Man's Evolution through Fear in Walter Mitty

Dare to dream and follow its path

Through the many fantasies of a man scared to follow his own dreams the evolution of his character due to facing such fears, the secret life of Walter Mitty has a lot to teach. Most of the things it teaches revolve around its several themes. One such theme is that you should make your dreams a reality and it is incredibly prevalent throughout the movie. Yet its shown in different ways in the three stages of the movie.

First there is the stage in the movie where Walter is constantly getting lost in his own day dreams. These day dreams are generally intense and cause him to completely stop talking along with make it difficult for him to notice what’s going on around him. Throughout the first stage of the movie these dreams occur incredibly often. Through getting to know Walter more along with his small family we find out that his tendency to fantasize so much likely has to do with the fact he never went on any grand adventures when he was younger.

This is due to his father dying around the time Walter was graduating and getting ready top go off on his adventure. After his father died he had to take upon the mantle of caring for the family and postponed doing what he wished to do. On top of that during this stage and dealing with the chance of being fired, which is a plot point likely used to aid in propelling Walter into changing, he works in the basement of the life magazine office.

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This area he works in is rather dark almost no natural light comes in. Walter’s workplace likely also represents a kind of jail cell that has been formed by him never taking a break from working to live.

Then there is the stage in which Walter has been propelled into the beginnings of an adventure. After all it could cost him his job if he can’t get the negative for his new bosses. So, he goes off in search of the photographer of said photo. During the plane ride to Greenland where he starts his adventure they directors portrayed the ride very ideally. He even received a rather amazing seeming meal despite being in business class. The likely reason for this was probably to show that this was the beginning of a new chapter for Walter or show that things are changing for the better. Then as he’s searching for the photographer he continues to just be one step behind but doesn’t seem to give up. Also there are noticeably fewer daydreams during this part of the movie. Likely representing that Walter was getting closer to what his heart desired. For the most part there honestly seemed to be only one main daydream and that one was just to give him the push he needed to keep going.

Finally, there is the third stage of the movie where Walter is beating the odds and going on the adventure he always wanted to as a kid. During this stage Walter doesn’t appear to have a single daydream. Likely representing that his dreams are finally coming true so why would he need to escape from his reality. During this stage he also finds the photographer and discovers where the negative was and despite thinking he lost discovers his mother saved it and making the task that pushed Walter out of his comfort zone come to a resolution. Along with the main task coming to a conclusion by the discovery of negative 25, the sub plot of Walter asking out the co worker he really likes comes to a full bloom. Resulting in dear Walter asking out his coworker despite everything that seemed to come between them before.

In conclusion one of the main themes of the Secret Life of Walter Mitty revolves around making your dreams come true. This theme is shown throughout the three main stages of the movie. These stages are daydreaming often, the beginning of an adventure, and finding what he was searching for. While these names aren’t precise they give the viewer a slight guideline in the shifts of the movie.