“the Secret Life of Walter Mitty”

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Ella Howard ENG 1102 Professor Hilger 28 October 2012 “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” By James Thurber James Thurber published “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” in 1939. It is a story about a man name Walter Mitty that has a very active imagination. The story is one of James Thurber well-known stories that was turn in to a musical in 1947 by Norman McLeod. Walter Mitty life may seem ordinary in reality, but by using his imagination, it turns his life into many variations of adventures. In other words, he is escaping reality. James Thurber turns Walter Mitty ordinary life into exciting adventures by using his actions or his sight to trigger his imaginations. To first understand Walter Mitty first imagination, the reader would have to read pass it and realize what Walter Mitty was actually doing. Walter Mitty was actually driving in to town with his wife Mrs. Mitty to run errands and for her to get her hair done. While he was driving, his imagination has led him to being the commander of SN202 Navy hydroplane flying through a storm. As a solution, he decided to increase the plane speed. He was unaware that he was actually increasing the speed of the vehicle “What are you driving so fast for?” (Thurber, 140) indicates to us that he was so in to his daydream that he was unaware of what he was doing in reality. The next adventure that James Thurber uses is Walter Mitty being a doctor that is about to operate on a millionaire banker. He plans Walter Mitty imagination by him seeing the hospital, which triggers this imagination, perfectly together. First in his imagination, he fixed a machine with a fountain pen and in the end; he is preparing to operate on the patient. “Back it up, Mac! Look out for that Buick!” (Thurber, 140) is another indication that Walter Mitty mind was not in reality. Therefore, he was not aware of his action when he was trying to find a

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