So, I was misled. Where the Wild Things Are is not in the public domain. It *would* have been if not for the pesky 1976 Copyright Act. So, basically, nobody better snitch! Just kidding, I'm sure it'll be fine. More importantly, let me know what you thought of the video, and feel free to suggest other books you'd like to see me cover!
Hi, I'd want to suggest something though I'm not sure if you or others will like it. We read the book “Looking for Alaska” by John Green in religion class at school, and as a young girl it touched me so much at the time that, to this day, I'm afraid to revisit the book, but maybe your voice would make it bearable.
I enjoy that Max's wild wolf is white - non threatening and innocent. Kind of signifying that Max's wildness isn't in fact a bad thing, its a child thing
@@nathaniel.higgerson to children? Yeah typically. Hell to many adults… yes. Ever had Christian parents and said you got into D&D or became a goth or played Pokemon?
I always loved the subtle characterization of the mother. Especially how, in certain ways, she reminds me of my own mother. The dinner being placed there as a small “I’m sorry, I acted harshly” ends up being nearly nostalgic. Times when my mother yelled at me or punished me, only to seek me out after to apologize. I was almost always deserving of some type of correction, she just acknowledged that she didn’t handle it with the best type of correction. I always appreciate this about my mother, as it taught me to emulate that attitude of owning up to mistakes honestly.
That's super validating as a now parent who still remembers being a kid clearly, its weird how there isnt a point in your life where a switch flips to "you are a mature adult now". Having kids made me realize how immature I was/am in many ways and really helped me think more about my actions and how they are experienced by others.
this comment reminds me why i never liked this children's book as a kid, because it only hits home if you grow up in a well adjusted family. my family basically resembled the 'malcom in the middle' show but worse, so the ideal of returning home from fantasy land due to missing family... just never hit me as a kid. kinda hard to miss something "better" that doesn't really exist.
8:00 "they absolutely loved it despite generally thinking it as scary" - I don't think it's 'despite', the thrill of it being a bit scary and complex and touching on themes of childhood power and love, is why kids enjoy the story. Stories are for being scared, and for exploring all kinds of feelings, safely.
Exactly! Feeling scared and facing your fears through imagination is such an important thing for kids. It helps teach them and let's them grow up braver and more prepared for the scary things in the real world. It makes me sad when parents want to completely shield their kids from everything, because it prevents them from growing up
Yeah i remember finding this book lying around as a kid and reading it, i went through all that you described in your comment there and as such always loved this book
Did I miss a note about how the illustrations grow? At the start, the words had their page and the illustrations have their small window on the other. As Max’s imagination takes over, the illustrations grow on their page, spill onto the other, and push out the text until the Wild Rumpus is all there is. Then the illustrations shrink, the words return, and the hood comes off. The words have their page, and the illustrations have theirs, but a full page of their own. And we end with words. We can see Max letting it all out in their room, and we can see Max wanting to go back to their mom, and we can see their mom finding space for Max to be themself, and we end on Max’s mother’s warmth.
The book is a chiasmus, with its apex in the three full page illustrations of the wild rumpus. I love everything about the book. The way that it builds and then recedes, both in its art and language (like the lengthening time intervals as he sails out that are reversed as he comes home), is just part of what makes it so amazing. It breaks me every time I read, "And it was still hot."
This is a tough subject for me. I’ll be honest, I never had a single children’s book read to me growing up; not a great childhood. Many years later I watched “Where the wild things are” in cinema, I sobbed by the end. Hearing you read the book brought back that same sadness. It’s difficult to describe my longing for the course correction of a regretful parent, to know that behind those moments of imperfection or harsh treatment there remained a deep love for you, even if they struggled to express it. Edit: I’m so grateful to all who’ve shared their stories or provided thoughtful responses under the replies, it is truly heartwarming to hear all of your experiences. And yes, I shall be reading my kids this and plenty other stories before bed and on cold winter days. Just before I head off, a friendly PSA to anyone reading this who survived an abusive upbringing: Our parents wronged us, we’ve promised to never be like them; but don’t over correct in the opposite direction. Smothering to avoid neglect is neglect of the child’s needs all the same, same vice versa. We have to be the Homebase to which our children can run back to when the feel overwhelmed exploring this world. Be an open but warm embrace, not a distant wave or a suffocating grasp ❤️
It's a powerful movie and I was pleasantly surprised by it. I think some adults thought it was "too deep" for kids, but it's just as imaginative in portraying how a child "thinks" and "feels".
