INDIAN CAMP

Commentary

This story introduces the theme of masculinity in these stories. Hemingway turns a typically female act in a female
space into a male-dominated situation. Although this story is about a childbirth, it focuses on the experience of the
doctor rather than the woman. Plus, instead of a natural childbirth, the baby is brought into the world by a
Caesarian section, which is a surgical procedure. The woman does not even have a role in such an operation.
Instead, this squaw is held down by the men present as a man takes over the role of child-birthing. After the birth,
Uncle George and Nick’s father have a playful, exuberant camaraderie over the job well done.

In this masculine atmosphere, the suicide of the Indian father, then, seems to be an example of a man acting in a
feminine manner. Nick’s father says that he probably killed himself because he could not stand it. Nick’s father
could not think much of this man’s courage because he brought his young son to see what the father could not
stand. Nick’s father and Uncle George exhibit more ideal male behavior. Nick’s father does not hesitate to examine
the state of the man’s body. And, Uncle George, clearly disturbed by the scene, simply withdraws from company.
This kind of stoicism is what Nick's father seems to want to teach Nick--he does not give Nick long answers to his
questions, and he treats this incident with silence himself. This strong, silent masculinity reappears throughout
these stories.

THINGS TO MAKE YOU LOOK SMART

• This is like a "coming of age" story. Nick starts off as a naive little boy, but after seeing a woman give birth
and a guy commit suicide he has grown up.
• Another big theme of the book is life and death. The woman gives birth and creates life, right after the
husband takes his own life away.
• This is not a well known theory but it can make you look really smart: Uncle George is a shady character in
this. He seems to be well known around the Indian camp. He also calls the screaming woman a squaw
bitch, which can be read as a sign of intimacy. Also, Uncle George gives some of the Indian men cigars
when he arrives to the camp. This could be just a gift to the men, but the giving of cigars by the father of a
newborn baby is a well known thing. Uncle George also stays behind after the birth so, maybe Uncle
George is the father of the baby? Maybe the reason the husband committed suicide is not just the
screaming, but because his wife is having a baby that is not his. There is a paper in our paper's section
under English and the title is Indian Camp that is about this whole theory.
• Indian Camp: The Perfect Short Story
• ...defines a perfect short story as one having a “fully developed character, a powerful drama whose
resolution we fearfully anticipate, and a point of view that seems wholly natural and realistic.” In Indian
Camp, Hemingway uses several motifs in order to delineate the maturation of Nick and the conflict
between the father and son with a convincing tone. Specifically, the contrasts between light and darkness
reflect developments in Nick’s maturity and character, while the changes in dialogue between Nick and his
father indicate a mysterious drama. In addition, the descriptions of the seating positions on the boats
symbolize his emotions and viewpoint.

The most obvious shift symbolizes the development of Nick and his maturity. The day becomes
progressively brighter throughout the story, in concert with Nick’s so-called coming of age. When the story
starts, Nick is “in the dark”, both literally and metaphorically; he has no idea what he is about to go
through. However, after Nick’s witnessing of the operation, Hemingway writes that “it was just beginning
to be daylight,” since Nick had been exposed to extreme emotional trauma, including the husband’s
 suicide, and had matured as a result. Also, each of the individual experiences that act as catalysts for
Nick’s maturation involves some sort of illumination, especially lamps and lanterns. For example, when the
doctor checks on the Indian father, he “mounted on the edge of the lower bunk with the lamp in one
hand,” and when the three enter the house of the woman in labor, “an old woman stood in the doorway
holding a lamp.” These incidents all come together to define and develop Nick’s personality and character,
in place of formal character description

Postcolonialism In Ernest Hemingway's "Indian Camp"

