Both men are social failures and have weak characters. They also feel the need to use fantasy as a sort of escape from the harsh reality of their own lives and into a nice life that they seem happy with. Mitty only has to start daydreaming and he will be in his other life. He seems to switch into a military dream. He wants power due to the lack of power he has over his wife and his life. Whereas in The Poor Relation’s Story, Michael is living a constant lie. He is always lying about his life and his existence. This is because his life is so bad and he wants a new life but can’t be bothered to change it and expects things to change so he makes things up to make him seem more interesting.
Walter Mitty only has one day of his life written about. He has a regular visit to town with his wife, which shows his wife’s dominance. He is bossed about and told what to do by his wife. He does a series of errands for his wife and during all the errands he switches back and forth between his fantasy and real lives. He can’t keep his head in one world he has to venture off to his fantasy life. He also seems to have a craving for power. The poor relation, Michael, has a few days of his life described. It tells us about his cheap life in bad lodgings. He is always telling lies about his life and how he lives. He also hangs round city offices to make it seem as if he has a good job in one of the big city companies. He is a sad character who you can’t help but feel sorry for. He lies about having friends too. He is a loner but hates to let himself know that so he makes up his friends. Both men lead miserable lives that neither can stand. So rather than taking drastic measures they spice up their own life using the realms of fantasy.
Michael is a more sad case because he has to live his fantasy life all the time and live two lives; whereas Walter lives an impossible life. He lets his mind wander into his fantasy life. But it isn’t just one thing. He lives different situations depending on where he is. For example when he is against a wall he s in front of the firing squad and is about to be killed for a serious crime and also he goes to a scene where he is in the stand in court and is being questioned. He makes out he is a fine marksman with any gun. He wants to be more exciting. He wants to be an adventure hero.
Both men want greatness and a status. They seem to be so run down and put down by themselves and everyone else that they want to regain their manhood and self-respect.
In both lives they experience a much better a prosperous life where they have a good social standing and power. Walter Mitty his desired power in command. And Michael his business status and social life that has been lacking in his life for so long. Walter Mitty seems to use his fantasy life to make his day more interesting and enjoyable. Michael uses his fantasy life to escape from his sad life and into a new life where he is socially accepted and wanted. He wants to be a shrewd businessman and doesn’t want to be seen as a failure in front of his relatives, so he makes up this make-believe life that makes his family think he has done something good with his life.
Both these men seem to be sad people who have no control over their own life and have no intention of actually making their lives more interesting, so they used fantasy to make sure they are happy with their lives. In my opinion they both consider their lives so bad now they don’t think they can save themselves from what they have become. In actual fact they are lazy. Mitty is being ruled by his wife and that is forcing him into his fantasy world of power and military status. Michael is making his life more complicated by telling lie after lie about his life, because one day it will catch him up and make his life more miserable.
The structures in both stories are different but in some cases can be similar. They both use the switches between reality and fantasy. In Walter Mitty the switches are a lot more obvious and the fantasy is distinguishable from the reality. His fantasy is a lot different to the normal world he lives in. In the ‘Poor Relation’s Story’, Michael leads his two lives but they are a lot closer than Mitty’s two lives. He tries to be the opposite of himself. But it is a real person he could be. The two lives are two that exist in the real world anyway but he just wants to be the other side of society and be successful. It is hard to see the transition from reality to fantasy life and this makes the story seem more interesting.
Walter Mitty and Poor Relation’s story both use language that is commonly used and is easy to follow. However in the Poor Relation’s Story it uses a wider range of vocabulary using such words as abhorrence, repudiated, and adjured. And Poor Relation’s also uses longer sentences and uses descriptive language to describe the atmosphere and the tension he feels. In Walter Mitty technical terms are misused to describe noises that cannot be heard. Such words as pocketa pocketa. Which is used to describe the noise of the car engine. Speech is used in both stories. It is used more in The Poor Relation’s Story because speech is used to let the reader know what is going on in relation to the story. The stories build up in both texts and end up in a fantasy world. Walter Mitty ends it by calling himself the undefeated. He pictures himself as an action hero. In the Poor Relation’s Story it ends with him telling a ‘friend’ about his castle. He tells him of the castle in the air that he lives in. He really enters the realms of make-believe. He is beginning to go into the unbelievable fantasies. And this is what both will end up experiencing total denial when they try and accept their real lives.
The author uses both stories to put forward his views on life as a man, and what is expected of a man in society. Also how a man wants to be. It uses both stories to explain that a man wants his status to be that of a bold powerful man that is in charge. A man is supposed to be in charge and be dominant. The Poor Relation’s story lets us know that a man I genuinely accepted in society if he has a good job and a wife. This is also how men feel in general so if they don’t meet the requirements they feel are needed to be a man then they feel socially inadequate. Walter Mitty has his own ideas as to what a real man is and that is an action hero or military leader who has power. He feels a man needs power to be a man. The authors probably feel the same way and they express their feelings through literacy.
Overall both the stories are very effective to show that people aren’t happy with the lives they are given and use their imagination to find themselves lives they are happy with. The Poor Relation’s Story show you how far a person can go to be accepted in society. To actually lie to your family about your whole life. Walter Mitty is unhappy with his life and is fed up with his wife treating him like dirt but he is unable to stand up to his wife. They are two sad characters that need to resort to fantasy to find a more interesting life to be proud of. To be able to say I’m a man.
