1、THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY,沃尔特米蒂的隐秘生活, The Author, The Context, The Glossary,CONTENTS, The Author,1. The Date of Birth and Death,Born December 8, 1894 Died November 2, 1961 Life span 66 years,2. Occupation and Period,American humorist, author, journalist, playwright. 1929-1961,3. Resting Place,
2、Green Lawn Cemetery, Columbus, Ohio, U.S.,Profile of James Thurber,Personal File,4. Subject,Humor,6. Common Themes,a. Frustration of modern life b. Disappointment of modern human beings c. Underdogs,5. Genre,Short stories, cartoons, essays,His father, dreaming being of a lawyer or an actor His mothe
3、r, a “born comedian“ He has two brothers. Two marriages: 1922-19351935-1961,Family,Work experience,Career,1961, he died due to complications from pneumonia(肺炎).,Death,Notable Works,Works,Life Story,The Ohio State University,A reporter for The Columbus Dispatch,An eidtor of The New Yorker An cartooni
4、st (1930),A reporter for the New York Evening Post,A code clerk for Department of State,Life Story,Teaching at Yale University,Resigned from The New Yorker A freelance writer,1913-1918,Is Sex Necessary? 性是必要的吗 该书结合美国知识阶层男性在同女性交往和恋爱、婚姻中的种种表现，精辟的分析了这些现象的心理原因，并探讨了应该怎样对待这些问题。,My Life and Hard Times 我的生活
5、与艰苦岁月 该书为詹姆斯瑟伯的自传文章。,Fables for Our Time 当代寓言集 该书文体简洁，对人类的弱点洞察入微，评价毫不留情，被认为是继马克吐温之后最有幽默感的作品。,1929,The 13 Clocks 十三座钟 该书是儿童读物，是英美经典儿童文学作品，也是仅有的几部儿童作品中最著名的一部。,1933,1940,1950,“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty“ is a short story by James Thurber. The most famous of his story, it first appeared in The New
6、Yorker on March 18, 1939 and was first collected in his book My World and Welcome to It., The Context The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,Social Background and Setting,Social Background, The story was written in 1939, just after the beginning of WW.The war influenced America as well.People at that time
7、admired the lives of millionaires, famous doctors and military heroes. In 1929-1933, American people were suffering the destruction of the economic crisis during the Great Depression. Americans of all classes at that time were lost in the confusion, frustration, poverty and the premonition of death.
8、,Setting,The action takes place in the late 1930s in a car traveling to Waterbury, Connecticut, and in the Main Street of this city.,Plot,Mr. Mitty, a suburbanite, drives his wife into the center for some shopping. After having been reproved for drving too fast, he lets her out at the hairdressers a
9、nd leaves his car at the parking lot. He buys a pair of overshoes and a box of dog biscuit, then goes to the lobby of the hotel where his wife is to meet him. On their way back to the parking lot, his wife remembers something that she needs to buy in he drugstore and the story ends as Mr. Mitty wait
10、s for her outside.During this time he has five heroic daydream episodes.,Daydream 1,as a commander of a navy hydroplane breaking a storm,Daydream 2,a magnificent surgeon performing a one-of-a-kind surgery,Daydream 3,a cool crack shot testifying in a courtroom,Daydream 4,a Royal Air Force (RAF) pilot
