![]() ![]() Mitty imagines that he is a navy commander piloting a hydroplane through the worst storm in 20 years of flying. The story begins with an episode of fantasy. Whereas Shakespeare's Macbeth crosses the border between thought and action in his quest for power, Thurber's Mitty is placed in circumstances that permit him to enjoy power only in fantasy and offer him no avenue of achieving it in real life. The story is about craving for power by the powerless. ![]() Mitty's occupation is not specified, but the suggestion generated by his lifestyle is that he is some type of clerk. Lindner points out that "Mitty is a descendant of Rip Van Winkle and Tom Sawyer" in serving to orchestrate the theme of conflict between the individual and society, and "he dream-wishes qualities customarily exhibited by the legendary frontier hero." At the same time the main theme of the story, the craving for power, is presented in a distinctively modern context. ![]() His chief character, Walter Mitty, has forerunners in native folklore and fiction. Thurber's story has its roots in American cultural tradition. "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" (collected in My World- and Welcome to It, 1942) is arguably the best of his stories and is still cited as an exemplar of its form during that period. As a comic short story writer, James Thurber had few rivals in the mid-twentieth century. ![]()
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