Study Guide for WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE BY Maurice Sendak

• frames/borders around pictures get smaller as Max moves out of the real world; pictures get larger
• 1st two pictures make reader have empathy for Max
• mom and home represent civilization
• Max rebels against mother's authority and civilization
• Max mimics his mother when he tells the wild things they must go to bed without supper
• Max is simultaneously a boy and a wolf
• sheds wild thing in the last picture when his hood is off of his head
• Max is taming the wild things inside of himself
• Maternal authority of civilization
• masculine vs. feminine
  
• women and church civilized the West
• pictures tell a lot more than the text
• images of wild things; won't give nightmares
• show what a rumpus is
• moon becomes full
• ware wolf image
• published in 1963
• 1st picture book to make conflict between parent and child the central activity
• recognizes conflict exists and resolves it in the end
• pictures get smaller as Max returns to civilization