...short story "Indian Camp." By closely reading this short story using a Postcolonialist approach, a deeper
understanding of the colonization and treatment of the Native Americans by the white Americans can be
gained. Hemingway uses an almost allegorical story as he exposes the injustices inflicted by the white
oppressors through his characters. Through his characters Hemingway expresses the traits of the
colonizer and the colonized. Nick embodies innocence, the Doctor represents dismissal or denial, and
George represents oppression. The nameless natives in the story juxtapose the white characters
highlighting traits such as loss of identity, inability to properly cope with colonization, and fear of
extinction.
Ernest Hemingway grew up on the outer banks of Michigan, a section of the country with extensive
integration of Native Americans and whites. Hemingway's short story expresses actual events that he
witnessed in his everyday life. The story contains several biographical parallels to Hemingway's life as his
father was a physician who often took young Ernest fishing at a camp in the Michigan woods similar to the
one in his story (244). Because of these obvious biographical parallels, Hemingway has an understanding
that enables him to write in a postcolonial fashion.
Postcolonialism originated in 1970. It "piggy backed" on the already existent study of African American
literature. Postcolonialism quickly progressed and now encompasses literature from any culture that has
been oppressed or colonized. Postcolonialist critics attempt to view the limited views and biases of
colonialized countries. They continue to analyze a colonized culture and examine it in a manner of
different ways: the culture that existed before the colozination; the culture that exists after the
colonization; and the hybrid creations of the two (Bressler 268).

Light and Dark Symbolism in Hemingway's Indian Camp

The thematic usage of light and dark throughout "Indian Camp" symbolizes racial prejudice as well as the personal

growth of the protagonist. The narrative showcases a world of Indian oppression and bigotry that degrades Indians

to the role of dark ignorant stereotypes. The white men, on the other hand, seem to live in a self-made utopia of

light and understanding. This concept of the lighter skinned white man holding supremacy over the darker skinned

Indian permeates throughout the entire narrative. These themes of light and dark are not merely limited to the skin

tone of two clashing cultures, but are also symbols of understanding and unenlightenment that affect both the

Indians and the story's young protagonist, Nick Adams.

"Indian Camp," much like the boat that takes Nick Adams to shore, starts "off in the dark" (1). This dark engulfs

Nick Adams as he begins his journey on an unknowing night that parallels his own lack of awareness. Not sure of

where he and his father are being led, Nick is rowed toward his future by an Indian guide. By the end of the

narrative the light of a new day rises, and with it an epiphany within Nick. Nick's experiences within the Indian

camp have caused him to grow as a person and Hemingway's usage of light symbolizes this new understanding

gained by Nick.

As Nick and his father arrive at the shore, Uncle George is smoking a cigar that burns like a faint beacon in a sea of

darkness. The cigar is able to produce a light in the darkness that intertwines the symbolism of understanding with

the decadent world of white men. After being rowed to shore, "Uncle George gave both the Indians cigars" in an

attempt to share the wisdom of his world (2).

In another example of Hemingway's symbolism, an Indian carrying a lantern leads the way to the Indian camp and

as they reach the logging road the Indian blows out his lantern. The logging road metaphorically represents the

progress of white men, and as the Indian reaches the road he no longer needs a light because he is no longer in the

dark. The Indian has reached the world of his oppressor - a world where a greater gleaming is available to him and

the lantern is no longer needed.

The light of lanterns guides the group to their final destination, the birthing shanty. As Nick and his father arrive,

the Indian "men had moved off up the road to sit in the dark" and hide from the light of the lanterns and the white

man's knowledge to save lives(2). The Indians wait in the shadows, while Nick's father prepares to perform a crude

cesarean on the pregnant Indian woman.

Shortly thereafter Dr. Adams discovers the Indian woman's dead husband and unsuccessfully tries to shield Nick

from the reality of death. In one night Nick witnesses the entire circle of life and is changed. As Nick leaves the

Indian camp with his dad, he begins to question his own mortality. The young protagonist reaches a moment of

higher understanding as he and his father leave the Indian camp in the light of a new day.

In "Indian Camp" light subjugates dark just as the light skinned men subjugate the darker skinned Indians. The

metaphoric usage of light and dark heightens the clash of two opposing cultures. This symbolism also strengthens

Nick's own personal growth in terms of imagery. Through these symbolic conventions Hemingway is able to add

great depth to the racial bigotry and personal growth that his short story highlights.