I’ve been struggling with this feeling a lot now that I’m 25 and I didnt really know how to put it into words. “Its difficult to describe my longing for the course correction of a regretful parent”. With being 25 and getting married next year I know now that I will never see that from my parents and thats hard.
My parents were pretty awful when I was young. But they were going through a Whole Lot and they didn't have the best childhoods either to put it mildly. The one thing that both sets of my grandparents had was they always tried to become better people and learn more even when they got older. Neither set ever gave up. They passed that on from their parents to my parents, and to me I hope. My parents never stopped trying to be the best parent they could to me where I was at that time. Whether they succeeded or not, I give them credit for the TRYING and not giving up. They were messed up just like we all are, but they gave their best. So even though my childhood was so awful in so many ways, by the time they died both of them had healed most of the damage(or at least healed all the pain and resentment I had felt) they had done by just trying to be the best person they could right then.. even if it wasn't that great they still tried. And honestly my mom was really much greater of a person than I actually knew or understood when I was a kid. I feel lucky. How many people had awful childhoods and terrible parents and never get an honest "I'm sorry...."
@@lisa2stewartwhat you said really spoke to me!! It reminds me so much of my mother but in the opposite way. She was so loving and caring to me or atleast that's what I believed when I was younger but the truth of the matter is that she was a backstabber and manipulator willing to do ANYTHING TO GET HER WAY!! The thing is she really does love and care for me as her favourite but that's probably part of her narcissistic personality showing. They always have a favourite child after all but the truth of the matter is that she has done some terrible things to my family specifically to my sister and dad. She is someone who is very good at pretending to be innocent and make you look like the victim. She can never accept herself being at fault and boy did she have a temper. One that could make a grown man cower!! The thing is she claims to be sorry for what she did to this family but she never changes her ways. She will do the same thing again and again and again and again and again. She is so good at being pitifully and meek cause she truly believes that. She'll never understand why her family left her even favorites son who stood by her side and atleast believed and still sort of does that he truly loved his mother. She was just too toxic to this family that we had to leave her. The point I'm trying to say is that your parents are better than my mom cause they actually tried to change their ways while she'll never change and she'll never reflect on why she is alone in this world which I think is the greatest tragedy of them all.
I’ve always interpreted “I’ll eat you up” as an expression of need. Like, I am hungry for your attention and perhaps angry that I don’t have it. This fits well with the destructive behavior that could at least in part be a cry for attention. It also explains why the wild things followed “eat you up” with love you so”.
I love this insight! It then ties in nicely with his mother at first withholding food and then in the end giving it to him, as a metaphor for her doing the same thing with her love and attention - by giving him dinner, she is also giving him the attention that he needs as much as he needs food.
imo, the reason this book resonates with so many people is because it doesn't really beat around the bush. despite it's simplicity, it treats it's readers, both young and old, with respect, and it doesn't hold your hand like a lot of the books contemporaries. ESPECIALLY picture books. i still love this book to this day and i think it's one of the few pieces of media that is unanimously liked.
Definitely check out the film. It not only pays wonderful tribute to the book, but the changes Spike Jonze made are just as abstract and "out there" as Sendak's book. Sendak apparently loved the movie and had told Jonze, "Be Dangerous because that's how I made the book. As much as the book is me, the movie must be You."
One of my favorite interaction between Maurice Sendak and his many fans, was when he sent a drawing of one of the monsters to a kid, to which the kid loved it so much he ate it whole, and Sendak took it as the biggest compliment of all.
