Bulletin board by Sharon Park

spark1096 — 2024-01-10 17:14:32 UTC

Max wears a wolf suit and leaves his mother because he is at the age where he likes to explore for himself. Embodying the "lone wolf" concept, Max experiences his first taste of independence and life away from his mother, causing a conflict between himself and her. This is a mirror of the "wild rumpus" from The Wild Things as conflict ensues as a result of opposition, the opposition being defiance of a parental figure and abandonment of subjects. This implies a message from Sendak that children should listen to their parents to prepare for the world's reality. Also, in doing so, this learning will prepare children to learn about themselves so they know what they are capable of in society. Therefore, when faced with a task they do not easily give up and run away. Since Max did not understand what he was capable of he ran away from his challenges back to his mother and warm food because it symbolizes a sense of comfort and guidance that will direct him through the obstacles of reality.

Sharon Park

spark1096 — 2024-01-10 17:24:57 UTC

The food offered by Max's mother symbolizes a power dynamic between parent and child indicating that the parent will be dominant in the relationship and those that are submissive will try to imitate. The exercise of power is revealed when Max's mother sends Max to his room after he disrespects her over dinner. Her dominance and imitation of Max are exercised when Max leads the Wild Things as his subjects. Like himself at the beginning of the story, the Wild Things begin to make a big ruckus, and like his mother, he urges them to "now stop" (Sendak 32). Sendak indicates that Max's mother is a dominant figure because Max uses her as a model to learn from. Such a method of learning is used in many forms of life, an example can be found in animals. A lion cub for example learns to survive in the wild by copying the methods and style of their parent. In doing so the lion cub will learn to overcome and find themselves as Max must learn to do to face society on his own. Knowing this survival technique Sendak reveals Max has trust in his parental figure, without trust in his mother, Max would have not decided to copy his mother when associating with the Wild Things.

Sharon Park

Questions

msosalopez7913 — 2024-01-11 16:37:13 UTC

Max wears the wolf suit because he sees himself as a lone wolf. Max leaves his mother because she gets him into trouble and the wild rumpus is the argument between his mother and himself. The wild things see him as food because of how small he is and once he scares them that's when they stop and intimidate them. His mother uses it as a sign of him still needing his mother to take care of him a form of power dynamic showing that the parent will always be there for better or for worse.
The food symbolizes a way of power the mother gives him food as a way to lure him out of the room showing that she still holds power over him. In the sense of the wild things first Max has power over them cause they are scared of him after that they realize that they have a power dynamic against him and end up wanting to eat him. The food in a way is kinda the troubles of adulthood some bad some good.
The other in Max's perspective is his mother. Not in the sense that she's a bad person but in the sense that she's not like Max she calls him a "wild thing" saying that she believes herself different from Max he tells her "I'll eat you up" This was a form of destruction.
The wild thing world is like ours in the sense that it has trees a forest something we have in our world but the difference would be the wild things they are monsters and those aren't real in our world.
Max is the archetype of the story just purely because he goes from being like a rebel to then becoming calm and doing the right thing to get to back to normal.

adelfin1407 — 2024-01-11 16:53:02 UTC

The proto-world that the wild creatures live in is similar to Max's world in which he repeats the action of his mother by sending the wild creatures to "bed without their supper" (Sendak 32). This displays that Max carries those observed actions with him to a place of unfamiliarity. On the other hand, this proto-world differs from Max's world as wild creatures with "their yellow eyes" (Sendak 23) inhabit the forest. The natural laws of the world are broken as Max is able to travel to this chaotic setting from his own room and sail back in the "night of his very own room" (Sendak 38). This displays how certain values of Max's world go into the proto-world, but how it also differs. The task of Max is to be the wild creatures' leader. However, that task is cut short when he senses familiarity from his own world. The deeper task is for Max to conquer his own chaos. He completes the task by being able to master the chaos of the wild creatures in commanding them.

spark1096 — 2024-01-11 16:53:53 UTC

The "other" in folktales and mythical stories are the characters that are "bad" or "different". In "Where the Wild Things Are" every character group can be labeled as an "other group". However, Max's mother can be the most distinct "other" in the story. Max's mother never physically appears in the story and is just a voice. The only thing she adds to the story is scolding Max calling him a "wild thing" and sending "him to bed without eating anything" (Sendak 8). This dialogue written by Sendak can highlight Max's mother as an "other" because she is physically unknown to the audience. Not knowing her appearance makes it difficult for the readers to make a connection and to Max, his mother can be considered "bad". This is because she prevents Max from enjoying himself and being a kid.

sharon park

spark1096 — 2024-01-12 06:24:36 UTC

A proto-world is a society that is built in similarity to the real world, however, they have distinct differences from reality to set them apart. The world with the wild things is significantly different because of the monsters themselves and the forest. There are no actual forests or monsters in Max's reality, instead they are part of his imagination. The "wild" world is like Max's reality because the interactions between him and his mother are closely reflected. Both the mother and Max urge the individuals who are throwing a ruckus to "stop" and go "to bed without their supper"(Sendak 32). Sendak emphasizes that the purpose of this mirrored situation was to help Max recognize his mother's feelings toward his own actions when he was causing chaos before dinner. Max's mother wants to be respected and appreciated by Max as Max wants to be loved and not lonely in the world of wild things. This reveals that both characters want the same embrace from each other.