Javni’ is the tale of a poor and illiterate woman who belongs to a low caste of washer man in the remote village of

Karnataka. She serves as a domestic help in the house of a revenue inspector. There are three main characters in

the story, Ramappa, the narrator of the story, Sita, his sister and the mistress of Javni and Javni, the main

protagonist of the story. The most striking thing in the story is that all the three characters in the story are very
human, genuine, loving and caring still there is much scope of inhumanity, cruelty, and pathos that churns the

hearts of the readers and compels them to review their ideologies whether they need some corrections.

Javni is a middle aged woman of 40 years whose personal life is a tale of unending miseries and sorrows. Her

husband dies untimely due to the snakebite and after his death Javni is exposed to the uttermost hardships of life to

face bravely. After her husband’s death Javni’s in laws insult her and turn her out of their house. Javni seeks shelter

in her brother’s house where even more abuses, insults and miseries are waiting for her to greet. Javni’s brother’s

wife never allows her children to go near Javni because she considers her a cursed woman and she fears that she

would cast some spell on her children and might bewitch them. But the youngest boy loves Javni a lot and she too is

deeply attached with him. She always saves her money and eatables whatever she gets from Sita to share with him

as she does not have her own children.

Javni is full of love for everyone around her. She is a simpleton by heart. She is a lively person and always enjoys in

the juicy gossips of village folks. She keeps her mistress Sita amused by telling her the stories of the entire village.

She is extremely religious and also believes in ghosts and evil spirits. She madly adores Ramappa. She is charmed

by his handsomeness and thinks him to be an incarnation of some God. This is the height of devotion Javni has for

her masters. She feels proud that she has the opportunity to serve a high caste Brahmin family who belongs to the

upper most strata of the society. For Javni being a revenue inspector is the ultimate job for anyone and even for

Ramappa she cannot think that he can be other than a revenue inspector in future. Javni evokes sympathy and

respect for her forbearance, simplicity and large heartedness. She always prays Goddess Talkamma for well being

and prosperity of everyone around her even for her in laws who always looked upon her with great hatred and

disrespect.

‘Javni’ is a great story which hits strongly on the caste system prevalent in the society of those times. Ramappa is

the chief instrument in the story who hits on the vice of caste system very effectively. He is a kind, sympathetic,

educated and compassionate person with a liberal and progressive outlook. He is infuriated and deeply hurt by the

inhuman behavior of his sister when he finds that Sita has made Javni eat her food in the dark byre amidst the foul

smelling cows and their filth only because she belongs to a low caste and therefore cannot eat inside the house.

Although Sita is very kind and friendly with Javni and loves her a lot but still she is very much bound to the religious

bonds and traditions prevalent in the society and has no courage to defy them. The unfortunate incident drives Sita

and Ramappa to a heated argument and finally Sita bursts in the pool of tears and Ramappa retires to the garden

highly ashamed and disgusted. In utter desperation and dismay tearfully he wonders when will the Conch of

Knowledge would blow and when will the God would come to end this misery and ignorance.

Ramappa is highly touched by Javni’s unadulterated adoration, dedication and devotion for her masters. She bears

no malice for anyone in her heart. Javni’s faithfulness for her masters is so genuine and unalloyed that without

slightest hesitation she willingly agrees to give her entire savings to Ramappa. Her generosity steals his heart. He is

deeply shocked to know that how low she is paid off for her strenuous work. Ramappa’s respect for Javni can be
easily felt when he asks Javni to adopt him as her son. He honestly wants to serve her and give her all the comforts

as a son. Javni is dumbfounded by the blasphemous statement of Ramappa. She is frightened because being a

Brahmin Ramappa is a chosen one and the twice born. He is not meant for work. The very thought of adopting

Ramappa as her son is very perplexing for Javni because Ramappa is a God for Javni and how she can adopt a God?

Scared Javni prays Goddess Talkamma to forgive Ramappa for his childishness. The story ends with the final adieu

of the revenue inspector’s family when they leave the village forever leaving Javni crying inconsolably on the other

side of the river.