11、 volunteering to bomb an ammunition dump,Daydream 5,a hero facing the firing squad without the handkerchief,Plot,Five Daydreams,Plot,弗洛伊德说：白日梦往往是利用眼前的发生的事件，为自己构想未来，以实现未能满足的欲望。,hypocritical, vain,The next time, he thought,Ill wear my right arm in a sling.myself.(P15,3,6) “I want some biscuit for smal
12、l young dogs.Puppies Bark for It on the box.(P16,2,6),incompetent, clumsy,“Wrong lane,Mac,“ said the parking-lot attendant.(P15,2,2) Once he had tried to take his chains off, outside New Milford.axles.(P15,3,2),forgetful, absent-minded,Walter Mitty began to wonder what the other thing wastwice befor
13、eWaterbury.(P15,4,2)He was always getting something wrong(下一行）,mild, good-natured, docile, henpecked,“Not so fast !Youre Driving too fast!“ (P14,1,1) Hmm? “Remember to get those overshoes.“(P14,3,2) “Why dont you wear your gloves?.(P14,3,6),Characters-Walter Mitty,In reality,decisive, resolute, good
14、 leadership and command,“Were going through!“(P13,1,16) Rev her up to 8500, Swith on No.8 auxiliary! Full strength in No.3 turret,calm, knowledgeable, skillful, respected,“ Ive read your book on streptothricosis“(P14,last1, 2) “The new anaesthetizer.low,cool, voice.(P14, last1,last8) He pulled a fau
15、lty piston out of.get on with the operation.(P14,last1,last3),calm and collected, righteous,“With any known make of gun,“.with my left hand. (P15, last1, last 5) Without rising from his chair,the chin. (P15, last1,last1),romantic, courageous,“Im going over. Spot of brandy?“. (P16, last 2, 7) Walter
16、Mitty walked to the door.waved to the sergeant.“(P16, last2, last3),brave and proud, fearless to death,“To hell with the handkerchief,“(last1,last 5) with that faint,fleeting smile.Undefeated, inscrutable to the last.(the last sentence),Characters-Walter Mitty,In daydreams,Walter Mitty and Mrs. Mitt
17、y,Walter Mitty is a henpecked daydreamer, he married to a woman who treats him more like a child than a husband. This is due to his immature tendency to escape into fantasies rather than live in the real world. Thurbers characterization of this neurotic man whose wife dominates him, who cannot fix h
18、is own car, and who lives in dreams has become an archetypal figure of the ineffectual, weak-willed, bumbling male in American culture.,She is Walters dominating wife. She nags him to buy overshoes, to put on his gloves, and to drive more slowly. When she asks Walter why he did not put on his oversh
19、oes before leaving the store, he responds with irritation: “I was thinking,.does it ever occur to you that I am sometimes thinking?” But while Mrs. Mitty may appear overly controlling and condescending, Mrs. Mitty is Walters link to reality; she prevents accidents and helps Walter avoid losing his g
20、rasp of everyday life.,“ Pick it up brother!“ snapped a cop as the light changed.,Cop,.,Parking-lot attendant,A man had had to come out in a wreking car.grinning garage man. (P15, 3, 4),Garage man,A woman who was passing laughedhimself. (P16, 2, 2),A woman who was passing,Other Characters,They are t
21、he symbols of the society.,Theme,Mittys inability to live a fulfilling external life causes him to retreat to an internal life full of images of conquest. Walter Mitty is neither exciting nor successful in his everyday life. A bumbling, ineffectual man scorned by others, he feels humiliated by the k