I vaguely remember finding the last line of the book strange as a younger. A whole page to itself, nothing to distract from it, and all it says is "and it was still hot", which doesn't really add anything to what we just read- that max came back to find his supper waiting for him, but this essay actually got me to realize how important that ending is for the book as a whole. It makes the book, to some extent, about *forgivness* both from parents to their children, and from children to parents by emphasizing that the food he was given after he and his mother stopped being angry at eachother was still hot- it hadn't gotten cold or soggy or worse because of their fight, it was still hot, still good. They still love eachother a lot, and getting angry at eachother didn't change that. That a beautiful subtlety of the book. I should make sure I get my 1 year-old nephew a copy.
4:00 When my mom read this book to me and got to the wild rumpus, she would shake the book back and forth and chant “rumpus, rumpus, rumpus! Rumpus, rumpus, rumpus!” And it was years before I realized there were no words on those pages-
Because I come from a different culture, this is my first time hearing of this book. It reminds me so much of the relationship I have with my mother. That part where the article mentioned that good parents give their children second chances was my breaking point and made me tear up. Your interpretations summed up mine perfectly, I often think about the fact that kids will often act the same way as their predecessors did, even if they don't want to admit it. I see the Wild Things as the kids of future Max, as they perfectly capture the way Max's mom describes him. Thank you for this video.
This reminds me of something Jacob Geller said in his video "Every Zelda is the Darkest Zelda"; "part of being a kid is wondering why a grown-up is crying while reading a book about a tree out loud [he was talking about The Giving Tree, I think], and a part of being an adult is being the crying reader." I think the older I get, the more love I have for children's media - and the more important I believe it to be. It's such a great way to send a genuinely sweet message.
Even as a kid, even if I didn’t have the ability to articulate it at the time, the story felt like a kid struggling to control his impulses, Max uses visual metaphor because he doesn’t have any other way to articulate what he’s feeling. He travels to his inner world of the wild where there is no authority telling him what to do, and when he gets there he’s greeted by a bunch of wild things that act on what ever impulse they have. The first thing he does when he meets them is assert dominance over them, which is him asserting that he is in control of his own actions. Then he indulges the impulses, but after a while he grows tired of them and tells them to stop. When they don’t want to he punishes them, giving him the power over his impulses, not just the ring leader of them, and so having taken control of his impulses, he returns to the real world, where he’s greeted with the food he was denied earlier for not being able to control his impulses.
I remember taking the book out as kid. Maybe when I was like six or seven. It didn't really scare me. But I always wished I was Max. There was a part of me that wanted to escape the world and go into my own imagination. even at that young an age. It made me want to be somewhere else. Later when the movie came out I wanted to go see it. My divorced parents agreed to both go with me and my brother. The movie was so upsetting to me and my brother we cried in the theater, at the restaurant we went too after, and that night when we got home. Upsetting in a good way too. We resonated with it. It was the first time we really let a movie get under our skin like that. It made me look at the book differently. It made me want to go deeper into my imagination. Maybe in a way it lead me to wanting to be a creative type. I saw monsters, and I also something that looked better than what I had. I also wasn't allowed to pick what movies we watched any more, since I always picked the ones that made everyone cry.
15:42 I justst realised that this part was also used in Alt-j's 'Breezeblocks' "Please don't go, I'll eat you whole I love you so, I love you so, I love you so" Felt good making that connection!
Where the Wild Things Are always gave me a sharply melancholy feeling as a little kid about Max's age. He was the only other character I've ever seen in a book who was just like me and knew the feelings I felt-he was violent, hyper, chaotic, and full of huge tumultuous emotions. A kid who rages at timeout, loses themselves in vivid bouts of imagination, then feels achingly lonely and longs to be reassured with love. Nothing I had read before had ever quite captured that aspect of the feelings of what it's like having ADHD as a kid (which is what I now know is what was going on with me). No kid wants to feel like an explosive little hand-grenade of intense emotions that somehow just can't seem to stop being in trouble. You just start believing that you must just be a bad kid... a 'wild thing', so to speak.
