The Secret Life of Walter Mitty analysis

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" (1939) is a short story by James Thurber.

沃尔特·米蒂的秘密生活”进城之旅，他霸道的妻子，夫人米蒂告诉故事老化米提。

Walter is inept at many things; he is an absent-minded driver, he can't handle simple mechanical

tasks, and he forgets things easily.沃尔特在很多事情是不称职的;他是一个心不在焉的司机，他不能处理简单的机械任务，他很容易忘记的事情。 What makes Walter exceptional is his

imagination.是什么让沃尔特特殊的是他的想象。

While Walter goes through a day of ordinary tasks and errands, he escapes into a series of

romantic fantasies, each spurred on by some mundane reality.虽然沃尔特通过一个普通的任务和跑腿的日子，他逃脱了一系列浪漫的幻想，促使一些世俗的现实上每个。 As he drives his

car, he imagines he is commanding "a Navy hydroplane" through a terrible storm (1).当他驾驶他的车，他想象他指挥一场可怕的风暴（1）通过的“海军水上飞机”。 When he rides past a

hospital, he imagines he is a world-famous surgeon saving a VIP's life.当他骑过去医院，他想象他是一个世界著名的外科医生，节省贵宾的生活。 When he hears a newsboy shouting about

a trial, he imagines he is a crack shot being interrogated in the courtroom.当他听到报童审判喊，他想象他是一个神手，在法庭审讯。 As he waits for his wife to finish at the hairdresser's,

Walter sees pictures of German plane and imagines he is a British pilot willing to sacrifice his life

for his country.等待他的妻子完成的美发，沃尔特看到德国飞机的照片，想象他是一个英国飞行员，愿意为他的国家牺牲自己的生命。 Lastly, as Mitty waits outside against a wall for his

wife to buy something in a drugstore, he fantasizes that he is a bold and brave man about to be

shot by a firing squad.最后，米蒂对墙上，他的妻子在一家药店买的东西，在门外等候，他幻想，他是一个大胆的，勇敢的人，即将由行刑队杀。 The story ends with the inscrutable

Walter Mitty awaiting this romantic death.故事的结局，等待这浪漫死亡的高深莫测的沃尔特·米蒂。

The name Walter Mitty and the derivative word "Mittyesque" have entered the English language,

denoting an ineffectual person who spends more time in heroic daydreams than paying attention to

the real world, or more seriously, one who intentionally attempts to mislead or convince others

that he is something that he is not.

Plot

The short story deals with a vague and mild-mannered man who drives into Waterbury,

Connecticut, with his wife for their regular weekly shopping and his wife's visit to the beauty

parlor. During this time he has five heroic daydream episodes. The first is as a pilot of a U.S.

Navy flying boat in a storm, then he is a magnificent surgeon performing a one-of-a-kind surgery,

then as a cool assassin testifying in a courtroom, and then as a Royal Air Force (RAF) pilot

volunteering for a daring, secret suicide mission to bomb an ammunition dump. As the story ends,

Mitty imagines himself facing a firing squad, "inscrutable to the last."

Each of the fantasies is inspired by some detail of Mitty's mundane surroundings:

•

The powering up of the "Navy hydroplane" in the opening scene is followed by Mrs.

Mitty's complaint that Mitty is "driving too fast", which suggests that his driving was

what led to the daydream.

•

Mitty's turn as a brilliant surgeon immediately follows his taking off and putting on his

gloves (as a surgeon dons surgical gloves) and driving past a hospital.

•

The courtroom drama cliché "Perhaps this will refresh your memory", which begins the

third fantasy, follows Mitty's attempt to remember what (besides overshoes) his wife

told him to buy; and also a newspaper vendor using news of a trial to sell his papers.

(Thurber once used the same line to caption a cartoon in which a prosecutor shows the

defendant a kangaroo.)

•

Mitty's fourth daydream comes as he waits for his wife and picks up an old copy of

Liberty, reading "Can Germany Conquer the World Through the Air?", and visions

himself fighting Germany while volunteering to pilot a plane normally piloted by two

people.

