"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" Comparison

There are many differences seen between the short story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" and it's film adaptation. These comparisons lie mostly in the elements of a story. The short story and the movie have different plots and characters and themes and etc. To decide which work better represents Walter's secret life, one has to juxtapose the elements of a story. By comparing a few elements, it's easy to decide which one better shows Mitty's secret life.

One of the biggest differences is seen in the conflicts of each pieces of work. The short story tells the tale of Walter Mitty who goes on weekly trips to a city while repeatedly daydreaming. The only problems that Walter faces are being inscrutable to everybody around him and forgetfulness. The film shows the story of Walter as an employee for the magazine company known as Life. Walter is still a constant daydreamer that deals with a crush on a fellow employee and a missing photograph. A simple, ordinary day of life for Walter is shown on the short story but in the movie we see a real conflict with Walter's future hanging in the balance.

A huge comparison between the two works is the sequence of events, or plot. In the short story,  Mr. Mitty takes Mrs. Mitty to get her hair done in the city. While he parks his car and runs a couple of errands, Walter finds himself daydreaming over and over. In the movie, the audience sees that Walter is in love with Cheryl, a coworker at a magazine company which is about to issue its last paper magazine. He gets a couple of gifts including photos from a photographer. The one photo that Mitty needs is missing, so he works with Cheryl in order to track the photographer. After traveling to Iceland, Greenland, Afghanistan, and the Himalayas, Mitty is told that the photo is in the wallet that the photographer gave him. After finding the photo and giving it to his boss, Walter sees that the last issue was about the people who made the magazine and walks with Cheryl. One plot is simple while the other is long and developed. The secret life we see in the short story is Walter's daydreams. The frequency of his dreams are inscrutable because people think Walter is simply out of his mind but nobody knows that he's daydreaming. Walter's secret life in the film is that of traveling to several countries in search of a photograph. Daydreaming is also part of Walter's secret life as well because people like Todd sometimes couldn't determine if Mitty was daydreaming or not.

Characters and character development is the last element that helps determine which piece of work better represents Walter's secret life. In the short story, we only see Mr. and Mrs. Mitty as the main characters. Walter is the daydreamer and Mrs. Mitty is there to show the reader that people don't understand why he daydreams so much. In the film adaptation, we see Walter, Cheryl, Ted Hendricks, and Sean O'Connell as important characters. Walter is a daydreamer while Cheryl, Ted, Odessa, Walter's sister, and his mom represent how and why others see him as abnormal. Cheryl shows why she and some others think he's normal and easily bored. Ted represents how people see him as insane because of the daydreaming. People like Odessa and Mrs. Mitty are similar to Cheryl because they think Walter is normal but constantly spacing out. We see mixed thoughts about Walter's daydreaming in the film but we're led to believe that nobody understands Walter at all in the short story. Having more than just one main side character is essential for a good story. This makes the film better because we have a variety of people with a variety of beliefs about Walter's daydreaming. We only see misunderstanding and humiliation in the short story, but people like Todd and Cheryl understand Mitty. Those who understand Walter like Todd and those alienate him a bit for the dreams like Ted make the story better.

In conclusion, the film adaptation tells a better story and better represents Walter Mitty's secret life. We see a huge conflict in the movie that Walter deals with differently than how many others would've done. Other than Cheryl, Todd, and Mrs. Mitty, basically nobody knows what Walter did and what extremities he went to in order to look for a missing photograph. That is Walter's secret life. The daydreaming and all the amazing things he does that nobody knows about is the secret life. There's also a better story told in the film because we have an actual conflict and more things that the short story doesn't. We have a better and extraordinary plot and more characters with different interactions towards Walter. The short story shows a daydreamer on a trip to the city. There's no big bad conflict or amazing feat that Walter does to fix a problem. That's why the film tells a better story.