Kaitlin Walashek

English 11

9 September 2018

Mr. Barazzuol

Walter Mitty Daydream Six

        The short story, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” by James Thurbur demonstrates great use of expressionism and realism. Expressionism represents subjective concepts, and it is shown in multiple ways using flashbacks, memories, thoughts, dreams and pause of live time. An example would be, a girl in school, day dreaming of being in Hawaii relaxing on the beach. The girl is not really in Hawaii, but it is expressionism shown in a dream. On the other hand, there is realism, which represents real-life events happening in the present, like a man just driving to work on a cloudy morning. In the story, it is evident that certain events cause Walter Mitty to transition from realism to expressionism. For example, when he puts his gloves on his hands and drives past a hospital, he is suddenly a well-known surgeon about to perform a surgery. Of course, Walter Mitty is not a surgeon in real-life, it is just an example of expressionism. The same continuing pattern can be seen in the following paragraphs.

        The firing squad began shooting and the sound was deafening…. A woman dropped her bag of items from the drugstore at his feet, startling him. “I am so sorry!” She began frantically gathering the items that had fallen in front of him and hurried away. Ms. Mitty came around the corner. “Walter! You couldn’t have helped the poor woman pick up her things?” Walter was still dazed and stood looking at her. “Well let’s get going then,” she said. They crossed the street to the parking lot and got into their car. Walter sighed as he realized they were low on gas. He just wanted to get home, but now they had to stop at the gas station. His wife stayed seated in the car eager to get going while he pumped up the car with gas. As he stood there impatiently waiting for the tank to fill, he heard the sound of sirens near. He turned to look towards the main road and sure enough, a firetruck passed with its sirens blaring….

        The heat of the fire was almost unbearable. “Alright, everyone is out,” announced Walter as he ran out of the burning house. He noticed one of his men racing over to him with worry painted over his face. “I was just informed that an 8-year-old boy is possibly still in the house. The parents are in agony.” Walter stared at him in disbelief. “I thought we covered the whole house!” He turned around and darted back into the house, searching every corner of every room. The fire continued to roar angrily, but Walter did not stop looking. He fled up the stairs that were collapsing under his feet, and that was when he heard a frightened scream. Walter reached the top of the stairs, and across the room he spotted the boy who was ceaselessly coughing. “Hey!” Walter called out to him. The boy lifted his head and stared back at Walter fearfully. He had to get to him fast or they would get trapped in the scalding hot flames. Walter hurried over, but as soon as he got to him, a barricade fell from above with a loud snap, separating them from each other. The boy let out a high-pitched shriek and Walter’s heart sank. The boy was just out of reach.