the secret life of walter mitty and the poor relation

How well do the Poor Relation and Walter Mitty relive the boredom and restrictions of their everyday lives?

Both of the short stories include the plot of middle aged males that have a fantasy life within their own. Both of these fantasy lives totally contrast their own life. For example ‘The Poor Relation’ gives the impression of being a rich, well-endowed business man whist he is really very poor and unsophisticated. This is a type of escapism from real life. Neither of the characters ever describe their lives as being particularly good and so they try to mimic their desired lives but in different ways. In ‘The Poor Relation’ Michael is almost permanently acting as though he were a rich business man, and ‘Walter Mitty’ in ‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’ slips in and out of fantasy when triggered by interesting things in real life. When ‘The Poor Relation’ talks of his real life he nearly al

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The audiences, while reading this story, are intended to question the mental condition of Walter Mitty. Soon after, he is a doctor who walks into a hospital only to be called upon to help with emergency surgery. A technical glitch occurs in the operating equipment and he repairs it with a regular pen. While walking down the street he jumps into another daydream about being on trial for the murder of Gregory Fitzhurst. ‘Little Frank’ ‘is the child of his first cousin’. He announces that he killed the man with his left hand and brings the courtroom into c!

haos. The title itself describes what this story is all about. The readers also consider whether Mitty will get his errands done (buy shoes, dog biscuits, etc. As fast as his daydreams occur, they stop just as quickly with help from the outside environment for example, his wife in the car moaning about Walter going too fast, “Not so fast! You’re driving too fast”.

In ‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’, suspense is also present. ) before his wife gets out of the salon. This negative way of speaking of himself makes you realise that he is not very happy with his life. The poor relation loves little Frank; “I have a particular affection for that child”. He first dream’s about being the commander of a hydroplane who has to get his crew out of danger from the hurricane. I think that this intended to draw suspense to the story about the how the poor relation really feels about his life.

Approximate Word count = 606
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

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