The story is relevant in modern times also as this kind of caste system is still prevalent in some parts of rural India

and the Blowing of the Conch of Knowledge is very much awaited there.

2nd summary

‘Javni’, a heartrending story by Raja Rao whose writings are ranked as finest of Indian works in English.

‘Javni’ is the tale of a poor and illiterate woman who belongs to a low caste of washer man in the remote village of
Karnataka. She serves as a domestic help in the house of a revenue inspector. There are three main characters in
the story, Ramappa, the narrator of the story, Sita, his sister and the mistress of Javni and Javni, the main
protagonist of the story. The most striking thing in the story is that all the three characters in the story are very
human, genuine, loving and caring still there is much scope of inhumanity, cruelty, and pathos that churns the
hearts of the readers and compels them to review their ideologies whether they need some corrections.

Javni is a middle aged woman of 40 years whose personal life is a tale of unending miseries and sorrows. Her
husband dies untimely due to the snakebite and after his death Javni is exposed to the uttermost hardships of life to
face bravely. After her husband’s death Javni’s in laws insult her and turn her out of their house. Javni seeks shelter
in her brother’s house where even more abuses, insults and miseries are waiting for her to greet. Javni’s brother’s
wife never allows her children to go near Javni because she considers her a cursed woman and she fears that she
would cast some spell on her children and may bewitch them. But the youngest boy loves Javni a lot and she too is
deeply attached with him. She always saves her money and eatables whatever she gets from Sita to share with him
as she does not have her own siblings.

Javni is full of love for everyone around her. She is a simpleton by heart. She is a lively person and always enjoys in
the juicy gossips of village folks. She keeps her mistress Sita amused by telling her the stories of the entire village.
She is extremely religious and also believes in ghosts and evil spirits. She madly adores Ramappa. She is charmed
by his handsomeness and thinks him to be an incarnation of some God. This is the height of devotion Javni has for
her masters. She feels proud that she has the opportunity to serve a high caste Brahmin family who belongs to the
upper most strata of the society. For Javni being a revenue inspector is the ultimate job for anyone and even for
Ramappa she cannot think that he can be other than a revenue inspector in future. Javni evokes sympathy and
respect for her forbearance, simplicity and large heartedness. She always prays Goddess Talkamma for well being
and prosperity of everyone around her even for her in laws who always looked upon her with great hatred and
disrespect.

‘Javni’ is a great story which hits strongly on the caste system prevalent in the society of those times. Ramappa is
the chief instrument in the story who hits on the vice of caste system very effectively. He is a kind, sympathetic,
educated and compassionate person with a liberal and progressive outlook. He is infuriated and deeply hurt by the
inhuman behavior of his sister when he finds that Sita has made Javni eat her food in the dark byre amidst the foul
smelling cows and their filth only because she belongs to a low caste and therefore cannot eat inside the house.
Although Sita is very kind and friendly with Javni and loves her a lot but still she is very much bound to the religious
bonds and traditions prevalent in the society and has no courage to defy them. The unfortunate incident drives Sita
and Ramappa to a heated argument and finally Sita bursts in the pool of tears and Ramappa retires to the garden
highly ashamed and disgusted. In utter desperation and dismay tearfully he wonders when will the Conch of
Knowledge would blow and when will the God would come to end this misery and ignorance.

Ramappa is highly touched by Javni’s unadulterated adoration, dedication and devotion for her masters. She bears
no malice for anyone in her heart. Javni’s faithfulness for her masters is so genuine and unalloyed that without
slightest hesitation she willingly agrees to give her entire savings to Ramappa. Her generosity steals his heart. He is
deeply shocked to know that how low she is paid off for her strenuous work. Ramappa’s respect for Javni can be
easily felt when he asks Javni to adopt him as her son. He honestly wants to serve her and give her all the comforts
as a son. Javni is dumbfounded by the blasphemous statement of Ramappa. She is frightened because being a
Brahmin Ramappa is a chosen one and the twice born. He is not meant for work. The very thought of adopting
Ramappa as her son is very perplexing for Javni because Ramappa is a God for Javni and how she can adopt a God?
Scared Javni prays Goddess Talkamma to forgive Ramappa for his childishness. The story ends with the final adieu
of the revenue inspector’s family when they leave the village forever leaving Javni crying inconsolably on the other
side of the river.

