The Plot And Reflection In Where The Wild Things Are

Maurice Sendak’s inspirations for “Where the Wild Things Are” come from his own personal issues. Once stated by Sendak max was his “dearest creation”. Max gave life to the feelings that most adults ignore that children can have. Sendak, in his childhood, dealt with an emotionally unavailable mother and was frequently sick. This allowed Sendak to develop his imagination. In his childhood picture books, one can find images of characters that

When one thinks of a children's picture book, one usually thinks of bright colors and a story that involves a princess and a prince charming. One of the most classic children's books, Maurice Sendak's Where The Wild Things Are, however, neither uses bright colors nor a traditional love story. Instead the readers meet a young boy, Max, who, when sent to his room without dinner, imagines a far off land. We meet his friends, "the wild things", and learn that Max is the "most wild thing of all". Those aforementioned trends are not the only aspects that set Where The Wild Things Are apart from other children's picture books. Its structure, plot, and message all

When Max arrives in the land of wild things, the features of the monsters at first glance might seem scary and overpowering. The creatures are large and have sharp horns, claws, and teeth. However, upon closer examination, other details are noticed that make the wild things seem much more agreeable. The wild things are all smiling and one of the wild things actually has “human” feet and another has female human hair. The text also emphasizes the creatures’ agreeable nature when Max stares into their yellow eyes without blinking and tells them to “BE STILL!” They become frightened and make Max the king of all wild things. Their deference to Max is apparent in the illustrations—bowing, eyes gazing downward or closed, submissive posture. Max now has complete control and declares “let the wild rumpus start!” The wild things are obeying the commands of a child, just as Max had obeyed the commands of his mother when he was sent to bed without any supper. The book’s climax on the next few pages is exemplified by the use of full-page illustrations, without text, of Max and the wild things celebrating their “wildness” together. An activity for younger children could be to create their own “wild thing” mask or paper bag puppets using paper, scissors, yarn, eyes, etc.

Where the Wild Things Are, a children’s book written by Maurice Sendak, is not only directed to young children, but has an underlying message that is intended for older generations to receive. This message, only used to enhance the meaning of the story, describes the addiction for one to have power and be in control. As the story goes on, the realization sets in that maybe the desire for power is not the best, at all times. The use of oppression becomes evident in this story, through Max, the main character, as he strives to control everything around him. Maurice Sendak uses repetition and parallelism in the imagery and text of Where the Wild Things Are to show Max’s progression to assume power and eventually discard it.

“I’ll eat you up!” Where the Wild Things Are is an American movie released in 2009 that centres on Max, a rather mad young boy who in the end changes to become that of the ideal child. Through Max’s growth, Director Spike Jonze displays that different Transcendentalist tenets are still a valid aspect of our culture, and that writers such as Thoreau and Emerson still have their influence. Transcendentalists from the 1800s, such as those previously mentioned, have values generalized into living purely as who you are, and living simply. Where the Wild Things Are reproduces these Transcendentalist ideas into modern society: peace in nature, civil disobedience with free-thought, and the importance of self-reliance.

Furthermore, the illustrations paint a beautiful picture that I like to think is an insight into a child’s mind, which I is a key element in this book and what makes it so great. Since the book is narrated by a child the intentional simplicity of the words and the controlled chaos that is the illustrations breathes unadulterated life into a rather normal children’s book.

The author of this book did make use of literary elements to tell the story. These elements are also used in other picture books such as lines, shapes, color and speech bubble. The book is a graphic novel and dialogue takes majority of the writing in the book. The dialogical and concise style of writing of the author including the pictures

She liked the idea of the story but the sentence structure and the vocabulary used made it hard for her to follow sometimes. I found myself stopping to explain what was going on or what a word meant often. This made the process of reading the book unpleasant. If I had been reading this book by myself I would have been able to read it in a couple hours tops but with reading it to her the process ended up stretching out over the course of weeks. She lost interest towards the end and didn’t even want to finish it with me. Granted she is a little younger than the recommended age range but with me reading it to her it shouldn’t have been as difficult for her to understand as it was. I worry that students reading this on their own will not be able to comprehend what is happening and wade through the vocabulary. I know that many of the vocabulary words could be skipped and a student could still comprehend the story but many of the vocabulary words that are more advanced are the words that give the story its fullness and richness. Without understanding those words the characters lose a great deal of their quirk and spunk. It is because of these issues that I don’t think I would recommend this book to students very often. Despite the fact it is only 148 pages I worry that it won’t be a good experience for them. I do think that there are times that this book could be good but not for the average

Epic poems, like those of Homer and Ramayana and religious texts, like Upanishads, could be useful additional sources of information because these could show what people thought regarding gender, race, religion, and social class as it is represented in the characters of stories or mandated in religious teachings. These types of texts not only reflected what people thought but also influenced them.

Although some may say that Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are is inappropriate for children, this book should not be banned because the author uses a wild child’s journey to create a metaphor for dealing with anger that every child experiences through consequences and how parents’ love for their children is unconditional. In this book, Max is sent to bed without dinner for being disruptive and causing mischief. As a consequence, his mom sends him to his room without dinner. His anger transforms his room into a jungle as he heads out on a journey to where the wild things are. Upon arrival, Max is greeted by the wild things as they intimidate them with their inhuman features. These characters

The article “Sendak Collection Coming Home to Ridgefield” by Evan Fallor explains about the work of Maurice Sendak and more. Sendak is the author of multiple books, including the very popular Where the Wild Things Are. When he died at the age of 83 in 2012, his will said that he wanted his drawings, books, and other items to go to his foundation. The Rosenbach Museum and Library held a collection of over 10,000 items of Maurice Sendak’s work. The curator of that collection, Patrick Rodgers, said that eventually they would have to remove all of those items. When those items were all moved, they were placed somewhere in Ridgefield. The Ridgefield library assistant director says that the book Where the Wild Things Are is the most popular book.

The author writes the story in a very interesting way. The way that there are only a few descriptions scattered about and that it focuses on dialogue is what allows us to figure out what the characters are speaking about and to find the intentions behind their words. The subject of this short narrative stands out boldly. Though it was written in

In Helen Macdonald’s memoir, H is for Hawk, she explores her journey of grief and recovery following the death of her father and how a goshawk and the wildness it embodies allows her to rediscover herself and restore her own humanity. In the very first chapter Macdonald takes time to assert her opinion of the sanctity and power of the wild, a world separate from and yet connected to our own, very much like the land of Faery from Gaelic and later English mythologies. To Macdonald the wild is a place and a presence that is both alien and familiar. Macdonald hunts down these places that to her seem to be more deeply connected to that force, wildness within and beyond all things. Macdonald relishes in these places’ beauty, as her father had taught

Where the Wild Things Are written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak, is one of my all-time favorite children’s book because as a little girl, I remember before going to bed and picking out this book for my father to read to me. My father had a wonderful speaking voice that allowed for these characters to come alive in my mind. I could imagine being the protagonist character Max, and sailing off to place full monsters and mystery. There is a part in the middle of the story called “The Wild Rumpus” and during that time, my father would start making drumming noises to help me imagine the monsters and Max dancing in the forest. His story telling voice and music making helped this book come to life. For those reasons, this book will always be

In order to analyze the story it would help to have a guide on what is going to be explained in this paper. The first part of the paper talks about themes, some of these themes can be easily over looked since there is layer upon layers. The second part, will explain the use of tone that helps sets the stage, and the mood of the whole story. The use of imagery is present as well, for example the use of words like dry and wet, can be found when