22、nowing grins of garage mechanics who know he cannot take the chains off his cars tires. The failures of his everyday life are countered by the extraordinary successes he plays out in his fantasy life. Mitty is always the stunning hero of his dreams. Walter is alert, courageous and at the center of a
23、ttention in his dreams. Thurber suggests that this ordinary man who hates the reality of middle-class life and his own shortcomings prefers to live in his imagination.,1. Repetition of sounds,e.g. Thurber uses the onomatopoeia “pocketa-pocketa“ to imitate the sound of an aircraft engine in the first
24、 daydream, to imitate the sound of anesthetizer in the second daydream-with the addition of “queep“ when the machine malfunctions-and to imitate the sound of flame throwers in the fourth daydream.,2. Abrupt transitions from the mundane Mitty of everyday life to the heroic Mitty of the daydreams.,e.g
25、. after Mitty slugs the district attorney in the courtroom dream, he remembers that he must buy puppy biscuits.,3. Descriptions of incredible feats that the daydreaming Mitty performs or claims he can perform.,e.g. he repairs the anesthetizer with a fountain pen and claims that he could have killed
26、Gregory Fitzhurst from 300 feet by shooting a gun with his left hand (Mitty is right-handed).,Thurbers Humor,Obstreosis(P14,5,last3) Streptothricosis（P14, 6,3),医学新造词汇sis,用于医学中表示症状的词语后; 表示Mitty医生的博学多才,Coreopsis(P15,1,2),波斯菊，被故意误用; 起到幽默夸张的效果,ta-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa,象声词，射击的声音，文中多次出现（梦境一，气缸的声音，para1,
27、7;梦境二，麻醉机发出的声音，para6,912; 梦境四，喷火器的声音，para13, last3) ; 渲染危险紧张的气氛，达到夸张的效果,Webley-Vickers 50.80,Webley和Vicker是英国的两个武器制造厂；事实上并没有这一型号的枪，作者对武器枪支并不了解，为突出主角的沉溺幻想的特点而捏造的名字。,Coals to Newcastle (P14, 6,5),“送煤到纽卡斯尔” 纽卡斯尔是英格兰的港市，素以产煤著称。是世界上最早的煤炭输出港。 因此，其实际意义是“多此一举，白费功夫。”,Archies (P16,last 2, 5),一种防空武器,III. Gloss
28、ory,words,Glossary,words,P14,2, 5,“Walter Mitty drove on towardhis mind.“Walter Mitty默默地开向华脱伯雷镇。在20年海军航空生涯中，SN202号吼叫着穿过最险恶的暴风雨的飞行，已经在他心里那条又遥远又亲切的航线上慢慢淡薄了。,P14, last 2, last 4,“ Were having the devils own time look at him. “Mcmillan 可真叫我们费事，这位大财主银行家是罗斯福总统的亲密好友，管道梗阻第三期，希望你过去看看。,The last sentence,“ Wit
29、h that faint, fleeting smile to the last.“ 嘴唇上带着那种淡淡的一掠而过的笑容，他面对行刑队，挺直而屹立，自傲而轻蔑，”永不战败“的Walter Mitty 到了最后关头还是不可思议的。,Glossary,sentences,My Reflection,这部短篇小说是以幻想开始，以幻想结束。刚看前几段的时候，我以为是主角的回忆，越往下看越觉得让人云里雾里，就是这样一篇看似没有逻辑，没有情节的故事，实则是最好的安排，是作者的精心设计，有人说它带有”意识流“小说的特征，突破了现实主义小说描写外景编排故事的格局，着力挖掘人的内心世界，我是赞同这一观点的。作者
30、通过小说的形式留给我们对人生对现实的思考。,Walter Mitty 生活在现代化的纽约大都市里，承受着周边世界所带来的精神压力，现实中的他在外经常被人取笑，在家又受到妻子的管制，因而他感到备受压抑和痛苦，由此引发的恐慌和失败感，促使他常常沉湎于自己营造的幻想世界，使自己的个性不受压抑，逃避这个令人恐慌的现实，在那里寻求自己的一方乐土，一席之地。实际上代表了社会中的一类人，那些微不足道，不被重视的小人物和生活中的失败者，只有在幻想中才能得到慰藉，受人尊重，获得自己在现实生活中得不到的归属感，成就感。,My Reflection,如果说刚开始我对这样的人物产生同情，觉得可怜的话，到后来又多了一份
31、蔑视。在这个竞争激烈，人情淡漠的社会中，我们难免会碰壁受挫，感觉与这个世界格格不入，好像虚假的幻想世界就是我们情感宣泄的出口，这样也无可厚非，也是人之常情。 但是，如果我们一直沉浸于此，一边怨天尤人，一边构想一个不劳而获的世界，那我们就会进入一种恶性循环，养成一种可怕的习惯。即使是自己应付的责任也要推脱说是社会太残忍。那些不够出色，庸庸碌碌的人不该被人嘲笑和谈论，那些为自己的不努力不负责任而找各种借口的人才真的让人不屑和愤恨。我觉得有时候我们应该感谢各方面的压力和所有的苦难，正是因此我们才逼迫自己更强大，才看到了更优秀的自己。我们周围的世界就是这样，对谁都一视同仁，我们能改变整个世界吗？我们能改变别人的观念和看法吗？如果你说能的话，那么办法只有一个，唯有改变自己，才能改变别人。如果人人都变了，那么世界也就真的被改变了。逃避不会一劳永逸，自甘堕落，自怨自艾只是在给别人可乘之机，勇敢地面对现实才是真正的王道。,THANKS,Sophia,
