A Brief Overview of Walter Mitty In the short story The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by James Thurber, many interesting fantasies occur in a way that takes the reader into a different world. The story moves from illusion to reality, dragging the reader into a life, perhaps similar to his own. At the beginning of this story, the first paragraph is a fantasy of the main character, Walter Mitty. He describes his life as an aircraft commander. An intense scene is shown that shows what Walter Mitty wishes was true. It is only in the next paragraph that this reality is discovered. The wife then interrupts the scene, taking Walter Mitty back to his everyday life, which is much less exciting for him. This happens several times throughout the story. Every time a different fantasy. From successful doctors to aircraft commanders, each flashback was something he obviously aspired to too, but was always interrupted by reality. This daily life consists of going to the city once a week to pick up normal household necessities. Throughout the story, his wife nags him and reminds him what items he needs to buy while he is in town. Through Walter's real-world paragraphs, the reader can see that he is fed up with his wife's constant complaints and wants to escape from this reality through his daydreams. Formalistic Critical Approach to Walter Mitty In the story The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, plot formatting and dialogue go hand in hand and are fundamental to making the story clear and concise but also interesting. Structure and organization are a key piece of the puzzle here. When analyzing this story, the best critical approach would be... middle of the paper... to make things more interesting for a moment or two. I think this story can relate to anyone, whether rich, poor, powerful or cunning. Everyone tries to imagine a life different from their own. I found that the way the author used dialogue throughout the story made it very suspenseful for the reader to make sense of the plot. I also liked how the author used small transitions between the flashbacks and reality, such as the "pocketa-pockeata-pocketa" sounds which result in a nice transition from the flashback to reality. I liked these subtle hints to the reader because I believe they were necessary to understand where the stories were going. The flashbacks were realistic and captivating, as was the reality because they were probably familiar to the audience. I personally really enjoyed reading this story and loved the way it was written.