Where the Wild Things Are - Essay Example

28 Nov. Where the Wild Things Are: Review: “Where the Wild Things Are” is a folk tale by “Maurice Sendak”, an American writer, initially published as a picture book in 1963 (Kennedy). It has received several rewards since then. Recently, a feature film has been made based on the original story that has been enormously appreciated by the children world over. “Where the Wild Things Are” portrays how children conquer their fears remaining within the parental supervision. Max (boy in the story) thought about frightening his family members by wearing the costume of a wolf because somewhere in his heart, he himself was accoutered with the fear of wild things.

Initially, Sendak wanted to put horses in place of wild things, but he abandoned the idea as he realized he could not draw horses better than wild beasts and mosters. As his mother locked him up in his room without offering him supper, he had an intrinsic desire to conquer his fear of wild things. Therefore, in his subconscious, he decided to confront them. The conversion of room of limited capacity into a world as vast as accommodative of sea, jungle and the wonderland full of wild things is all Max’s fantasy.

As the ship took Max to the land occupied by wild things, he visualized the most fearful images of wild things in their extreme aggression he had for long been fearful of. Particularly from a child’s perspective, the way author narrated the rage of wild things is captivating. Beasts with large rolling yellow eyes and cluttering pointed teeth are the typical images of wild things that folk tales conventionally make use of. It is so because for children, rage reflects in the eyes and jaws of wild things.

However, Max’s subconscious had taken him to the land of wild things, not to get frightened, but instead, to frighten them. So he stupefied the wild things by giving them a uninterrupted stare. The author has a solid reason why Max can frighten the wild things by staring at them without blinking. The reason is that when we, as adults, sternly forbid the children from doing something, we tend to give them a stern look, and try not to blink our eyes. This conveys a solid message to the children that we mean what we say.

Likewise, Max conveyed his message to the wild things that he ought not to fear them. This made him the king of wild things and he ruled them. This is when, Max conquered his fear of wild things. Rest of the story explains Max’s transition to the realistic world from his fanciful world. Although Max’s mother had punished him, yet he always knew she loved him by heart and would not leave him hungry. He did not see his mum put supper in his room. Even then, his subconscious took him back from the land of wild beasts because he was sure, his mother loved her and cared for her.

He wanted to leave the kingdom because he valued parental love more than that. While leaving, the beasts tried to stop him, but he did not try to frighten them a second time because he deemed it unnecessary, as he had proved to himself before, that he could frighten them any time he wanted. Having conquered his fear, Max returns to the realistic world to enjoy supper. The story nicely depicts one of the reasons why children make mischief, and how they tend to conquer their fears in their childhood, that is a world of fantasies.

Works cited:Kennedy, Elizabeth. “Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.” 2010. Web. 28 Nov. 2010.