The movie provides me with a sense of solace. It is my escape to be "THE wild thing." After a stressful evening or a cruddy test, the movie lets me escape to feel free and to let my emotions run. Although this video isn't about the movie, the book provides that same feeling. The movie only has more visuals and sounds that enrapture me in a world where one can yell and scream to just be free and not care what people think.
This book meant so much to me as a kid. It was tied with the Giving Tree as my favorite book. The movie is criminally overlooked. It’s beautifully shot and the way it adapts this simple story into an hour long film is amazing.
One of my mother's many talents is knowing this book by heart. I have such dear memories of sitting with her and her reciting it from memory as if it were a poem, not a book. To this day she's still able to repeat each word, permanently ingrained into her mind and soul, and if thats not a testament to how wonderful the story is, that someone loved it so much she read it so many countless times she simply committed it to memory, I dont know what else could be
i feel like my parents (or reading rainbow lol, blends together) would read about the wild things with the emphasis on the roars and gnashing and etc, that whole bit. it made it fun and that’s how i’ve read it ever since! the bit where you talk about the wilderness made me think oh, that’s like the hero’s journey! going from the known world to the unknown world, and then returning a better person/armed with knowledge/etc. great video and i loved all the interpretations you shared!
I played Max in a version of the book for stage in first grade. I was reciting it as you read. I love how there's this chidlike unreality to book. Your reflections on that one word, "and"... ring very true.
I know, me too! I always found it really unpleasant as a kid. I guess I just didn't get it, but I really really disliked it. I still very much do not have fond memories of it.
lovely video! this is a book i never understood (despite its simplicity) but the images always stuck with me and gave me a unique feeling. thanks for sharing!
I wish My mother was kind enough to remember to give me food after sending me to my room. growing up in a big family, Being sent away to your room basically erased you from existence unless you left a trace of yourself behind. Which since most of my transgretions were verbal, I was basically a ghost after being sent away. I remember hiding in random places in my house, Hoping people would find me, Only to give up after getting so hungry or uncomfortable that I came back out. Nobody even noticed that I was gone. Which maybe in reality I was gone maybe no more than an hour or 3 but as a kid that was an eternity.
I appreciate the link to the Prodigal Son. I'm not sure what your history is with Christianity, but I'm a Christian, and something that I've always found powerful about Christianity is having such a library of stories. Reading those stories over and over and over and over causes them to become a part of your life a little bit. Now, when I encounter a new work of art, my mind leaps to Job, or to Peter's denial of Christ, or to the parable of the workers in the vineyard, or to the life of Hosea, or to John on Patmos. Part of being a Christian is believing these stories are true (insofar as they were intended to be taken as true: parables are parables, history is history). It's almost indescribable how valuable integrating these stories into my personality has been. I'd be a different person without them.
The only difference is the Max doesn’t actually run away. He dreams about running away. The reason it was a dream if look at Max on the part where the forest grows in his room his eyes are closed and near the end when he sailing back his eyes also closed! Plus that is only reason his dinner was still hot
Another great video, I didn’t have much of a connection to this book as a kid tbh but this video helped me understand why others might like it so much.
First off, I’ve never read this book, so thank you for taking the time to read it to me. What I can tell you, as someone who used to get sick often and would wake up weeks-or sometimes even months later-this feels like the kind of dream I might have imagined while being sick and unable to play with other kids. The part of the dream that seems to want you to stay feels so familiar. As a little child, it’s scary to leave, knowing that time has passed without you. Thankfully, I don’t get that sick anymore, but in my calmer moments, I sometimes revisit where my wild things are. And they always seem to be welcoming.
This book is likely the reason I love fantasy worlds that are all monsters. Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, and of course Humans are rejected out of hand. Just be the monster, humans are... far worse.
