The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Themes
Versions of Reality
The title character of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" retreats into fantasy as an escape from his mundane reality. In the real world, he is ordinary, passive, and sometimes inept. In his fantasi...
Dissatisfaction
Title character Walter Mitty finds himself dissatisfied with his mundane, every day life, and the role of passive husband to which he is relegated. Mitty dislikes the way people treat him – a...
Men and Masculinity
Walter Mitty is an ordinary man who dreams of being extraordinary. Part of the explanation for his dissatisfaction with his everyday life is that he fails to live up to what he holds as masculine i...
Marriage
"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" portrays a marriage in which the wife is domineering, controlling, bossy, and in short, "wearing the pants." Her husband, Walter Mitty, is by contrast passive, sub...
Identity
"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" raises interesting questions about how identity is crafted. How much of our identity is shaped by the opinions of those around us, and how much of it comes from ou...