In The Creative Process, James Baldwin details the purpose of the artist – “to illuminate that night, blaze streets through that vast forest, so that we will not, in all the doing, lose sight of its goal, which is, in fact, to make the universe a more individual dwelling place” (Baldwin 874). Author Wayne Thurber meets his responsibility as a great artist in his short testimonies, which cope with themes of dissatisfaction, personality, and the battle of the sexes. Through his use of strong character advancement in The Top secret Life of Walter Mitty, The Unicorn in the Yard, and The Catbird Seat, Adam Thurber lights up his observations of society’s ills on the globe.
In his short tale The Secret Lifestyle of Walt Mitty, Thurber uses the protagonist Walt as a means of commenting in dissatisfaction with everyday life. Inside the story, Walter Mitty is usually an innovative man trapped in a routine life and finds him self submerged in fantasies like a Navy commander, a high profile surgeon, and a British preliminary. Thurber’s utilization of characterization is extremely telling of Walter’s individuality. For example , in his unhappy marital life, Mrs. Mitty treats Walter as if he can incompetent and lesser, their conversation comes down to snide remarks and condescending comments including, “you’re not just a young man any kind of longer…Why on the web wear your gloves? Have you lost your gloves? inch (Secret Life). This lack of autonomy in the marriage is actually a major supply of insecurity and ultimately causes Walter to resort to a fantasy globe in which he becomes the dauntless, assertive figure that he can never be in real life. Through the use of figure development in the comical brief story, Adam Thurber conveys a much better message of the tragedy of resorting to fantasy to escape the frustrations of real life.
In The Unicorn in the Garden, Thurber utilizes the husband’s character creation to convey a belief of gender particular stereotypes. In this fairytale-like short story a husband perceives a unicorn in his back garden and informs his partner who rapidly dismisses his claim and heartlessly calls the police and a psychiatrist to take her husband aside. When these types of responders arrive, they detain the partner and problem the husband who have vengefully refuses his wife’s claims, The husband’s personality is at first very misleading, and it is not until this individual denies anything to the police which the reader is aware of his accurate intentions. Thurber presents an appealing plot distort when the partner highlights the absurdity of seeing a unicorn while using line “The unicorn is actually a mythical beast” (Unicorn). Actually, the wife uses this exact line to dismiss the partner’s initial declare of having seen a unicorn in the backyard. Through this kind of implicit portrayal, the husband shows himself to be not only sane but as well vengeful toward his partner. By concealing the husband’s actual intentions and only revealing his the case persona towards the end, James Thurber conveys his true beliefs – men and women are not meant to live together happily ever after.
There are many parallels between David Thurber’s The Unicorn inside the Garden plus the Catbird Seats, while the latter is based even more in reality than fantasy, the two stories make use of themes of gender stereotypes and the battle of the people. Thurber features the protagonist Mr. Erwin Martin as he is thieving a load up of cigarettes, and it is quickly says he is organizing the homicide of Mrs. Ugline Barrows, a crass but powerful coworker. As he walks home, Martin delineates a detailed strategy in his mind, from this, you can infer that he could be meticulous and disciplined. In the words of his boss Mr. Fitweiler, “Man can be fallible but Martin isn’t” (Catbird Seat). Those who know him generally consider Matn to be a style worker, calm and unassuming. Martin uses this harmless persona as a cover for his plan to homicide Barrows, characterized as ridiculous and invasive in the workplace. Through his activities and thoughts, Thurber describes Martin, as not only ingenious and careful, but also innocent inside the matter. Mister. Edwin Martin is not really in the wrong by plotting to eliminate Barrows, his strategy is merely a “correction of the error” (Thurber). This portrayal of Martin as the “hero” from the story conveys a greater meaning of the inevitability of women to not only madden men but also have one back.
Throughout his short tales The Secret Existence of Walt Mitty, The Unicorn inside the Garden, plus the Catbird Seats, James Thurber often returns to one prevalent theme – the battle of the genders. Though with a humorous outlook, Thurber typically paints the feminine characters in the stories as domineering and difficult to deal with as seen through Mrs. Mitty, the partner, and Ulgine Barrows. In each story, the woman is portrayed since burdensome and maddening. This misogynistic perception that women not merely dominate men but have one back undermines the significant achievements of women and ultimately harms the feminist cause.