•

The closing firing-squad scene comes when Mitty is standing against a wall, smoking.

Themes

The story depicts a man whose extremely mundane life is constantly interrupted by the character's

escapist fantasies. Whereas the fantasy Mitty is not scared of anything, the real one protests feebly,

if at all, at demands that he behave cautiously. Similarly, the admiration bestowed on Mitty in the

fantasies contrasts with much less pleasant interactions with real people. Aside from being ordered

around by his wife (who seems to genuinely worry about him, and wants to take his temperature to

see whether he is sick), Mitty is yelled at by a policeman and a parking lot attendant, and laughed

at by a woman who hears him say the words "Puppy biscuit". None of the fantasies end with Mitty

winning through in each dangerous situation; the first four fantasies are interrupted, and the fifth

ends with Mitty facing the firing squad.

However, those whose philosophy is summed up by the sentence "Success is journey, not a

destination" might disagree with this assessment, viewing quiet competence and courage as

imagined by Mitty as more important than "winning," and it can be argued that facing the firing

squad with courage and indifference is a win of sorts — in fact, the only kind of "win" one can

have when execution by firing squad is inevitable or unavoidable.

我们每个人都会有幻想，我们会幻想自己一夜之间成了百万富翁，我们会幻想自己成为救美的英雄，我们会幻想自己变成了某部电影中叱吒风云的超人。

有幻想不是什么问题，但如果你天天沉浸在这种幻想中，那你可得注意了，那很可能是一种病哟。

今天我们来介绍一个词，确切的说是个人名，Walter Mitty, 它指的就是那些整天幻想的人。

这个人名是美国作家 James Thurber(1884-1961)在短篇小说 "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"中所创造的一个人物。

这位主角是个典型的凡夫俗子，可是有一点与众不同，那就是他随时随地可以脱离现实、沉浸于英雄式的幻想中。

这篇小说就是以一段幻想开头，回到现实后又紧接著另一段幻想。

他一会儿是临危不乱的舰长、一会儿是英勇的飞行员、一会儿又是救命的外科医生。

这篇小说刊出后引起很大的反响。心理医生甚至以 Walter Mittyism 来称呼这种英雄式的幻想症。这个角可以视为西洋版的阿Q。

在英文中也就常用 Walter Mitty 来表示具有英雄式幻想的人。

詹姆斯.瑟伯（James Thurber ，1894-1961），美国著名作家、卡通画家、幽默大师（author,

cartoonist and humorist）。出生于俄亥俄州的哥伦布，父亲是一名职员、小政客，曾经几度失业。母亲意志坚强，同时还很有幽默天赋。瑟伯称她是一位“天生的喜剧演员”和“我所见过的最优秀的喜剧天才之一。”

瑟伯笔下最为著名的人物形象是Walter Mitty（.米提）。他来自瑟伯1941年创作的短篇小说作品《.米提的私密生活》（The Secret Life of Walter Mitty）。主人公.米提在现实生活中受刁蛮的妻子颐指气使，惟妻子之命是从，但内心又不平衡，生活中的一些细节常常可使他陷入幻想之中。

文章一开始，他幻想自己是一位叱咤风云的海军中校；舰艇遭遇了20年罕见的风暴，他幻想自己带领大家成功脱险；但是在现实生活中，他受妻子的指挥，开车的速度不可以超过40脉。接着，由于妻子要他去看医生，.米提幻想自己是一位思维敏捷的外科医生；但是，现实生活中的米提连车都停不到停车场指定的位置。再往后，米提突然听到报童喊着有关审判的新闻，便幻想自己是名神手、被告人，检察官不顾米提的辩护律师所作的无罪辩护，而致力于治他的罪，这时，他破口大骂检察官是“可怜的狗！”这时，他自然地想

起妻子让他买小狗饼干的吩咐。后来，他在饭店大厅等待妻子，在看到登有德军轰炸机的图片时，又将自己想象为一名勇敢的空军上校。直到最后，当他吸烟时，他还把自己幻想为一名视死如归的死刑犯