APA引用格式范文-Walter Mitty's daydream

1.0 Introduction介绍

《沃尔特·米蒂的秘密生活》是著名作家詹姆斯·瑟伯的经典短篇小说。这部经典小说的成功在于用白日梦描写一个经典人物，这部小说为人物的心理分析提供了一个很好的案例。本文首先了解英雄幻想与现实的异同，然后运用弗洛伊德的人格理论和幻想防御机制，分析导致英雄白日梦的原因。

"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" is a classic short story written by a famous writer named James Thurber. The success of this classic novel lies in describing a classic character with daydream, this novel provides a good case for the psychological analysis of characters. In this essay, it first of all understands the similarities and differences between the hero's fantasy and reality, and then it uses Freud's theory of personality theory and defense mechanisms of fantasy to analyze reasons leading to the hero's daydream.

2.0 Main body主体

2.1 The similarities and differences between the fantasy and the reality幻想与现实的异同

第一个梦和现实的相似之处在于，他是领导他人的人。不同的是，在梦中，他想象自己是一个全能的海军中尉，而船上遭遇了罕见的风暴20，他成功地带领其他人逃离了危险（瑟伯，1939年）。然而，在现实生活中，他是由妻子指挥的，她要求他的驾驶速度不能超过40英里/小时（瑟伯，1939年）。第二个梦和现实的相似之处在于他正在完成一份工作。不同的是，在梦中，他是一个思维敏捷的外科医生，他正在完成一个完美的手术；但在现实生活中，他在停车场找不到指定的位置，被侍者嘲笑（瑟伯，1939年）。第三个梦和现实之间的共同点是，他获得了法律决定的信息。不同的是，在现实生活中，他只是突然听到了新闻男孩对新闻的审判，在梦中，他想象自己是一个神枪手，一个被告，尽管辩护律师辩白无罪，但检察官承诺要惩罚他，并责骂检察官。（瑟伯，1939年）。这时，他突然想起妻子让他买小狗饼干，在街上，他对自己说要买他妻子委托的东西，于是路人嘲笑他，其实这是因为害怕如果他买不到妻子要的狗食，他会面临无尽的指责。他妻子的讽刺。第四个梦想和现实都与战争有关，不同的是，在现实中，他在酒店大厅等着妻子，他看到了与德国轰炸机的合影，在梦中，他想象自己是一名勇敢的空军上校，而他的妻子打断了他的白日梦，并嘲笑他。让他胡说八道，给他多少温度（瑟伯，1939年）。第五个梦和现实是相同的，他在等待什么，不同的是他在雨雪中等待他的妻子，面对他妻子通常让他等待的方式，他不能有任何抱怨和反驳。他只能把自己想象成一个等待处决的死刑犯（瑟伯，1939年）。

The similarity between the first dream and the reality was that he was the person who led other people. The difference was that in the dream, he imagined himself an all-powerful naval lieutenant, and the ship suffered a rare storm 20, he led other people to escape from the danger successfully (Thurber, 1939). However, in the real life, he was commanded by his wife, she required that his speed of driving could not exceed 40 mile/hour (Thurber, 1939). The similarity between the second dream and the reality was that he was completing a job. The difference was that in the dream, he was a surgeon with quick thinking and he was completing a perfect surgery; but in the real life, he could not find the designated location in the parking lot and was ridiculed by the waiter (Thurber, 1939). The common point between the third dream and the reality was that he received the information of legal decision. The difference was that in the reality, he just suddenly heard the trial of the news shouted by the news boy, in the dream, he imaged that he was a sharpshooter, a defendant, despite the innocence argued by his defense counsel, the prosecutor committed to punish him, and he scolded the prosecutor (Thurber, 1939). At this time, he suddenly remembered that his wife let him buy puppy biscuits, in the street, he said to himself to buy what his wife entrusted, thus passers laughed at him, in fact, this was derived from the fear that if he could not buy the dog food that his wife asked, he would face endless accusations from his wife. The fourth dream and the reality were both related to wars, the difference was that in the reality, he waited for his wife in the hotel lobby and he saw the picture with German bombers, in the dream, he imagined himself as a brave Air Force Colonel, and his wife interrupted its daydream, and ridiculed him nonsense to give him the amount of temperature (Thurber, 1939). The fifth dream and the reality were in common that he was waiting for something, the difference was that he was waiting for his wife in the rainy snow environment, in the face of his wife's usual way of making him waiting, he could not have any complaints and refute. He could only think of himself as a death penalty prisoner waiting for execution (Thurber, 1939).

2.2 Analysis

According to Freud's personality theory, there are three factors that determine the whole spiritual activity of people, ie, id, ego and superego (Taylor, 2014). Id is the source of instinctive sexuality, it follows the principle of happiness, usually it is in an unconscious state and it does not subject to social ethics (Taylor, 2014). Ego is a kind of intellectual energy, it can control ego desire and can be constrained by the reality. Therefore, ego is the intermediate energy to maintain the external world and the inner world (Taylor, 2014). Superego is the energy of moral level, it is subject to moral standards. This article will focus on analyzing the character from the levels of id and ego (Taylor, 2014). 

Defense mechanisms of fantasy refer to people’s using another thing to replace their own shortcomings to alleviate the pain of defect (Mishar and Bangun, 2014). One of the most important of these defense mechanisms is fantasy. Fantasy is often said to be daydream, when people can not deal with the difficulties in real life, they will temporarily leave the reality to get the inner peace in the fantasy world and reach the satisfaction that can not be experienced in real life (Cramer, 2012). Because in the fantasy world, they do not have to follow the reality principle and logical thinking to deal with problems, they can compile according to individual needs (Mishar and Bangun, 2014).

The whole story showed that Walter wandered between id and ego: one end was brave and fearless self, the other end was the timid and weak self. In reality, he lived with a tolerated attitude, and in the daydream, his was away from other people’s disrespectful attitude and has become positive. Because in real life, he was surrounded by frustrated emotions, leading to that his id was through fantasy defense mechanism to appear in the daydream. He found a balance in the daydream for the imbalance in the reality. The depressed desire of id in reality has been released in the illusory world, so that Walter temporarily broke away from the reality and his personal feelings was eased.

3.0 Conclusion

According to Freud's personality theory and defense mechanisms of fantasy, reasons leading to the protagonist’s illusion were that he was very depressed in the real life, his subconscious thinking became daydream, so that the hero succeeded in the dream. Namely, the protagonist’s id in real life was suppressed, in the daydream, his id has been satisfied.

 

References

Cramer, P. (2012). Psychological maturity and change in adult defense mechanisms. Journal of Research in Personality, 46(3), 306-316.

Mishar, R. and Bangun, Y. R. (2014). Create the EQ modelling instrument based on goleman and bar-on models and psychological defense mechanisms. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 115(21), 394-406.

Taylor, J. B. (2014). Psychological adaptive mechanisms: ego defense recognition in practice and research. Psychosomatics, 55(2), 210-211.

Thurber, J. (1939). The secret life of Walter Mitty. Available from: 

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1939/03/18/the-secret-life-of-walter-james-thurber (accessed on May 17, 2017)