Only cried a few times watching this... I read this book to my son often, to the point where I can recite it from memory and sometimes do when the book isn't nearby. To your comment about parents feeling regretful and course-correcting, it is endless. Regret and guilt are those things no one tells you about when becoming a parent. I remember watching the movie in the theater and thinking just how well it shines a light on the emotional instability of being a child, and how difficult it is for a parent to navigate that. Where the Wild Things Are is special, and you did an amazing job of analyzing it. Thanks.
i don’t remember how the book affected me as a child, but the soundtrack from the movie was a really formative part of it. for YEARS my favorite song was All Is Love-i have clear memories of playing it to get to sleep one night, and even more of going on long walks as an 8/9 year old while listening to the soundtrack on my moms ipod. i was actually upset when i learned it was from a movie the first time lol. i didn’t watch the movie until late adolescence and i watched it again a couple years ago and it remains one of the pieces of media that has made me cry the most. the book means a lot to me too now, but in a way i couldn’t possibly communicate. i think i relate to it more now as a teenager than i ever did as a child, especially as an artist who can see the skill in the drawings. i would VERY heavily recommend the movie. it’s very different from the book (which is to be expected) but it is one of my favorite pieces of media. i should watch it again, it might make me cry even more this time. really good video btw!!
I loved this book when I was a little girl, still do! I was kind of bummed that he went home, I wanted him to stay wild. I thought the wild things were adorable, not scary and just right, because wild is the best way to be.
I never felt particularly drawn to this book as a little kid. I was very well behaved, and found wild things and children who admired them distasteful and confusing. I understood the theoretical sadness of being sent to bed with no dinner, but very little else. Actually, I was in the habit of inflicting the same punishment on my dolls (my children), despite never receiving it from my own parents. Now, as a teenager, I have more sympathy for Max. Maybe this is a very simple and obvious interpretation, but to me the main conflict is about true self and false self. Max seems to be very young, and he and his mother are just starting to navigate his transition from a near-toddler to an emotionally and socially aware person. Max has big feelings and a lot of creativity, and it’s frustrating to him that his mother would vilify impulses that bring him excitement and allow him to express himself. The story has a lot of respect for this side of Max, which I think shows respect to the children hearing it. However, Max has to learn that the wild part of him simply won’t always be compatible with other people. He might be too young to feel the effects of his actions on his mother, but he clearly comes to understand that even though his mother still loves him best when he behaves like a monster, ignoring the rules she needs to feel safe and respected around him will prevent him from staying close with her, represented by his journey and return home. Neither of them are quite in the right and neither are entirely in the wrong. Both children and adults need to work together to manage and express their emotions without trampling the other’s, or else they will struggle to connect and feel accepted. In retrospect, I might have benefited from taking inspiration from Max and exploring my more selfish and disruptive desires during that phase through make-believe, instead of solely fixating on praise and punishment even while playing alone. Where the Wild Things are is most beautiful to me because it illustrates to children that a little wildness is natural, without calling it good or evil. It shouldn’t be lived in all the time and it shouldn’t be condemned, it is just special, because it is a part of you and you deserve for someone to love you best of all.
That's really well said! I loved the book as a child even though I also was well behaved, at least on the outside. Part of it was obviously the beautiful illustrations, and the depiction of a child's imagination, but narrative really captured my heart too. I remember pretending that I ruled over a land of dinoaur-like monsters, inspired by the pattern on my pillow. I didn't connect it at the time with Where the Wild Things Are, but looking back on it, there was probably some bit of the book that always lived in my brain, quietly giving me perspective on the world. I wish there were more books like it; even though that would make it less unique, it would be no less special.
Wow. Your comment is super well written. It gives quite an insight, and leaves me thinking about even deeper things than I normally do as I revisit this book and story that I love so much. Check out Christopher Watkins reading of this book, you will love it.
