Sendak, Maurice. 1963.Where the Wild Things Are. Ill. by Maurice Sendak. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN: 978-0-0644-3178-1
Plot Summary:
In, Where the Wild Things Are, we meet a little boy named Max. Max, like many little boys, spends one evening making mischief of all kinds. He wears his wolf suit and acts a little wild. His mother even calls him a wild thing, which prompts Max to threaten to eat her up. Fed up with her son’s behavior, Max’s mom sends him to bed without supper. Max goes to his room, but he’s not ready to give up being a wild thing just yet. He imagines his room turning into a wild forest near an ocean. As luck would have it, the ocean has a private boat just for Max. Max sails and sails until he reaches a place where the wild things live. They try to intimidate Max, but he truly is the wildest thing of all and they crown him king. Max and the monsters have a wild rumpus until Max gets tired and lonely and sends all the wild things to bed without their supper. Max wants to be with someone he loves. He feels lonely and starts to smell something good so he decides to give up being the king of the wild things and to sail back home. The wild things threaten to eat Max if he leaves, but he sails back to home in his private boat and finds a hot supper waiting for him in his room.
Critical Analysis:
Where the Wild Things Are focuses on the character of Max. Sendak gives Max all the characteristics of a believable young boy. He loves to play and be destructive, but at the end of the day he still needs his mother’s love. Max is a unique character in that he is extremely angry throughout most of the story. I haven’t read many picture books where the protagonist had the viewpoint of an angry child, but this is a very realistic scenario that will be helpful to children who need to see examples of how to deal with their own anger.
The plot stems from a common occurrence that I see everyday in my classroom. A child is misbehaving, gets in trouble, and becomes angry. This is an extremely relevant plot, especially for more mischievous children. While they may not see themselves as a “bad boy” like Max, they will almost certainly see his Mom to be similar to their own mothers. She is a disciplinarian who wields the power. The plot develops naturally as we see Max use his imagination as he thinks about his issues and becomes more and more angry, until at last he hits a breaking point where he is tired, lonely, hungry, and wants his mom. This is a very natural place for Max’s tantrum to end. Even when a kid “hates” their mom, they still need their mom. The final page showing that Max’s mother set out dinner for him after all drives home the point that even when a child’s behavior is bad, even if they get angry and throw a fit, a mother’s love is unconditional. I like that they ended with this image.
The illustrations are beautiful and pay great attention to line and color in particular. Sendak captures motion very well. Max and the monsters can be seen jumping, swinging around, dancing, and doing a host of various activities. Sendak also makes sure to include a lot of tiny details like showing the passage of time by the darkness of the sky in Max’s window, or the fact that there is a picture of a wild thing drawn by Max hanging on the wall of his house. There seems to always be something new to discover when looking at the pictures. The illustrations work very well to support the text of the story.
There are two settings, Max’s home and where the Wild Things are. When the book came out in 1963, the setting would have represented a modern suburban household. The Wild Things’ home stems from the imagination of Max. As such, it is untamed and colorful, just like Max.The setting could be considered universal because we all have the ability to travel to places in our minds.
The theme of Where the Wild Things Are is two-fold. First, the book deals with the theme of childhood rage. Secondly, the book incorporates the theme of a mother’s unconditional love for her child. The theme of love is shown through the simple act of Max’s mom setting out a meal for him while he is in the middle of a tantrum. This is not the main theme, but it is an important one. The theme of childhood anger is seen throughout the story.
As we get an inside look at the mind of an angry child we see the steps that they go through to work through a tantrum. First they may wish to escape. Max escapes in his imagination. Then, they want to be in control and follow their own rules. Max leads the Wild Things as their king and gets to be in control. He acts out and no one can tell him not to because he’s the king. Finally, a child will get sick of being angry and maybe even come to see why their parent’s were upset. They may even accept that they have done something wrong and wish to be forgiven. We see this as Max becomes the parent figure to the Wild Things. He sends them to bed without supper and they threaten to eat him up. This is a direct parallel to the conversation between Max and his mother at the beginning of the story. This represents Max calming down and understanding his mom’s decisions. As soon as he is to this place mentally, he can begin to smell the food in his room. He regains focus and travels back to reality.
Through the very natural telling of a boy’s story and through absolutely no preaching, Sendak manages to address the theme of childhood anger. He shows what it’s like to be mad at your parents and how this is only a temporary state for most occurrences.
Sendak’s unique style offers the reader substance over flash. This is not to say his illustrations are not beautiful, they are, but his storytelling is superb. He uses symbolism in the Wild Things’ ruckus to portray Max’s emotions and the only time he uses a rhyme is when Max comes to realize that it’s time to leave the Wild Things and come back home. Thus Sendak subtly emphasizes the climax of the book by offering the only three rhyming lines.
In Where the Wild Things Are, Sendak’s only cultural markers are that Max lives in a house. This is representative of a middle class family. There is nothing that would offend or upset any cultural or demographic group in this book.
The strengths of this book are its use of parallel conversations to demonstrate Max’s growth as a character and symbolism to represent his emotions. The weaknesses of this book are that the theme may be difficult for young children to decipher on their own. Despite this size of this book, it offers some dense themes.
Where the Wild Things Are won the 1964 Caldecott Medal and the 1964 Lewis Carroll Shelf Award.
Review Excerpts:
A Booklist review by Stephanie Zvirin states, “This simply written but subtle book became a classic not only because it legitimized children’s angry feelings—and their ability to use their imaginations to deal with those feelings—but also because it showed punishment and love coexisting in a parent-child relationship.”
The School Library Journal says that, “Each word has been carefully chosen and the simplicity of the language is quite deceptive.”
Connections:
This book could be used in the classroom with older kids as a way to introduce them to plot. They can build a plot diagram using the simple story elements found in Where the Wild Things Are. Students could also do a Venn diagram comparing the book to the movie. Another possible option would be to have students write a personal narrative about a time they were upset at their parents after reading the story together.
Personal Response:
This story is a wonderful resource to get students to open up about emotions and the anger process. The artwork and storytelling techniques are both masterful. I highly recommend this book!
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