Theme and Narrative Elements: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

Theme and Narrative Elements: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

Introduction

One of the complex elements of fiction is its theme. The theme has varying characteristics as compared to a short summary or an argument set. It has a broad scope having the idea that lies behind a story. A short story is marked as portraying broad ideas and elements into small pieces. In short, the theme in a story reflects or serves as the presentation of its ideas. This essay has an objective to reflect the way in which the literary elements in a story contribute to the larger narrative theme by analyzing the short story by James Thurber titled The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. The thesis statement of this essay is that the modern world does not provide opportunities to be heroic, rather the day dreaming and the vicarious way of life make them live like the cinema characters.

Discussion

Theme of the Short Story

Imagination constitutes a major part of most of the stories and thus the majority theories that are presented are imaginary. The story writer with the help of his or her literary piece tries to make people understand and learn from the imaginary world. The theme of the story could be portrayed by a number of elements. James Thurber portrayed the character of a man who never feels comfortable with what he has in life. The imaginations he holds helped him to escape from the activities of the everyday life. His real life is ordinary and dull, but this imagination helped him to experience the elements in life that very few people get a chance to experience (Powell, 2011). Mitty habits of day dreaming makes him escape from the real world frustrations making him feel like a hero in his day dreams. The theme of this short story follows the following points

Relaxation and Day dreaming: The Mitty character deal with the everyday frustrations by keeping himself involved in his habit of day dreaming.

Ego Boosting: The character of Mitty is that of a compliant and an accommodating chap. However, his habit of considering himself a hero in day dreams makes him an absolute demigod. His daydreams assess him in enduring his ego against the critics and precarious attitude of his wife.

Mediate Adventure: Imagination can help even an ordinary person to become a hero. Day dreams transform the secret ...