Creating a "Fully Functional" Protagonist: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty vs. Carl Rogers Aisha Durrani 11th Grade

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty follows a romantically shy, socially awkward man who sets off on a quest to find a missing negative for the final cover of LIFE magazine, finding his confidence and self-actualizing through the grand adventure. The movie’s themes of growth, success, hope, and intrinsic potential resemble the viewpoint of Carl Rogers’ humanistic theories. The movie is essentially advancing the viewpoint of Rogers’ theories, in that anyone can fulfill their goals. Prominent virtues in the movie resemble many facets of Rogers’ theories, specifically fully functioning person, congruence, self-actualization, self-worth and positive regard, culminating in a movie affirming the theory that everyone has the capacity to succeed in life. The concept of a fully functional person is reiterated throughout the movie. The movie is arguably a documentation of Walter’s journey of becoming “fully functional”.

The characteristics outlined by Rogers’ in order to be a fully functional person are Open to Experience, Existential Living, Trust Feeling, Creativity, and Fulfilled Life. It is important to note that Rogers emphasized that a Fully Functional Person was not an end goal, but rather, a process. At the beginning of the movie, it...