To be or not to be Walter Mitty

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Short Stories have always inspired me to think and ponder on themes which I usually would never reason out. I must say, I was privileged to study a few short stories in one of the best schools in the country- which goes a long way in shaping who I am now.

We had a Short Story in Xth ICSE Board named “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, which was one of my favourites (along with The Lady and the Tiger & War) 


For those who do not know what the story is about- it revolves around the protagonist of that name, who often day dreams of becoming someone who he cannot be in real life. He dreams of being a successful medical surgeon, a war pilot facing a firing brigade, a secret agent etc.….whereas in reality he is shown as a subservient persona and often dominated by his wife. Walter Mitty then teleports into his fantasy world where he undertakes roles of great valour and importance, only to be astonished by crude reality every time his fantasy ends.  

The story or the theme often puzzles me and triggers my thought process and forces me to think whether Walter Mitty was right in what he was doing, or should we be sympathetic to him and treat his proclivity as a mental disease which needs treatment? I am writing on this theme- whether one should be a Walter Mitty and enjoy his fantasies or come out of it and face the wrath of reality head on?

I sometimes emulate Walter Mitty, I am sure everybody has done that. We all have a fantasy life that we day dream of. We often fantasize achieving what we want to, but cannot. We all fantasize shaping our personal life as we want, being with the people who we love the most and setting all relations straight. We all fantasize achieving professional success and being so self-sufficient that we do not have to struggle for anything.

We often act as the protagonists of the films that we direct based on stories that we script with characters we want to interact in the backdrop of the environment where we want to live…..

So is doing this wrong? Most would enjoy it for a while, but only till the moment of reckoning- when it arrives- we decide to move on and wipe out the fantasies and get a reality check. This is sugar coated pragmatism.  


Or should we live in our fantasies and create a new world for ourselves where we are living in our dreams, doing things we want to do- our way. Should we live in the dream world of Walter Mitty where our personal failures and disabilities are shredded or should we instead channelize our energy and thought process into making the fantasy world into reality and live it in real life- of course not as merry as we all fantasize.
   

What do you think? I am keeping it open for discussion, please write to me on this. After a few weeks or so I will compile your views and post it here!

Thanks for reading!

"Dreams are meant to be lived"

Comments

vishlicious said…
I feel our fantasies should fuel our desire to work harder and bridge the gap between our dreams and reality.
March 23, 2015 at 10:05 PM
Unknown said…
I think that as long as we know the difference between our fantasies and our realities, the fantasies help in coping up with and in improving our reality. Every great achievement or action requires a dream but remembering to take action is important, in my humble opinion!
March 24, 2015 at 3:40 AM
Unknown said…
I think that as long as we know the difference between our fantasies and our realities, the fantasies help in coping up with and in improving our reality. Every great achievement or action requires a dream but remembering to take action is important, in my humble opinion!
March 24, 2015 at 3:41 AM
Unknown said…
I feel it's good to be Walter Mitty! To fulfill our dreams into reality, we have to work for it which is a fact of life that we all know but very few implement it/ or are successful in it !
But with living his kind of life, you can actually live your dream maybe for a few seconds, which in my opinion is better than not dreaming about it and living the mundane life! Maybe some day, your dreams would give you the determination and will power to achieve it ! Till then keep dreaming :P
April 2, 2015 at 9:50 PM
Unknown said…
In my view one should be relaint on his fantasies as much that can give him enough strength to fight against all odds in order to make it into reality . I think living in fantasies is only a sign of escapism from real world harsh realities and no one in this world is so week that he can't fight and can pursue his fantasies /dreams.
May 18, 2016 at 6:13 PM
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