The Secret Life of Walter Mitty - Research Paper Example

The most interesting thing about this literary work is the sudden change of events. The scene abruptly changes from the events taking place in the Nay hydroplane to a new scene, where Walter Mitty and his wife are on a car driving. The wife abruptly yells at his husband who is driving, “Not so fast, you are driving too fast.” It is then that we realize that Walter Mitty was actually day dreaming, and in the course started speeding the car. The writer captures the readers interest by first introducing a scene where there seems to be a serious crisis with a probability of lives being lost.

It is only later that we realize that actually this was just but a dream, but the actual events of the day was Walter Mitty and his wife journeying in a car and the subsequent of hospital surgery and the wife having her hair done (Thurber, 1968). This style and turn of events continues throughout the story, creating readers suspense and interest to read some more. The analytical approaches used in chapter 16 are that the emotional responses one has after reading a literary work should not just be arbitrary and based on emotions only, but they should be backed up by indentifying the literary forms and techniques applied by the author, and then analyzing how the author uses them, to give his written work some meaning.

The analytical approach used in the poem is the use of a metaphor that compares Lucy’s environment to untrodden ways. Another technique applied in the poem is a simile,” Fair as a star.” So the analytical approach first indentifies the techniques used, and then puts them to task, to observe the meaning they were meant to create to the given literary work. The application of the metaphor is meant to portray the lonely nature of the character in the poem; Lucy. The application of the simile is meant to show the physical characteristics of the character in the poem as beautiful.

Therefore, the analytical approach requires that the reader of any literary work does not just read but reads and understands the work and not only from their own perspective but also from the perspective of the writer of that literary work too. In the literary work by James Thurber, there are a wide range of techniques applied to create the sense of this literary work. At the beginning of the story, we meet the commander, the lieutenant and the other crew of the Navy hydroplane. All of them seem panicked except for the commander who is issuing orders.

They only get relieve when they find that the orders are working and they are getting out of danger (Thurber, 1968). The style or technique employed by the writer is contrast. This technique is depicting different character traits that the commander and the crew members have. The writer wants to create the significance of leadership, portraying that a leader should be in control, even when things seems to completely go out of control. Another technique employed by the writer is flashback. The writer starts by giving scenes that had taken place earlier and then brings us back to present time, where we understand what is happening currently (Fensch, 2001).

The importance of this technique, as applied by the writer is