Comparison of Mitty in real life and in his dreams: "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" by James Thurber.
Life is harsh and unfair and living through it may seem to be an endless torment. Even beloved people can sometimes create our deepest engraves. Therefore surviving through it requires dreaming beyond life and its sufferings. Some people daydream to enter their perfect world and others daydream to escape the bleakness of reality. In the short story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" by James Thurber, Walter, the main character, daydreams to escapes his mediocre life for a more enhanced life where he pretends to be respected. In real life Mitty is disrespected, insecure and is a pushover. These two are paradoxical; in Mitty's daydreams he is highly esteemed as where in real life he is abused and slighted.
In the first dream Mitty imagines himself being a brave Commander in a Navy hydroplane. He visualizes himself wearing a "full-dress uniform" (3) and driving boldly his hydroplane through a furious hurricane; everyone thinks that they will perish except Mitty. His crew says to each other "the old man ain't afraid of hell" (3). Mitty is pictured as an exceedingly valiant and heroic character that nothing seems to stop. In another of his illusory dreams Mitty pictures himself as a successful doctor. He thinks that he wrote a book and that his colleague doctors congratulate him for his " brilliant performance" (4). He continued his daydream imagining that he fixes calmly a machine necessary for the survival of a patient during an operation. Two great specialists appreciate him so much that they even ask him to "get on with the operation"(5). Mitty feels as a person of great personality and importance. And in an additional dream Mitty is a rough war Captain. He imagines himself handling a bomber that takes two men to handle. Mitty seems tranquil during the constant bombarding outside. He even leaves "humming Après de Ma Blonde" (8) to face the atrocities awaiting him outside. He impresses even the sergeant. Mitty, in his dreams is all that he is not in his dreams.
In the first dream Mitty imagines himself being a brave Commander in a Navy hydroplane. He visualizes himself wearing a "full-dress uniform" (3) and driving boldly his hydroplane through a furious hurricane; everyone thinks that they will perish except Mitty. His crew says to each other "the old man ain't afraid of hell" (3). Mitty is pictured as an exceedingly valiant and heroic character that nothing seems to stop. In another of his illusory dreams Mitty pictures himself as a successful doctor. He thinks that he wrote a book and that his colleague doctors congratulate him for his " brilliant performance" (4). He continued his daydream imagining that he fixes calmly a machine necessary for the survival of a patient during an operation. Two great specialists appreciate him so much that they even ask him to "get on with the operation"(5). Mitty feels as a person of great personality and importance. And in an additional dream Mitty is a rough war Captain. He imagines himself handling a bomber that takes two men to handle. Mitty seems tranquil during the constant bombarding outside. He even leaves "humming Après de Ma Blonde" (8) to face the atrocities awaiting him outside. He impresses even the sergeant. Mitty, in his dreams is all that he is not in his dreams.