The story is relevant in modern times also as this kind of caste system is still prevalent in some parts of rural India
and the Blowing of the Conch of Knowledge is very much awaited there.

GETTING MARRIED

In the short-story ‘Getting Married’ the author, A.A. Milne, contrasts the two characters of Ronald & amp;
Celia on their respective attitudes towards marriage. This contrast helps in a better understanding of their
characters and singes the plot of the story with rich comedy. For the contrast to become more
prominent, the author begins with some similarities between the two characters. Both Ronald & Celia are
in love with each other, both of them want to get married & both of them face the ordeal of fixing the
marriage day, furnishing the house & planning the honeymoon. So far for their similarity.

These fundamental points of similarities throw into high relief the contrast between the two characters.
Ronald is a man who likes to be guided. He would love to sit back and let others work for him. When it
comes to fixing the marriage day, he thought that Celia, his best man & his solicitor would arrange it for
him. His intention in marrying Celia is that she would reply the correspondences for him & when it boils
down to settling a honeymoon spot for them, he wanted that his father-in-law should write a letter in
order to engage a resort for them. All these incidents under cut the narrator’s proud assertion, “Ronald is
a man of powerful fiber” & contributes much to the humor in the story.

The narrator’s fiancée, Celia, is of a different make. She is lady who not only works herself, but also makes
Ronald work. It is on her words that Ronald fixes the church & the date of marriage. It is she who
makes him sit on the writing desk to write a letter for engaging a resort for the honeymoon, though the
letter eventually is written by her. In fact, it is Celia who guides Ronald. She takes initiative of the
furnishings & Ronald merely follows suit.

Once inside the shops; that sells electric fittings, Celia does not give much importance to Ronald’s
queer ideas. When Ronald suggested that they wanted a strong light for the hall so that they “are able
to watch our guests carefully when they pass the umbrella-stand”, Celia simply waved aside his
suggestion & pointed out that she wanted a hanging lantern. The same suave behavior of Celia marked
with an air of unimportance towards Ronald is again markedly visible in buying the mahogany chests of
drawers. Celia quite sees through the hoaxes of the first shopkeeper, which Ronald cannot, and buys a
chest from another shop on a far better bargain. Ronald’s clandestine payment to the first shopkeeper is,
evidently, an utter loss.

It is this same fund of intelligence that enables Celia to virtually toy with Ronald in the ‘honeymoon’
section of the story. She simply irritates Ronald to write a letter for engaging a resort for their
honeymoon. As Ronald waxes hesitant, she banters his male ego that makes him immediately rush to the
writing desk. She said that she would ask her father to write thus: “I am writing to ask you if you will
take care of him and see that he doesn’t do anything dangerous.” She plays with him about the
honeymoon spot and when he is at his wits end she reveals the truth to his great relief: “I have written,
Ronald.”

Celia is the lady who puts her notions into reality by making Ronald work to those ends. Celia is the
stronger character, in spite of Ronald’s assertion to the contrary. It is significant that the characters unfold
themselves as the plot of the story progresses. Celia grows from strength to strength, planning, managing
& dictating affairs as the character of Ronald subsides from strength to weakness. But there is no
egoistic clash between the two characters: Ronald is happy with the prospect of Celia writing
correspondences for him and she is happy in pianola. The two characters complement each other.

THE IDEAL FAMILY

IDEAL FAMILY

“The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved.”
“The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but rather the feeling of being unwanted.”
There is more hunger in the world for love and appreciation than for bread.”
“We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being
unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to
remedy this kind of poverty.”

I think today the world is upside down, and is suffering so much because there is so very little
love in the home, and in family life. We have no time for our children, we have no time for each
other, and there is no time to enjoy each other.”

