreams that he is a courageous pilot in the war.
• His dream is shattered by the arrival of his wife who begins to nag
him about hiding from her and not putting his over shoes (the
resolution).
• She thinks he is ill because he is acting strangely. She is going to
take his temperature when he gets home. She has forgotten
something and darts in the drug store to get it.

5. Fearless Mitty –Person fearlessly facing the firing squad.

• Walter’s final dream is that of facing the firing squad mysterious as
to end without handkerchief and smoking a cigarette.
The stimuli to Mitty’s
day dreams
1. First fantasy : The empowering up of the “Navy hydroplane” in the
opening scene is followed by Mrs. Mitty’s complaint that Mitty is
driving too fast which suggests that his speedy driving led to the
first day dream.
2. Second fantasy : Mitty’s turns as a brilliant surgeon immediately
follows his taking off and putting on his gloves as a surgeon puts his
surgical gloves and drives past the hospital.
3. Third fantasy :The court room drama “perhaps this will refresh
your memory” which begins the third fantasy, follows Mitty’s
attempt to remember what his wife told him to buy and also a
newspaper vendor using news of Waterbury trial to sell his
newspapers.
4. Fourth fantasy : Mitty’s romanticized version of British pilots in the
early days of World War 2 is inspired from his looking at an old copy
“liberty”, which contains images of war in which The US was not yet
involved at the time of the story’s publication.
5. Fifth fantasy : The closing firing squad scene comes when Mitty is
standing against the wall.
Moral values
• We should quit retreating into our imaginations to avoid
problems in our reality life – external, social life.
• Plan some strategies to achieve what we dream of becoming in
our life instead of just daydream it away.
• Extreme daydreaming may cause hallucinations which can
affect people’s daily routine as well as bring harm to people’s
safety.
• The action of daydreaming is wasting time and energy.
• We should be able to play our roles in life and take our
responsibility seriously on anything that we do.