James Thurber

“A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit” (Bach 3). Every writer had to have started somewhere with their career. The amateur writers who did not quit are most often those who become famous later. James Thurber, an American humorist wrote a vast amount of stories. Although he struggled in the beginning of his career, he did not give up on his passion for writing. Thurber’s short story writing style was greatly influenced by the events in his early life, in his career, and in history. While James Thurber’s early life could be considered normal, it was a main focus in his writing. For example, when Thurber was a young boy, he and his brother, William, were playing a game that resulted in a terrible eye injury. The injury resulted in near blindness in the one eye, and in turn made him a very shy and awkward child. Several years after the injury,…

about the life and books of James Thurber. His books will have you amazed by how imaginative, creative, and unique his stories are. James’ stories are very amazing and well written in my opinion, my personal favorite book is “the secret life of Walter Mitty,” which will be explaining later in the paper, so please, sit back, relax, and journey with me into the mind of the magnificent James Thurber. James was born to Charles L. Thurber and Mary Agnes in Columbus, Ohio on December 8, 1894. All of…

Walter Mitty’s mindset “The secret life of Walter Mitty” by James Thurber is a story about a man named Walter Mitty, who uses his creative imagination to fill colour in his dull life. In the world of his imagination, he is a hero, but in his real life, Mitty has low self-esteem. He wanted to be a heroic role-model because when he is driving a car, he thinks he is driving a navy hydroplane and gets back to real life when his wife says “Not so fast!”(Thurber 33). This exemplifies that he loves…

James Thurber’s The Catbird Seat Essay The Catbird Seat Essay James Thurber’s short story, The Catbird Seat, features Mr. Martin musing the murder of Mrs. Barrows. The brooding Martin is determined to “rub out” the crass, Mrs. Barrows, who harasses Mr. Martin , with excessive radio baseball announcer, Red Barber quotes. Not only is she obnoxious, she is planning, with the permission of President Fitweiler, to reorganize Mr. Martin’s filing system at F&S. Thurber’s, The Catbird Seat, speaks…

As the great depression ended in 1939, many critics believes that this text is a screenshot of that time in society. Robert Amer is one critic who shares this view on the text as he believes that The Secret life “practically encloses the decade of the Depression and abound in images drawn from popular media, but also adventure fiction and tabloid journalism”. This is a typically dated belief that all of Mitty’s daydreams are inspired by stories during that era. However, all of the scenarios…

The protagonist, Walter Mitty copes with his repressed desires by using dreams as an escape from his unfulfilling life; ultimately, showcasing the negative consequences to the superego dominating the ego. In The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, James Thurber portrays Mitty’s self-awareness that his desires cannot be accomplished in reality, therefore he needs to repress these desires. As reinforced by his wife, “You’re not a young man any longer” (Thurber 1). Everytime Mitty attempts to re-enact his…

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…

In the article, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, by James Thurber, Walter Mitty’s daily life would be described as boring, yet, the dramatic and powerful scenarios in his mind made his life not that dull. Because of his constant zoning out and going into his little “world” in his mind, he tended to make many mistakes for not paying the greatest attention in daily life. His wife, Mrs. Mitty, tried to avoid him from doing anything too crazy out in society, but Walter Mitty still had the…

short stories, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” by James Thurber and “The Prospector’s Trail” by Cathy Jewison the protagonist are faced with the conflict of not accepting oneself which leads them to an unfulfilled life. Then they accept their places and realize to not listen to others opinions. As a result, the protagonist learns that one must accept one’s self in order to be happy in life. First of all, both protagonists are having difficulty accepting oneself through the pressure of society…

In the short story “The secret life of Walter Mitty” by James Thurber, it talks about a man by the name Walter Mitty. Walter seems to have many daydreams between the real life things he is doing. It starts with Walter being the commander of a Navy Hydroplane in the middle of a storm, while in reality he was driving his car and the engine reminded him of a Navy Hydroplane. There are many themes for Walter, and what triggers his daydreams along with many conflicts, three of these things being; the…