The most famous of Thurber’s inept male protagonists, the character is considered “the archetype for dreamy, hapless, Thurber Man”. Thurber loosely based the character, a daydreamer, on his friend Walter Mithoff. It’s not surprising, then, that he wants to create, and retreat into, his own little fantasy world.įinally, How would you describe Walter Mitty?, The American Heritage Dictionary defines a Walter Mitty as “an ordinary often ineffectual person who indulges in fantastic daydreams of personal triumphs”. Walter Jackson Mitty is a fictional character in James Thurber 's first short story ' The Secret Life of Walter Mitty ', first published in The New Yorker on March 18, 1939, and in book form in My Worldand Welcome to It in 1942.

Original title The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. … Walter is then thrust into a journey of many “real” adventures in his search for the image and discovers more about life than he expected.įurthermore, What does Walter Mitty want in life?, Walter Mitty’s ordinary, workaday life is none too exciting. A timid magazine photo manager who lives life vicariously through daydreams embarks on a true-life adventure when a negative goes missing. What is the meaning of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty?, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is about a man who constantly “zones out” by daydreaming about exciting adventures. Walter Mitty is neither exciting nor successful in his everyday life.

The theme of success and failure is examined through Mitty’s inability to live a fulfilling external life, which causes him to retreat to an internal life full of images of conquest.

Walter mtty adventure