Sharon park

spark1096 — 2024-01-12 06:49:10 UTC

Sendak uses the magical child with Max. In this story, it is not mentioned whether Max has a father. Therefore, there is a chance that he only has a mother. Also, Max must leave home, even though the "wild" society is his imagination, to realize his potential or recognize the situations around him and how to approach them. His return home marks peace because Max has cooled down from his mischievous and chaotic manner calming enough to enjoy the dinner that was left in his room by his mother. After the experiences with the wild things, Max has learned to control his manner and mischief since he has learned firsthand about how it feels to guide or "rule" over those that are uncontrollable.

Sharon Park

spark1096 — 2024-01-12 06:57:15 UTC

The helpless central character is Max's mother. This is because she is a foil to Max himself. They are similar because they both urge other individuals to "stop" and go "to bed without their supper"(Sendak 32) as a result of their chaos and mischief. However, they are also foils because the mother has already gone through life as she is likely older than Max by a significant number of years. This indicates that she knows what she is doing with Max when it comes to disciplining him. It is only up to Max to learn to understand the perspective of his mother and learn during his time in the world of wild things. In this way the mother is helpless, she cannot force Max to understand her point of view.

Sharon Park

adelfin1407 — 2024-01-12 07:06:08 UTC

Sendak uses the magical child and other as archetypal characters in this text. Max can be seen as the magical child. He was able to conquer his own internal chaos by mastering the chaos of the wild creatures. He is faced with the task to be the leader of the creatures as he was "made king of all the wild things" (Sendak 24). When returning home, he seeks familiarity and this restores the dynamic between him and his mother. On the other hand, the wild creatures can be seen as the others. They are perceived as chaotic and wild as they roared and "gnashed their terrible teeth" (Sendak 20). The tie between the wild creatures and Max has to be broken so that the magical child can achieve peace and balance. In this case, this is shown when Max "gave up being king of where all the wild things were" (Sendak 34). The connection is cut when Max senses familiarity and comfort from his mother's food.

spark1096 — 2024-01-12 07:09:22 UTC

The magical child is Max. At first glance, Max is no different from the "wild things", however, they are different because Max realizes that he yearns for deep connection with others like love and relationships while others are satisfied by the mischief and ruckus they pull. One can argue that Max's magical quality is sorcery because he was able to "tame" (23) the wild things with simply a magic trick. This action then earned him the title of king of the wild things. Another form of quality that Max can be argued to have is empathy, even as king of the wild things, Max has never enforced anything. Rather he allowed the wild things to do anything during the 'wild rumpus". This indicates that he is empathetic because Max is aware of what the majority of the people, the wild things, desire since he can personally identify with them.

Sharon Park.

adelfin1407 — 2024-01-12 07:21:27 UTC

Through this text, Sendak offers messages about the growth, survival, and fury of childhood. In the fury of childhood, children can overlook the good moments in life to focus on the chaos and inferior parts of life. Children can lose sight of the good moments, but this can later be restored when the good moments are acknowledged. This message is conveyed through Max's anger when he is sent to his room without dinner. He takes that moment and turns it into a fury where he enters a world of chaos and wild creatures. However, when he "smelled good things to eat" (Sendak 34), it reminded him of his own home and was taken back to that place of familiarity and comfort. This was a moment of reconciliation. Another message that Sendak conveys is that sometimes it is essential for children to learn how to deal with their own emotions to stimulate growth. Max was able to deal with his own anger and turmoil by first experiencing it with the wild creatures. Once he was able to master their chaos, he could finally understand his own anger.

eamayapadilla1918 — 2024-01-12 07:24:11 UTC

Max wears a wolf suit because it allows him to believe that he is in the Wild Things world and he can relate to them because they are all different creatures with different features. In a way he feels different and alone in the real world and seeing that the wild things are different makes him feel safe and lets him be himself as to in real life where he doesn't feel with his mom.
The food represents the power that his mother poses against him as she is the one who makes the food. He has to wait for her to make it or else he won't get anything to eat.

spark1096 — 2024-01-12 07:32:11 UTC

The magical child, Max, is essentially saving himself. This can physically be seen since Max leaves the wild things on their island and sails back home to his room, away from the wild and ignorant. Ignorance because Max once did not understand the point of view of his mother about why she became angered at his actions of mischief. The lesson of this story is that though your parents love you, as children you must respect them and learn to understand their perspective when they act out toward you.

Sharon Park

spark1096 — 2024-01-12 07:48:26 UTC

Sendak offers that the fury about childhood eventually goes away as the child grows up. Max initially began as an angered child who was scolded by his mother and sent to his room. In his room, he had the opportunity to reflect which turned into a journey of going to the land of wild things, becoming the king, and eventually returning home after a revelation of what Max truly wanted which was love and connection. This all occurred in a span of time before his dinner got cold indicating it was rather quick. Max's journey is one possibly out of countless others when referring to the fury of childhood. Though Sendak expands on a child that learns quickly, other children may spend long amounts of time before out growing the fury experienced in childhood.

Sharon Park