Love begins at home; love lives in homes, and that is why there is so much suffering and so much
unhappiness in the world today...Everybody today seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for
greater developments and greater riches and so on, so that children have very little time for their
parents. Parents have very little time for each other and in the home begin the disruption of the peace
of the world.”
Abstract from Mother Teresa’s own words

“Let’s join our hearts and hands to save our society from destruction through ideal families.
Introduction
The very meaning of ideal is perfect or model. If we think of a full-fledged person he/she is the
combination of many organs. Leaving behind one organ we can not say a person, a complete man or
woman, similarly let’s think of our human society live and die. This society’s root is family. Without
family we can never imagine a society. From the very existence of this world there have been people
who have played role of destruction and construction too. These good and bad people born and
brought up from families. Good families bring up good people while bad families bad. No doubt there
are various circumstances, which push people to be good or bad. However the role of family in the
society is vital.
These days ……men, women and children are lovers of themselves, not lovers of their spouses or
parents or peers. Selfishness rules families. Love of money has destroyed more families than ever. It
is distasteful itself between husband and wife, causing them to live apart and mammon has
encouraged parents to neglect their children. Disobedience of children to parents is becoming the
norm and parents do not know how to handle the situation. Un forgiveness has crushed many homes
that could have been plastered together by loving forgiveness. Lack of self control in aspects of family
life ha spawned children with similar traits. Parents are brutal to children. Families are no more lovers
of God, rather lovers of pleasure. These are true of the majority of modern families. If we do not take
care of our families seriously we are not going to save neither the human society.
Purpose of ideal family concept
· To create a God centered world
· To establish divine love centered families and societies
· To build up individuals in the “will” of God

Punishment, by Rabindranath Tagore, is a short story involving Indian culture and a dilemma for two brothers.
Dukhiram and Chidam slaved in the fields all day, as their wives would fight and scream at each other at the house.
One day the brothers came home to their wives with no food awaiting them.

The story 'Punishment' written by Rabindranath Tagore is a poignant story about two brothers and their wives, and
the relationship each of them shared with one another. It is a heart rendering tale about conflicting emotions.
Plot Summary

As “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” begins, a military officer orders an airplane crew to proceed with a flight
through a dangerous storm. The crew members are scared but are buoyed by their commander’s confidence, and
they express their faith in him. Suddenly, the setting switches to an ordinary highway, where Walter Mitty and his
wife are driving into a city to run errands. The scene on the airplane is revealed to be one of Mitty’s many fantasies.
Mitty’s wife observes that he seems tense, and when he drops her off in front of a hair styling salon, she reminds
him to go buy overshoes and advises him to put on his gloves. He drives away toward a parking lot and loses
himself in another fantasy. In this daydream he is a brilliant doctor, called upon to perform an operation on a
prominent banker. His thoughts are interrupted by the attendant at the parking lot, where Mitty is trying to enter
through the exit lane. He has trouble backing out to get into the proper lane, and the attendant has to take the
wheel. Mitty walks away, resentful of the attendant’s skill and self-assurance. Next, Mitty finds a shoe store and
buys overshoes. He is trying to remember what else his wife wanted him to buy when he hears a newsboy shouting
about a trial, which sends Mitty into another daydream. Mitty is on the witness stand in a courtroom. He identifies a
gun as his own and reveals that he is a skillful marksman. His testimony causes a disturbance in the courtroom. An
attractive young woman falls into his arms; the district attorney strikes her and Mitty punches him. This time Mitty
brings himself out of his reverie by remembering what he was supposed to buy. “Puppy biscuit,” he says aloud,
leading a woman on the street to laugh and tell her friend, “That man said ‘Puppy biscuit’ to himself.” Mitty
then goes to a grocery store for the dog biscuits and makes his way to the hotel lobby where he has arranged to
meet his wife. He sits in a chair and picks up a magazine that carries a story about airborne warfare. He begins to
daydream again, seeing himself as a heroic bomber pilot about to go on a dangerous mission. He is brave and
lightheart-ed as he prepares to risk his life. He returns to the real world when his wife claps him on the
shoulder. She is full of questions, and he explains to her that he was thinking. “Does it ever occur to you that I am
sometimes thinking?” he says. She replies that she plans to take his temperature when they get home. They leave
the hotel and walk toward the parking lot. She darts into a drugstore for one last purchase, and Mitty remains on
the street as it begins to rain. He lights a cigarette and imagines himself smoking it in front of a firing squad. He
tosses the cigarette away and faces the guns courageously — “Walter Mitty the Undefeated, inscrutable to the
last.”