Every time there's a touching story or moment between a son and a father I always get emotional. I'm not religious, but the story of the prodigal son made me cry. I long for that father-som relationship, but I refuse to seek it from my father because he's already rejected me. When I was little I always sympathized, maybe empathized, with Max in this story, I was of that young age around 5 where I was still sometimes rude to my mother, and still rambunctious. The story feels like my own young childhood, living with my single mother. Similar to how max made a tent in his room, I would play with stuffed animals and make stories at night because I couldn't sleep. This video really took me back to that part of my childhood, and it's particularly interesting to watch an analysis of the story as an AP Literature student.
This is such a beautiful video, especially since this book means so much to me. I am now 15 and my mother would always read this book to me. My favourite top, which I've had for as long as I remember and was my mother's before it was mine, is a 'where the wild things are' top - which I'm coincidentally wearing right now. Thank you for this video.
I'm not ashamed to admit I teared up through this video. This book was always one of my favourites .. I've not read it in some time, and I didn't really expect it to get to me this much but here we are, I suppose
"And while I never saw an angel for myself, I'd like to think that I was a very lucky kid, too." Yeah. Yeah. I buy this book for all of my nieces and nephews and I hope it touches them like it touched me as a rambunctious child. I'm crying about Maurice Sendak, now. What a beautiful spirit.
I have been rereading this story to my children and I gotta say, this book is even better as an adult. The language slowly showing time losing meaning as the visuals slowly expand the space of his room is beautiful.
On the last flip through it hit me that the illustrations slowly grow to take more of the page until they spill out into the other page, and then shrink back. Cool editing detail
my meemaw read "where the wild things are" to my dad and uncle when they were boys, my dad read it to me and both of my siblings when we were kids. it's my favorite story of all time and i'm sure, 10 years after my parents last read it to me, i could still remember every word. i'm glad i found this video.
I think there's also an allegory regarding mental health : Max seems to meet the Wild Things during his sleep, after an event that left him feeling mad, unloved and victim of an injustice. With their scary, disgusting and incomprehensible appearance, they remind us of emotions like anger, hatred, antipathy, which are all so hard to comprehend and fight against, and can lead us to do wild things. "Where the wild things are" : they're in his mind. Furthermore, the way the Wild Things tell him they're gonna eat him up because they love him strongly reminds us of the way he told his mother that he is going to eat her up, which seems to be his only way of asserting his dominance over her and the injustice, showing he's in the right and mightier (just like most kids think they're out of reach for danger and punishments). Again, we sometimes feel like violence and hatred are the only answers for injustice, showing their seductive power on weakened/corrupted minds in search of justice, and this is why the wild things tell him that they're gonna eat him up (take control over him, remove his rationality and empathy which are weaknesses when seeking revenge and justice) because they love him (they're the best solution). The way he joingsthem by thoroughly staring at them, just like if he was tring to grasp at them, understand them truly, recalls the moments when we flirt with wild emotions and give in. He managed to dominate them because he had the greatest sin in mind (m*rderous intent towards his mother), which meant he was already possessed by much worse emotions than simple anger and hatred, and scared the Wild Things, making him their new king. The wild things never stop : it took Max's authority (the supreme authority since he's the king, and also the bearer of these emotions) to make them stop messing around, highlighting that, in reminiscence of his mother, he understood that these emotions which never stop never lead to anything productive (something as useless as dancing around doesn't help solving injustices), and actually lead to loneliness and closing yourself off. Telling them to stop is forgiving his mother, because he now understands her point of view, and that his shenanigans can be annoying, and that's a call-back to his mother's love and forgiveness since he then smells the supper made by her. Finally, as he's trying to leave these emotions behind, they're trying to get back at him and now truly take over his mind, but he's already sailing back to sanity (notice how he took his hood off when waking up, showing that he's not a beast anymore. Also, there is not a single religious reference in this book, since Sendak was jewish, and jewish people don't recognize Jesus (and by extent, the entirety of the New Testament). Forgivneness, especially towards your kids is a natural instinct seen in a lot of animals (peculiarly great apes, but all mammals seem to show an incredibly strong parent-infants bond), since parents are the ones to show the right example and teach the right manners. It's universal and definitely not something that the Bible invented, and such a book should not really be a reference for an educational behavior, though it is a very good and explicit example. Thanks for the video, really intersting on all points.
