“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” tells the story of Walter Mitty on a trip to town with his wife, Mrs. Mitty. In his fantasy world, Walter often is heroic and adventurous, but in real life he only runs errands every so often and doesn’t do anything exciting unlike his daydreams. In the beginning of the short story, Mitty pretends to be driving through a hurricane and on an iceberg. Then, when Mrs. Mitty starts yelling at him, he finally snaps back to reality, where she scolds him for driving too fast. After Mrs. Mitty left, Walter goes back to daydreaming, where he is a nurse and helps heal a millionaire banker who is a friend of Roosevelt.
I think this short story’s theme is that success and failure is examined through Mitty’s inability to live a fulfilling life, which causes him to retreat to an internal life full of images of conquest. Walter Mitty is neither exciting nor successful in his everyday life, whilst in his fantasy world, he is prosperous and is considered as hero and adventurer.