Walter Mitty (description) Walter Mitty is a daydreamer who imagines himself the hero of his fantasies as a navy
pilot commander, doctor, sharpshooter, bomber pilot, and noble victim of a firing squad. Mitty is married to a
woman who treats him more like a child than a husband. This is due to his immature tendency to escape into
fantasies rather than live in the real world. He is constantly being upbraided by policemen, parking lot attendants,
and his wife for his erratic, distracted behavior. Thurber’s characterization of this neurotic man whose wife
dominates him, who cannot fix his own car, and who lives in dreams has become an archetypal figure of the
ineffectual, weak-willed, bumbling male in American culture.

Themes

Walter Mitty is an ordinary character who fills his mind with fantasies in which he plays the hero, saves lives,
navigates enemy territory, and proves his masculinity. Success and Failure The theme of success and failure
is examined through Mitty’s inability to live a fulfilling external life, which causes him to retreat to an internal life
full of images of conquest. Walter Mitty is neither exciting nor successful in his everyday life. In fact, the world Mitty
lives in seems hellish to him. His wife’s nagging voice awakens him from one dream. Like his wife, parking lot
attendants and policemen admonish him, and women at the grocery store laugh at him. A bumbling, ineffectual
man scorned by others, he feels humiliated by the knowing grins of garage mechanics who know he cannot take
the chains off his car’s tires. To avoid their sneers, he imagines taking the car into the garage with his arm in a sling
so “they’ll see I couldn’t possibly take the chains off myself.”

The failures of his everyday life are countered by the extraordinary successes he plays out in his fantasy life. Mitty
is always the stunning hero of his dreams: he flies a plane through horrendous weather and saves the crew; he
saves a millionaire banker with his dexterity and common-sense in surgery; he stuns a courtroom with tales of his
sharpshooting; and he fearlessly faces a firing squad. Although he always forgets what his wife wants him to pick up
at the store and he waits for her in the wrong part of the hotel lobby, Walter is alert, courageous and at the center
of attention in his dreams. Thurber suggests that this ordinary man who hates the reality of middle-class life and his
own shortcomings prefers to live in his imagination. Gender Roles Walter’s failures in life and his successes in
dreams are closely connected with gender roles. Everyday life for him consists of being ridiculed by women, such as
the one who hears him mutter “puppy biscuit” on the street and his wife who nags him. Among women, Walter is
subservient and the object of derision. Among men, Walter fails to meet traditional expectations of masculinity. He
is embarrassed by his mechanical ineptitude: when he tries to remove the chains from his tires, he ends up winding
them around the axles, and he has to send for a towtruck. The mechanic who arrives is described as “young” and
“grinning.” The description implies that the man, younger and more virile, is laughing at Walter’s ignorance of cars
and makes Walter feel emasculated, or less of a man. Walter resolves that the next time he takes the car to the
shop to have the chains removed, he will cover his shame by wearing his right arm in a sling. Walter
compensates for his failure to fulfill conventional expectations of masculinity in his daydreams. All of his fantasies
center around feats of traditionally masculine prowess, and many of them involve violence. He can hit a target
three hundred feet away with his left hand, fix sophisticated machinery with a common fountain pen, and walk
bravely into battle in his fantasy worlds. Thurber’s exploration of sex roles in modern America can be understood in
various ways: Thurber might be suggesting that men have become weak and ineffectual and women overly
aggressive, or he may be pointing to a lack of opportunities for men to perform meaningful, heroic action in
modern, suburban, middle-class America.
Style

