The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty Poem Analysis
As Marcel Proust once said, “the only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes, in seeing the universe in the eyes of another, of hundreds of others, in seeing hundreds of universes that each of them sees”. Through the analysis of the two Robert Gray poems of ‘Journey, the North Coast’ and ‘The Meatworks’, as well as ‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’, directed by Ben Stiller, we as an audience learn that the key to discovery is developing a greater capacity to view the world from different perspectives other than ones own, leading to new understandings and personal growth. The audience is able to speculate about the sudden discoveries of a creative, physical, emotional and spiritual excursion into
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Stiller utilises the mid shot of the protagonist staring off into the distance to display his daydream of discovering what an “adventurous, brave and creative” man he aspires to be, whilst the fading of the shot depicts a sense of vibrancy and liveliness, in contrast to his mundane life. The character imaginatively discovers his true sense of self whereby the audience is lead to believe that his tendency to experience escapism, is more than just an escape, however, is a depicture of the future possibilities that he is about to embark on by transforming his dreams into a reality. This differs to Robert Gray’s poem as rather than physically experiencing an event to realise natures ability to restore and rejuvenate, Walter Mitty instead, uses his wild imagination to gain a new perception on life’s purpose. Finally, the audience can see a result of his imaginary world that foreshadowed future possibilities of his true potential through the full shot of a rare snow leopard. This metaphorically represents Walter Mitty himself to be an example of “beautiful things [that] don’t ask for attention”, to which it is through this dialogue where he makes an emotional discovery of a new perception that he is a “quintessence of life”. Like ‘Journey, the North Coast’ and ‘The Meatworks, the power of nature can be seen through the fauna of an empowering “ghost cat”, allowing a significant change that encourages the protagonist to discover that he is in fact a brave and courageous explorer of the world, rather than the monotonous man he thought he
Stiller utilises the mid shot of the protagonist staring off into the distance to display his daydream of discovering what an “adventurous, brave and creative” man he aspires to be, whilst the fading of the shot depicts a sense of vibrancy and liveliness, in contrast to his mundane life. The character imaginatively discovers his true sense of self whereby the audience is lead to believe that his tendency to experience escapism, is more than just an escape, however, is a depicture of the future possibilities that he is about to embark on by transforming his dreams into a reality. This differs to Robert Gray’s poem as rather than physically experiencing an event to realise natures ability to restore and rejuvenate, Walter Mitty instead, uses his wild imagination to gain a new perception on life’s purpose. Finally, the audience can see a result of his imaginary world that foreshadowed future possibilities of his true potential through the full shot of a rare snow leopard. This metaphorically represents Walter Mitty himself to be an example of “beautiful things [that] don’t ask for attention”, to which it is through this dialogue where he makes an emotional discovery of a new perception that he is a “quintessence of life”. Like ‘Journey, the North Coast’ and ‘The Meatworks, the power of nature can be seen through the fauna of an empowering “ghost cat”, allowing a significant change that encourages the protagonist to discover that he is in fact a brave and courageous explorer of the world, rather than the monotonous man he thought he