Intelligence, power, loyalty, bravery, and heroism. These are all common habitudes each and every individual wishes to inherit. In literature, the theme of a piece can provide a deeper meaning for many aspects of life. The short story The Secret Life of Walter Mitty written by James Thurber is about a man called Walter Mitty. He is diagnosed with an unknown mental illness that causes him to constantly daydream about himself being the best. He dreams to be a war hero, a life-saving doctor, and many others. A recurring theme in Thurber’s piece that can also be connected to reality and different pieces of writing is how humans enjoy being seen as superior in any situation.
In each and every of Walter’s wild daydreams, he is always seen as the best of everything. In his first adventure, he is a ship captain who demands to charge through a wall of monstrous waves. This dream represents bravery and determination. The next dream he took place in a hospital, where he saved the lives of many sick patients and also fixed a broken machine. This dream represents intelligence. His next dream was about himself being accused of shooting someone. Even though the jurors concluded that he could not have shot someone at such far distances, Walter states that his accuracy is good enough to hit the victim. This dream shows how even though one is accused of wrongdoings, one may still try to be seen as prideful. In Walter’s last dream, he was a war hero. In order to protect his soldiers and friends, he sacrificed himself for the greater good. Life is the most valuable existence, and Walter still decides to take a step further and sacrifice his own life to be seen as heroic. Dreams are usually perceived as wishes. One who dreams of becoming rich often wishes to be rich. This means that Walter, and many other people, wish to be seen as superior in any situation.
Dreams of feeling superior can be seen in many other pieces of literature. The short story Rules of The Game exaggerates Chinese tradition, and is about a smart Chinese girl and her mother, who is not fluent in English. When the child asks her mother if Chinese people are good at torture, her mom answers that Chinese people are good at everything, including torture. Obviously, torture is not something to be proud at. Her mother said that Chinese are good at torture because she does not know what torture is. Despite the fact that her the mom does not know what torture is, she still proceeds to accept that an “unknown” word is something that the Chinese are good at. This shows how people even want to be great at unknown activities.
Being seen as good also weaves it way into reality. In many of the Ted Talks that were recently assigned to watch, the speaker explains how people enjoy being seen as good. One of the Ted Talks explained how one can change their behavior in different ways, such as stopping to smoke. One of the ineffective ways the speaker mentioned was giving out warnings, such as saying that if one smokes, they will contract lung cancer. This method was ineffective because people tend to avoid occurrences that they don’t like. The speaker then explained that providing information that helps someone will encourage change. When one tells a smoker that not smoking will be able to let them breathe easier and cough less, the smoker will listen more attentively because people enjoy being seen as good. In another Ted Talk, the speaker explained about different types of mirrors and their usage. There were normal mirrors and true mirrors. Normal mirrors are more common and are used to see self beauty. These common mirrors also display a distorted reversed image of someone’s true face. True mirrors show the truth, there is no distortion and is not used to see beauty. The speaker continues to explain how many people have surprised reactions when its their first time looking into a true mirror. This is because they are used to seeing themselves as wonderful through the normal mirrors, and the true mirror takes away the beauty.
To wrap everything up, being seen as superior can almost be seen everywhere. Many other pieces of literature also share this theme. In real life, wanting to be seen as superior is an everyday occurrence.