In the short story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty “, there are many examples of expressionism and realism. Expressionism is all that occurs inside a character’s mind, separate from the reality of the story. Examples of it include memories, dream sequences, flashbacks, thoughts in general, and when time stops for every other character. On the other hand, realism is the exact opposite of expressionism, being exactly what is happening in the reality of the story. As mentioned previously, the short story “the Secret Life of Walter Mitty” is an avid user of both, often changing between the two with each paragraph. A notable example of this occurs at the start of the story, where we’re immediately introduced to Walter Mitty’s daydream persona in an in medias res, only for him to be snapped out of the daydream when his wife chastised him for driving too fast; Here it is also revealed that he is merely driving out so that he can get overshoes, and so that his wife can go to the hair salon. This blend of expressionism and realism is used by the author to highlight how dissatisfied and bored people can be with their lives, and how appealing it is to escape to a reality that is different from our own, often with us being the center of it. Below, there is a continuation of the short story from when it leaves off.

Walter Mitty the Undefeated, inscrutable to the last, He wasn’t going down without a fight. Suddenly smirking, he charged, nailing the closest with his shoulder, using them to take shots for him. A soldier came dashing at him with a bayonet to his head, Walter ducked, letting him have the man behind, and went to pick up the newly retired soldier’s rifle, a bullet whizzing by, barely grazing his nose, he returned the favor, only difference being their accuracy. Walter spun to his right, enjoying his first fair match in a long time, almost playfully dealing with the firing squad. But then, a crack through the air, like every other rifle shot, but not quite like every other one, time seemed to slow and all sound cut out as Walter clutched his chest, Blood. He had let his guard down, and he knew the wound was fatal, He shouldn’t have gotten careless. He turned, wincing with the pain, to see a soldier staring death at him, rifle smoking…

“WALTER!” he heard a woman cry directly at him, and he was immediately staring at his wife staring back at him with the same deathly stare, a parcel at her feet. “Aren’t you going to help me take this to the car? It’s heavy, you know.” Walter Mitty looked at his wife, then at the package, “Don’t tell me you’re ‘thinking’ again, Walter. Come on, let’s go.” Walter bent down and picked up the package, and they both made their way to the car, but were interrupted by a large crash in the distance. “What was that?” His wife asked, but…

…Walter Mitty Loaded the shell into the Roth R3’s powerful 75mm chamber, unfazed by the heavy artillery fire all around him. The Roth’s tracks plowed over the broken, uneven earth, Walter Mitty the fearless commander would make it complete its objective…