Analysis Of Maurice Sendak's Where The Wild Things Are

During Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, Max tries to be able to fend for himself and becomes independent because his mother decided to leave him without any supper or attention. Since he wasn’t getting attention, Max left on his trip to the land of where the wild things are. While he is in the land, he becomes the leader and discovers that he is lonely since his mother was always there to give him love. When he realizes he feels lonely and hungry, he gives up all of his leadership of the wild things and goes back home to where he will get something to eat and not have to be independent. Max is not independent because he relies too much on his mother.
The speaker begins the book with Max being a nuisance to his mother by acting

like a wild thing. His mother gets too frustrated with Max’s behavior and sends Max off to bed without supper. The speaker then shows that the effect of Max being sent to his room made him leave on his journey since his mother stopped paying attention to him. Max got on a boat and “. . . he sailed off through the night and day and in and out of weeks and almost over a year to where the wild things are” (lines 6-7). When the text says that Max’s journey went “through the night and day and in and out of weeks and almost over a year. . .”, it tells the reader that Max felt he needed to leave for a long time since his mother was not paying attention to him. Max would not have left specifically for a long time if he felt that he could still interact with his mother, whether it was positively or negatively. If Max did not leave on his journey, he would have felt that his mother was still addressing him in the first place.

After Max finishes his long travels, the speaker tells the reader of how Max tamed the wild things, and became their leader.

Max starts a wild rumpus, and once the party is over, he send the wild things off to bed without eating any food. The speaker changes the focus of Max being a leader to showing that he needs his mother’s love because he is not used to feeling lonely since his mother is always there for and loving him. The speakers shows he is lonely when the text says, “And Max the king of all wild things was lonely and wanted to be where someone loved him best of all” (lines 15-16). The words “king of all wild things” tells the reader that being the leader of the wild things doesn’t make Max happy as much as it makes him lonely. The lines “wanted to be where someone loved him best of all” shows that even though he has created this world where he is independent and his own leader is not good enough because he knows that he is loved the most when he is somewhere where his mother takes care of him. He realizes that his mother was showing her love for Max by not paying attention to him so he would not get in anymore trouble that he was already in, which causes Max to feel lonely and want her love since he knows it is the best love he could

get.

Once Max becomes lonely and wants to be where someone loves him, the speaker shows that Max becomes hungry and wants to leave the land of where the wild things are. Max then isn’t able to lead people because his dependence on his mother gets in the way when he realizes he is hungry since he never ate. He realized he was dependent on his mother when, “. . . across the world he smelled good things to eat so he gave up being king of where the wild things are”. (lines 17-18). The lines “across the world he smelled good things to eat” further proved that he was very hungry from not eating, and he’s dependent on his mother to feed him, and it did not happen. When the text states, “he gave up being king of where the wild things are” proves that he can not be on his own without his mother yet, because he is not able to feed himself, and he is willing to give up on all responsibilities he has taken over for the sake of his mother feeding him. This also shows he is dependent on his mother because only she can give him food and cure his hunger, not the wild things, or even Max himself. Eventually, Max realizes that leaving the land is best for him because he knows he will be loved, no longer lonely, and full of food.

Throughout the book, Max shows he is too dependent on his mother to be independent. Once he leaves on his journey since he felt that he wasn’t getting any more attention ffrom his mother, he realizes that he is lonely from the absence of her love. He also realizes that he can’t eat without his mother, so he gives up leading the wild things just so he can return to someone feeding and loving him, proving that he can not lead himself. Overall, without Max realizing he needs his mother for many reasons, he never would have discovered he can not be independent.