Recently Jonatan, Jordan, and I were asked in class to deliver a presentation on the short story entitled, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" published in 1939. This short story written by the American, James Thurber, is about a man, Walter Mitty, who lives a very simple life and is married with a nagging wife. However, the life of Walter Mitty sometimes gets exciting due to his daydreams. He has five daydreams during the short story. In the first one he is a pilot of a U.S. Navy flying boat in a storm, in the second one he is a famous surgeon, in the third one he is an assassin testifying in a courtroom, in the fourth one he is a Royal Air Force pilot volunteering for a suicide mission to bomb an ammunition dump, and in the fifth one he faces a firing squad. This short story presents an interesting question, which is how to face a hard life. Actually the life of Walter Mitty is not really hard, but it is true that he suffers because everybody nags him, especially his wife. So, what does Walter Mitty do to face this difficulty? The answer is, to escape from reality by daydreaming. Therefore, one of the topics of this short story is “escapism.” As a consequence Walter Mitty has a secret life.
After reading "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" I started asking myself whether I have a secret life. At first I thought it was not the case, but little by little I realized that actually I have a secret life. "How can this be possible?" the reader of this blog will ask. The answer is by reading literature. When we read a book, we are doing something deeper and greater than just looking at a number of words put together. We actually live the story we are reading, we become the protagonist of the story, and we can think and feel like the character of the story. By reading we visit new places where perhaps it might be impossible for us to go in the real life. Likewise we get acquainted with new people who in the case of biographies really existed or exist. So, this is the secret of my secret life and I really think that it is very beneficial because the number of things I can learn is unlimited. Besides, it is so fun.
Although I said that I have a secret life, I do not mean that I have a secret life as Walter Mitty does. The difference lies in the line separating the real life from the secret life. Walter Mitty does not have such a line, whereas I do have because I can distinguish between what is inside the books and what is outside the books. The difference might seem just a matter of perception, but it goes deeper because it influences our behavior. That is, when I read literature I escape from the real life, but I am fully aware of it and ready to face the problems of real life. On the other hand, Walter Mitty daydreams to escape from real life, and his daydreams become his real life. By doing that, he runs away from the problems of real life. I think we need to be brave and face our difficulties, instead of running away from them. By stating this, I do not mean that daydreaming is wrong, but rather I mean that to explode the line between real life and daydreams is wrong because it causes us to run away from our responsibilities and alienate ourselves from those people who surround us.
