In “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” by James Thurber, the contrast between Mitty represented as a courageous hero in his daydreams and Mitty as a cowardly mouse in real life suggests that his daydreams make him lose contact with reality, to the point that he is no longer in control of his life or his daydreams. In his "daydreams", he often imagines that he is more powerful and competent than he actually is, and his reality is so influenced by his wife that his imagination takes over and creates an alternate reality where he feels more important and necessary. This alternative reality is what allows him to cope with the stress that his wife imposes on him every day. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay In one of his daydreams, where he is on trial for an accused murder, “Walter Mitty briefly raised his hand and lawyers have calmed down. . “With any known brand of firearm,” he said matter-of-factly, “I could have killed Gregory Fitzhurst at three hundred feet with my left hand. Chaos broke out in the courtroom. A dark-haired girl was in the arms of Walter Mitty” (3). Mitty, in his daydreams, behaves like an overconfident, highly skilled man. He is the hero and the central point of these adventures. He acts as if he could have shot Gregory from a great distance with any type of weapon, which obviously made his case worse, but he increases his esteem despite this obvious risk. He goes so far as to incriminate himself to make himself appear heroic, when in reality he is a coward. At the end of the daydream, a girl desperately runs into Mitty's arms, showing how respected and attractive he still is in her dreams. Mitty, in his dreams, always displays confidence and arrogance. Yet Mitty's truly passive personality allows his wife, Mrs. Mitty, to coerce and push him into doing things. In fact, she is in control of her life without conflict or confrontation. After his wife urged Mr. Mitty to use his gloves while driving, "he put them on, but after she turned and entered the building, he headed towards a red light, he took them off new. “Pick it up, brother!” "" a cop shouted as the light changed, and Mitty hastily pulled on his gloves and launched forward” (1). After Mitty's wife forces Mitty to wear his gloves, he first puts them on, then takes them off after reaching the red light. Once the light turns green, a cop then yells at Mitty to speed up, but Mitty instinctively puts on his gloves in response to the cop, even though the cop never asked him to. He most likely does this because he has no control over his own life and his wife's authority instinctively drives him to do what she wants. He behaves like he's a weak rabbit compared to his wife, who clearly has more power over his life. Indeed, his submission to his wife makes him weak and constantly nervous. Mitty, by the end of the story, becomes so overwhelmed and unable to control his own life that even in his daydreams, the only place he is able to control, he feels defeated. After Mitty was forced to wait for his wife by the wall of a drugstore, “he took one last drag of his cigarette and snatched it away. Then, with that light and fleeting smile playing on his lips, he turned towards the firing squad; upright and motionless, proud and disdainful, Walter Mitty the Undefeated, inscrutable to the end” (4). In this new reverie, Mitty turns toward a firing squad, losing all expression and remaining motionless – helpless. Mrs. Mitty is depicted as the firing squad, cornering Mitty and preventing her from doing what she wants.