Narration In “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” Thurber tells the story of Walter Mitty, a man who lives in a
dream world to escape from the routines and humiliations he suffers in everyday life. The action takes place over
the course of a single day, during which Walter Mitty and his wife go on their weekly shopping trip. Walter slips into
his daydreams, only to be awakened when he has made an error in judgment, such as speeding or driving on the
wrong side of the road. Thurber has carefully constructed the story’s narrative to connect Mitty’s “secret life”
with his external life. In the first dream sequence, Walter is a naval commander who sails his hydroplane at full
speed to avoid a hurricane. The dream abruptly ends when his wife admonishes him for driving too quickly,
implying that Walter’s dream led to his speeding. The second dream begins when his wife notes that he is tense,
and asks him to see a doctor. Hearing the name of the doctor sends Walter Mitty into dreaming that he is a famous
surgeon who assists in saving the life of a wealthy patient, a banker named Wellington MacMillan. Each of the
dreams, then, begins with some detail from Walter’s everyday life. Walter transforms insignificant comments,
sounds or objects into major props in his heroic conquests. The same details from reality force him out of his dream
world. Significantly, the story opens and closes in the middle of dream sequences, as if to emphasize their priority
over reality for Walter. It is left to the reader to consider the importance of the last scene, in which Walter bravely
faces a firing squad without a blindfold. Thurber’s narrative proficiency is such that he actually writes six stories
within one. None of the mini- narratives have decisive conclusions: each of the dream sequences, like the entire
story, is an abbreviated short story with no clear beginning or end. Point of View Linked to his use of
narration, Thurber uses an unusual point of view in “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.” The story is told in the third-
person, but the reader has access to Mitty’s thoughts. The dream sequences complicate this third-person limited
point of view. During these sections of the story, readers are inside of Walter’s fantasy. His conscious thoughts are
on display. He wonders what he was supposed to buy at the store. Readers also have access to another level of
Mitty’s consciousness during the dream sequences. Here, Walter’s thoughts are projected into narrative action.
Thurber shifts from one level of awareness to another without confusing the reader. Wordplay Thurber has
been praised for his use of extravagant wordplay and literary allusions. Noted primarily for his light sketches and
humorous line drawings, Thurber did not receive a great deal of serious critical appraisal during his career.
However, later critics have commented on his bitter political and social commentary and the latent, darker themes
in his work. Through his use of humor and wit, Thurber was able to explore the conflicts and neurotic tensions of
modern life. Mitty’s misuse of words such as “coreopsis” and “obstreosis” in “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” is a
typical example of how Thurber employed speech to great effect. Humorous distortions of medical terms,
technological advancements, and items of warfare make Mitty’s portrayal accurate, lifelike, and believable. During
his courtroom daydream, Mitty is called upon to identify a gun known as a “Webley-Vickers 50.80.” This is another
instance where Thurber twists words to enrich the depiction of Mitty’s character. Carl M. Lindner asserts that this
distortion of a brand-name (probably Smith and Wesson — a well known gun manufacturer) demonstrates Mitty’s
“ignorance of the heroic experience” and amuses readers at the same time. Thurber used such distortions of
speech and reality to effectively depict the absurdities of the human condition. Modernism Thurber’s use of
wordplay and exploration of the absurdity of modern life has been noted for its affinities with modernist writing.
Modernists played with conventional narrative form and dialogue, attempting to approximate subjective thought
and experience. Thurber’s narrative technique has been compared to the writings of William Faulkner, whose
novels Absalom, Absalom! and Light in August were published in the 1930s. Thurber’s playful use of words and
themes of absurdity also show the influence of the poet Wallace Stevens, whose book of verse, The Man with the
Blue Guitar was published in 1937. Towards the end of the story, Walter comments that “things close in,”
which, according to Carl M. Lindner, represents the suffocating effects of modern life on “the Romantic individual.”
That the world was changing due to technological, economic, and social developments (think of Walter’s problems
fixing his car, for example) is reflected in the opening of the 1939-40 New York World’s Fair, whose theme was “The
World of Tomorrow.”