Often praised as the greatest American humorist since Mark Twain, James Thurber found a way to make serious statements about human nature and society through his many essays and books. Even though Thurber's experiences, influences, and feelings are unique, his writings have found a place in history James Thurber Essay The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty, By James Thurber Words | 2 Pages The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, by James Thurber, Walter Mitty imagines himself as a very brave, confident person mainly because in reality he is the opposite Jan 14, · The Life of James Thurber Essay James Thurber was born in Columbus, Ohio to Charles Leander and Mary Thurber. Thurber was brought into the world by the nurse, Margery Albright. Thurber could walk when he was two years old 5/5(1)
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After working as a reporter for the Columbus Dispatch and later a Parisbased correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, james thurber essays, in he joined the staff of the New Yorker, a magazine with which he would be associated for the rest of his life as a freelancer from His stylish wit marked by psychological insight, james thurber essays, Thurber produced droll short stories, a comic play about college life, and a number of works of gentle satire on various subjects. He is probably best remembered today for his cartoons and drawings, of which there are many collections. These often depict hapless middle-aged men besieged by the demands of domineering wives and beset by the petty irritations of everyday life.
Thurber entertains and amuse while conveying his sense of frustration and bemusement at what he experience and observed there. Thurber arranges this excerpt from his autobiography, My Life and Hard Times, as a series of linked stories. In an anecdote about his botany class, Thurber describes his frustration at not being able to se see what he is supposed to see through a microscope, and what, presumably, his fellow classmates see. He structures the botany anecdote to allow for the hope of success, only to dash that hope with comic deflation. hrough stories about gym and journalism and military drill, Thurber creates a comic persona that is, paradoxically, both blind and insightful.
IN showing readers what Thurber the character didn? t see, Thurber the writer shows us some things we can smile about. His anecdote about economics class shifts the focus from Thurber himself to another hapless student—a Polish football player, Bolenciecwz, james thurber essays, who serves as a comic stereotype of the intellectually challenged but lovable oversized athlete. His professors and fellow students together help Bolenciecwz to just scrape by academically so as to retain his athletic eligibility. This was because all james thurber essays students had to spend several hours james thurber essays week in a laboratory looking through a microscope at plant cells, and I could never see through a microscope.
I never once saw a cell through a microscope. This used to enrage my instructor. He would wander around the laboratory pleased with the progress all the students were making in drawing the involved and, so I am told, james thurber essays, interesting structure of flower cells, until he came to me. I would just be standing there. He would begin. patiently enough, explaining how anybody can see through a microscope, but he would always end up in a fury, claiming that I could too see through a microscope but just pretended that I couldn? t see anything, james thurber essays. say, and I would put my eye to james thurber essays microscope and see nothing at all, except now and again, a nebulous milky substance—a phenomenon of maladjustment.
You were supposed to see a vivid, james thurber essays, restless clockwork of sharply defined plant cells. This, he claimed, was the result of my not having adjusted the microscope properly; so he would readjust it for me, or rather, for himself. And I would look again and see milk. I finally took james thurber essays deferred pass, as they called it, and waited a year and tried again. James thurber essays had to pass one of the biological sciences or you couldn? The professor had come back from vacation brown as a berry, bright-eyed, and eager to explain james thurber essays again to his classes.
re going to see cells this time, aren? Students to right of me james thurber essays to left of me and in front of me were seeing cells; what? s more, they were quietly drawing pictures of them in their notebooks. Of course, I didn? As God is my witness, I? ll arrange this glass so that you see cells through it or I? ll give up teaching. So we tried it with every adjustment of the microscope known to man. With only one of them did I see anything but blackness or the familiar lacteal opacity, and that time I saw, to my pleasure and amazement, a variegated constellation of flecks, specks, and dots. These I hastily drew.
The instructor, noting my activity, came back from an adjoining desk, a smile on his lips and his eyebrows high in hope. He looked at my cell drawing. s that? t, you didn? His head snapped up. your eye! ve fixed the lens so that it reflects! ve drawn your eye! t like, but somehow managed to pass, was economics. I went to that class straight from the botany class, which didn? t help me any in understanding either subject. I used to get them mixed up. But not as mixed up as another student in my economics class who came there direct from a physics laboratory. He was a tackle on the football ball team, named Bolenciecwz. At that time Ohio State University had one of the best football teams in the country, and Bolenciecwz was one of its outstanding stars. In order to be eligible to play it was necessary for him to keep up in his studies, a very difficult matter, for while he was not dumber than an ox james thurber essays was not any smarter.
Most of his professors were lenient and helped him along. None gave him more hints, in answering questions, or asked him simpler ones than the economics professor, a thin, timid man named Bassum. One day when we were on the subject of transportation and distribution, it came Bolenciecwz? s turn to answer a question. No light came into the big tackle? s eyes, james thurber essays. Bolenciecwz sat staring at him. Bolenciecwz had the look of a man who is being led into a trap. Bassum abruptly broke this silence in an amazing manner.
He glanced appealingly around the room. All of us, of course, shared Mr. desire that Bolenciecwz should stay abreast of the class in economics, for the Illinois game, one of the hardest and most important of the season, was only a week off. Somebody else gave a fine imitation of a locomotive letting off steam. Bassum himself rounded off the little show, james thurber essays. Bolenciecwz was staring at the floor now, trying to think, his great brow furrowed, his huge hands rubbing together, his face red. asked the professor, james thurber essays. What did you ride here on?
I don? t even like to think about it. They wouldn? t let you play games or join in the exercises with your glasses on and I couldn? see with mine off. I bumped into professors, horizontal bars, agricultural students, and swinging iron rings. Not being able to see, I could take it but I couldn? t dish it out. Also, in order to pass gymnasium and you had to pass it to graduate you had to learn to swim if you didn? t know how. I didn? t like the swimming pool, I didn? t like swimming, and I didn? t like the swimming instructor, and after all these years I still don?
I never swam but I passed my gym work anyway, by having another student give my gymnasium number and swim across the pool in my place. He was a quiet, amiable blonde youth, numberand he would have seen through a microscope for me if we could have got away with it, but we couldn? t get away with it. Another thing I didn? t like about gymnasium work was that they made you strip the day you registered. It is impossible for me to be happy when I am stripped and being asked a lot of questions. Still, I did better than james thurber essays lanky agricultural student who was cross examined just before I was, james thurber essays.
They asked each student what college he was in—that is, whether Arts, Engineering, Commerce, or Agriculture. It wasn? t that agricultural student but it was another a whole lot like him who decided to take up journalism, possibly on the ground that when farming went to hell he could fall back on newspaper work. He didn? t realize, of course, that that would be very much like falling back full-length on a kit of carpenter? s tools. Haskins didn?
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by James Thurber
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Better Essays Preview "the Secret Life of Walter Mitty" by James Thurber confidence and courage, and his crew expresses their faith in him by saying, "The Old Man'll get us through, the Old Man ain't afraid of Hell!" (NA, ). Suddenly, Mitty is brought back to reality by a sharp reproach from his wife for driving too fast James Thurber Essay The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty, By James Thurber Words | 2 Pages The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, by James Thurber, Walter Mitty imagines himself as a very brave, confident person mainly because in reality he is the opposite Often praised as the greatest American humorist since Mark Twain, James Thurber found a way to make serious statements about human nature and society through his many essays and books. Even though Thurber's experiences, influences, and feelings are unique, his writings have found a place in history
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