The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
By James Thurber
An ineffectual dreamer or someone with a rich
imagination enlivening his day?
"We
only live once, Sergeant,” said Mitty, with his faint, fleeting smile. “Or do
we?” He poured another brandy and tossed it off.
The way I had heard people speak of this story, I
thought it must be a novel. Then I received the book and found 32 pages with
large type and double spacing. I pasted
it into Microsoft Word and found a word count of 2,083. It reads so quickly, you wouldn’t even think
it was that long.
The story opens with Mitty imagining that he is a
Commander on a ship breaking through ice, only to be rudely awakened to his
wife demanding he slow down because he’s driving too fast.
“You
were up to fifty-five,” she said. “You know I don’t like to go more than forty.
You were up to fifty-five.”
Walter drops his wife at her hair appointment and
she admonishes him to buy some overshoes and wear his gloves.
As he drives past a hospital, Mitty is drawn into an
operating room drama in his head. Parking the car doesn’t go so well in that
frame of mind.
He manages the errands his wife sent him on then
ends up sitting in chair, off on another adventure, where his wife finds him.
They set out but she leaves him standing outside a store where he finds himself
facing a firing squad.
I’ve heard it said that the average man lives one
life but the man who reads lives many.
In this story, Walter is writing his own stories. The problem is that it
interferes with living his own life.
No one can live all the things they thought about
becoming as a kid. The sad part may be that he may not have gotten to do
anything at all in his life.
The idea inspired a movie in 1947 starring Danny
Kaye and this year a new movie starring Ben Stiller will come out on Christmas
Day. It’s only loosely related to the book.
The short story portrays someone who dreams his way through life, making
his boring everyday life more interesting. The movie seems to ask the question
– what if Walter Mitty didn’t remain
an ineffectual dreamer? What if he finally fulfilled his desire for action and
adventure?
You can see the trailer here - The Secret Life of Walter Mitty starring Ben Stiller.
The movie, set to come out Christmas day, looks amazing. My husband and I are eager to
see it. Read the story. Then go see the
movie and find out what someone imagined for
Walter Mitty.
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