Travel and the Self

Travel writing is a difficult genre to classify as it shares in so many other genres and is widely considered a hybrid genre - fusing factual reportage with fictional techniques, on-the-spot observation with recollections in tranquillity, scientific detail with poetic allusion, verbal description with visual illustration.

Histories, personal narratives, accounts of exploration, and tales of epic quests: travel writing derives from and adds to each of these forms. Travel writing has always been as much about the exploration of the writer's self as it has been about the places or peoples visited. Travel writers and critics of the genre have often argued that the destination is of relatively little consequence; it is the process of travel, the work or travail involved, that is the true subject of the travel writer.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

James Thurber

Questions:

1. What are Walter Mitty’s secret lives? Draw a star next to each of the paragraphs in the story that detail his secret lives.

2. Describe the journey that you believe Walter Mitty takes during this short story. Why do you think he is taking this journey?

3. How would you describe Walter Mitty? In what way does he represent the typical everyday individual?

4. Do you consider Walter Mitty to be a hero? Why or why not?

5. What do you think the central message of this short story is?

6. Why do you think this story is such a famous and well-loved short story?

7. What symbolic effects of travel on the self are explored in this story?