Symbolism In The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty

Identity is a funny thing. It is like Lego blocks and it has many studs where additional bricks can be placed. Walter Mitty’s brick is bombarded and controlled by his wife. This changes how he lives his life making him both helpless and mentally weak. This leads Mitty to feel that fantasies are a way of transporting himself into a more manly and more desirable person. This is depicted through the use of symbolism to create a better understanding of the sequences found throughout the work. James Thurber’s “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” uses symbolism to craft the theme of how identity is molded from the clay you find around you. One symbol Thurber walks on are the overshoes that Mitty is told by his wife to go get when he is dropping her …show more content…
After his wife has gotten out of the car to go to the hair salon she asks him, “‘Why don't you wear your gloves? Have you lost your gloves?’ Walter Mitty reached in a pocket and brought out the gloves. He put them on, but after she had turned and gone into the building... he took them off again” (Thurber 1) as he drove away. Here by taking the gloves off Mitty is being rebellious and going against the tyrant, who in this case, is his wife. Doing this helps show his psychological view of his wife as the alpha and how that makes him obey her when she is watching over, but behind her back he wants to be his own alpha. In fact, he is like an opossum. When a predator is around he loses all power, but when it turns its back he tries to get as far from it as he can. However, he is tied to her by an invisible rope between them so he can never truly get away. The gloves symbolize authority that Mitty dismisses when the authority has turned away. This idea is further developed as he is fantasizing about being a top-notch doctor. In his daydream a lower tier doctor asks him, “‘If you would take over, Mitty?’” and “Mitty looked at him. ‘If you wish,’ he said. They slipped a white gown on him, he adjusted a mask and drew on thin gloves” (Thurber 2). Here Mitty sees himself as a noteworthy doctor and by putting on the gloves he admits that he is going to be exposed to harm without them. This must be how he feels about …show more content…
This can be seen when daydreaming, Mrs. Mitty interrupts Walter and exclaims, “‘You were up to fifty-five. You know I don't like to go more than forty’... Walter Mitty drove on toward Waterbury in silence” (Thurber 1). In society driving is seen as a masculine attribute and driving faster makes a person that much more manly. Mitty, however, is not permitted to drive fast by his wife. This affects his level of manliness and brings to question is Walter Mitty really the man in this relationship. In fact, even though he is driving, his wife is the person really behind the wheel. This car is a perfect symbol of their relationship and who really has the wheel. This changes his role and with it his personality. This can be seen further when Walter is reminiscing of a past experience with his car. One time when “he had tried to take his chains off… he had got them wound around the axles... Since then Mrs. Mitty always made him drive to a garage to have the chains taken off” (Thurber 2). Here it is clear how his masculinity and capability is questioned by his wife. Since he messed up once she has put his cookies in other people’s baskets. She is managing his life like an online game character. His every response to a situation is controlled by his wife. The car symbolizes here a sign of capability that Walter’s wife is not allowing him which alters his lifestyle and with it his