A Marxist approach to The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

When I started this assignment I knew right away that I wanted to do James Thurber’s short story The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. I enjoyed the whole idea of this story and how this man is living mainly in his imagination. The problem was what criticism I should use. Like I said before I naturally use Deconstruction, that’s just how I look at things, so I wanted to do something else. So, by going through them I figured out I wanted to do a Marxist analysis.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty was written in 1941. The Second World War had been going on for two years, and although America did not get involved until December of 1941, Americans as individuals were already getting involved. American society at this time is gearing up for war. America had heroes that had fought in World War I and heroes leaving for World War II. Society is looking for the young, strong, and courageous, and here is where the character Walter Mitty sits. Mitty (in real life) is described as “not a young man any longer” (229) by his wife. His wife is constantly nagging him; everything he does is not good enough for her. He never can seem to do anything right. On the first page Mitty’s wife is telling him he is driving too fast, after he drops his wife off a police officer tells him to drive faster, then when he gets to the garage the parking lot attendant yells at him for almost hitting another car and being a bad driver. In this story it is clear that Walter Mitty is not the strong, able, young man that society is looking for and honoring.
This is the part where it gets interesting, because Walter Mitty is unable to be all these things society is striving for; he recreates himself in his head. Mitty day dreams about being strong, courageous, and needed. Within this five page story he has five separate imaginings. The first he is a commander of a ship, he is fearless and all of his men respect him following his every command. The second he is a surgeon and apparently the only one who can save a millionaire banker who is good friends with President Roosevelt. The third he is a murderer who is knowledgeable about guns and a crack shot. In this dream there is also a “lovely dark-haired girl” (230) who jumps on his lap in the end. The fourth he is an air captain in the military and is flying alone because his copilot is sick, not only is he heroic by flying alone to do this ammunition drop off, but it is also mentioned that he can hold his liquor. Then in the fifth dream he is bravely standing in front of a firing squad ready to die without a blindfold. All of these dreams encompass the strength and masculinity that society holds important, and that Mitty longs for, but cannot grasp.
Walter Mitty cannot ever be happy because he can never be what society, at this time, has prescribed as good, and admirable. The story ends with Mitty waiting for his wife in front of the drugstore, which soon turns to Mitty in front of the firing squad awaiting his death. Mitty will never be the hero he dreams himself to be. Therefore it is easier for Mitty to live in a world that does not exist than in the real world with a society that does not except him.