Every summer morning, Jesse Oliver Aarons, Jr. practiced running and did exhausting chores for his family while listening to his mother and sisters’ endless scolding. His only escape from drama is his younger sister, May Belle, and his new friend, Leslie Burke, a strange girl who just moved in from the suburbs. Leslie had demolished his dream of becoming the fastest runner in the fifth grade but showed him a world of imagination that only her and Jesse could keep.
I am short and small, but I want to be as tall as an elephant.
I am always sleepy, but I want to be healthy and alert all day.
I am as slow as a sloth, but I want to be quick and mighty like a squirrel dashing on a tree.
I am not a good artist, but I want to be like Leonardo da Vinci.
I am clumsy in the kitchen, but I wish to be a chef and serve all kinds of popular dishes around from around the world for my friends and family.
I am a mega-procrastinator, but I want to be smart and responsible.
I am kept-to-self, but I want to be a lot more outgoing.
I am always afraid and worried, but I want to be brave and confident!
After all the activities we had done in class to prepare for our short story, I predict that the protagonist in “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” by James Thurber will be a person who daydreams pretty often to fill a void he has in his life. I predict this because the songs and nonfiction articles we were discussing in class all support the topic of daydreaming. Through the discussions, we also learned that people often uses daydreaming as a method to fill the void they have in their life. In this case, I can infer that the protagonist’s void is how boring he thinks his life is and his lack of love and attention. The protagonist probably daydreams about a better life, or simply a life that is more interesting than the one he already has. I have this prediction because in the song “Daydreaming” by Paramore (a song we were looking at in class), Hayley Williams talks about how she daydreams of a better life every day to escape the boredom of her reality. In addition, the Snoopy comic we read shows a protagonist who dreams of all the wonderful things that he will never be able to get such as wealth and fame. Another prediction I have for the short story is that it could maybe have taken place in a busy city such as New York. I predict this because a city like New York has a lot of competition, and the people who can’t be successful usually find themselves daydreaming of what they want, all the glory they can’t have. In the end, I think “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” is going to be a story worth reading, and I am really excited to read it!