Discuss the life and works of James Grover Thurber and write the

Discuss the life and works of James Grover Thurber and write the summary of the essay entitled “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”.

Ans.

LIFE AND WORKS

James (Grover) Thurber (1894-1961) was born in Columbus, Ohio. He was educated at Ohio State University. He worked for sometime as a government clerk in Washington and then joined the embassy staff in Paris. Later he became a foreign correspondent for a Chicago newspaper. On his return to the USA he joined The New Yorker (1927-33).1 Even after leaving The New Yorker he remained a regular contributor. Both as a cartoonist and as a writer Thurber expressed the dilemma of the moral innocent in a complex modern world. A direct and disarming humorist, he often satirized such subjects as psychoanalysis, sexual awareness, the search for identity and the problem of communication.

His collection of Stories and Sketches are The Owl in the Attic, and Other Perplexities (1931), The Seal in my Bedroom, and Other Predicaments’ (1932), Let Your Mind Alone’ (1937), ‘My World-And Welcome To It! (1942) and The Beast in Me, and Other Animals’ (1948). With E. B. White, his colleague on The New Yorker, he wrote ‘Is Sex necessary’, with Elliot Nugent, he produced a successful dramatic comedy, The Male Animal. His autobiographical works are My Life wrote several books for children including The thirteen Clocks (1950). “The Male Animal (1951), The Thurber Album (1952) credos and Curios (1962).

Summary of the Essay

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is one of the Famous stories among the modern anthology of American stories. It deals with the family life of such a weak man who is dominated by his wife at every step and, in a way, loses his own personality. Consequently we find him lost in day dreaming, assuming that he is performing a number of great adventurous works while actually he does nothing. He is going with his wife for shopping and his wife visiting the hair dresser. He is driving but even while driving, he is far away from concentration and imagines as if he is steering a navy airship in a storm. Lost in his dream, he begins to instruct his staff to take various steps hurriedly. He is behaving like a commander and shouts, ordering one man to do this and an other man that. They are all very busy and some of them do not like much his ways of work. All this is nothing but simply an imagination, he is much above the reality and does not speak even a single word which is audible to his wife. The only effect of this day dreaming, is that he starts driving at a very high speed as if he is really steering the craft. His wife is at once conscious of his dreaming and warns him against such fast driving. She tells him that the speed of the car is more than fifty five while she does not like more than forty. The whole dream of the navy immediately disappeared. His wife told that she would now take him to Dr. Renshaw for check up because he has again started being tense from time to time.

When the car stopped in front of the hair dresser’s building, his wife got down and instructed him to get his overshoes from the shop and that he should put on his gloves. He put them on, but soon after she had gone in, he removed them. At the arrival of a policeman at red light, he pulled them on again and drove in the streets aimlessly. He passed through a hospital and this time, the dreaming started again. He assumed as if he is present in the hospital at the operation theatre and is performing a unique kind of surgery. He presumes that he is the chief surgeon and is operating Wellington McMillan. A millionaire banker. he thinks that he is a very reputed surgeon there and is assisted by Dr. Renshaw and Dr. Benbow. They welcome him. In the operation theatre, everybody praises his great medical knowledge, he is handling a huge operating machine and is giving instructions to others. Suddenly the dream breaks when the parking attendant warned him that he had entered the wrong lane. he now began to back out of the lane but the attendant asked him to leave and that he himself would do it and he adjusted the vehicle at the right place.

While walking along the main street. Mitty is reminded how he once tried to take the chains off but he got them wound more and more. The garage man had to help him and since then, whenever such situation came. Mitty always drove to the garage. He then purchased the overshoes but forgot what other thing his wife had asked him to purchase. He thought about many things but in vain. Just then a new show passed by him shouting something about the court trial. This was enough and Mitty was at once lost in dreaming and thought himself standing in the court. It was the case of his gun. the judge crossed him. There was a reference to a dog and Mitty was now suddenly reminded that his wife had asked him to bring puppy biscuits. He went to the shop and bought some.

Mitty found that there were still fifteen minutes more for his wife to come out of the hair dresser’s so he sat in a big leather chair. He took a copy of Liberty and saw the picture of the bombing planes and of ruined streets. He is now lost in himself and thought himself as Captain Mitty working actively and handling the operation of the bombers. he was on the battle field and the sound of bombing could be heard all around. This dream suddenly broke when he felt that someone had struck his shoulder and it was Mrs. Mitty who was scolding him for sitting in that big chair because it had created her great difficulty in finding him out. She saw that he had purchased everything and told him that she would take his temperature at home. As they were going to the parking spot. Mrs. Mitty stopped at the drug store and Mitty lighted a cigarette and in the meantime, it began to rain. He stood against the wall of the drug store. Then he stood straight as if he was standing undefeated, motionless, facing the firing squad.