Why does Mitty daydream so much?

Walter Mitty's ordinary, workaday life is none too exciting. It's not surprising, then, that he wants to create, and retreat into, his own little fantasy world. In his fantasies he's everything he can't be in his daily life—brave, handsome, strong, and heroic. Fantasizing is the only way he can exert any measure of control. The world is a big old scary place for Walter; in some respects, there's a child-like quality about him. It's quite common for children to invent their own fantasy worlds, their own pretend friends, and Walter seems almost to be regressing to his own childhood by constantly daydreaming.
The problem with this is that the line between fantasy and reality becomes blurred, dangerously so at the very end of the story. In escaping from his daily life, Walter has essentially forgotten who he really is. He's taken on so many different personas, so many weird and wonderful identities, that the real Walter Mitty becomes a mystery, both to himself and to the reader.


Walter Mitty daydreams in order to combat the monotony of his life and to become the type of person that he wishes that he could be.  His daydreams are a form of escapism.  
Walter Mitty isn't exactly a flawless, heroic figure.  He's quite forgetful, he's a bad driver, he gets bossed around by his wife a lot, and he's not good at mechanical things.  In order to see himself and the events of his life as more exciting, Walter Mitty daydreams that he is a heroic alpha male that is in control of incredibly tense situations.  He imagines himself as an ace pilot, a world renowned surgeon, and a phenomenal lawyer.  In each case, Mitty is the heroic figure.  He is the center of attention.  Everybody depends on him, and his success is beneficial to everybody around him.  That's not how Mitty's real life is.  His fantasies are his way of escaping his real life realities.   

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