Symbolism in “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, Essay Example

James Thurber’s story, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” (1939) uses literary symbolism in order to express the story’s theme of individuality as it relates to social order and control. In the story, Mitty’s wife represents social responsibility and social obligation. She is the symbol of everything that diminishes individuality and personal imagination. The best way to understand how the character of Mrs. Mitty functions as a symbol is to read the fantasies that Mitty has about himself closely, with a view toward the symbols that are conveyed in his day-dreams. For example, Mitty’s first dream of being a war-time pilot on a dangerous mission is a symbol for the internal power that Mitty feels but that not recognized by society. He soars above the world and is instrumental in protecting it. The dream is a symbol for Mitty’s unrealized power.

Similarly, Mitty’s car and the chains for the tires are symbolic of the way that Mitty is chained to the oppressive reality of society and his marriage. The fantasies that Mitty has are meant to direct the reader to examine the contents of their own imaginations in order to see the way that society attempts to strangle and destroy the imagination. At the same time, Walter’s frequent flight into daydreams is meant to symbolize that the imagination is stronger than cultural conditioning and brainwashing and can’t actually be turned off. Instead, the human imagination itself presents symbols to the rational mind to express the truth of reality rather than the reality that society coerces people into accepting. So for example in Mitty’s case, his wife is not actually powerful; she is merely submissive to social mores. Mitty in daydreaming repeated escapes is a symbol of the enduring impulse toward individuality and freedom that exists in all people. The theme of the story is ironic in that Mitty’s daydreams are ineffectual in changing “relity,” but in fact they represent reality. The social reality that is presented to Mitty and symbolized by Mrs. Mitty is actually the fantasy world, whereas Mitty’s dreams are part of the actual world of individuality that society attempts to subvert, reject, and destroy.