great video and the analysis! I never had the book as a kid, but once was taken on a school trip with my classmates to see the movie; I remember after it ended and we were waiting for a bus outside our teacher asked what we thought the movie was about, and I was the only one who wanted to answer and discuss it (as the others already got busy chatting about other stuff); so I think my favourite thing about it actually was that moment of connecting with an adult and having a "serious" discussion about a piece of art together!
This video was the reason I found out Maurice Sendak was gay. I'm sobbing right now because it's so wonderful to know that such a good and wonderful man who is so beloved shared that trait with me, even if he died before I ever discovered that part of myself. I'm so glad I live in this world.
I find it strange how a lot of our beloved children's authors were gay, tomie de Paola, the guy who made frog and toad, tove jansson, and I'm sure there's more.
@@berniekatzroy I mean doesn't seem that strange to me. It has been statistically proven that us gay people are much more likely to retain the whimsy in our hearts into adulthood
Wow, it's been forever since I've revisited Where The Wild Things Are. This video has got me to remember a conversation I had with my sister when we were god-knows-how-young about Max's father. We (being children of divorce) both quickly came to the conclusion that he must have been living with his mother then, although it didn't occur to me at the time that this may have been an example of something like the "visit by the divorced dad" trope. It's an oddly happy memory, I'm glad to have it back!
I’m in AP Lit this year, and we’ve been working on literary analysis. Prior to this semester, I hadn’t analyzed a work in any way short of a summary with a good point or two. I’ve especially struggled with understanding poetry and how to convey my thoughts on such, and this video is really opening my thought process up to what I can do and say when analyzing a work. So, thank you!!
I've always been more of a Giving-Tree-type-gal, but this video really touched me and I have a renewed appreciation for this children's book. It really is a masterpiece in understanding growth and love in the most profound way. I think a lot of parents wonder and worry whether their children love them and how they love them, and i think this book is an expression of a child's love for his mother purely from a child's perspective.
Your RUclips channel and its videos are fantastic. The insight into the author's lives- and experiencing these stories again has been a positive experience. As I turn twenty this year, these stories are cathartic. I don't remember much from my childhood- (mostly playing video games and hating School,) and these videos have helped me be more content with what I do because the joy I had in remembering that the boy's name was Max felt so pure lol. Recalling these stories so clearly and now being able to view it as an adult makes me appreciate them and thosewho read to me as a kid.
20:29 man this guy is based wonderful analysis mate. You Christian? Seemed like a pretty in-depth comparison to the Prodigal Son parable, and it actually got me tearing up the way you narrated it. I rarely ever cry. Thanks for this reminder of the book. I really do love this book, it's always been one of the most interesting children's books to me, and I could never place why when I was younger. You just did.
I read the story to my kid many years ago. I didn't attempt to analyze it too much but I did enjoy the meter and illustrations. My child seemed to enjoy it but never asked me me to read it again. I wouldn't place it on a list of best children's literature. I did enjoy your exploration of it. Thanks!
i love this book. i still have memories of reading this book as a kid. my mom used to quote the book, saying 'i'll eat you up i love you so!' and it makes me smile whenever i think about it. i watched the movie for the first time about a year ago and cried. it's one of those movies that makes you remember we're all going through life together, and it's ok to have feelings. we can work things out, and it will be ok in the end, even if it's bittersweet
I’m only part way through the video so maybe this gets touched on, but I love the detail that going to where the wild things are is so quick but returning takes him so long. It’s easier to turn to fantasy and imagination than it is to escape it
You can see max use his imagination to wrestle with the interaction with his mom. He yelled at his mom, "I'll eat you up", and for that he was sent to his room. Later, when he was leaving "where the wild things are", the monsters yelled at him "We'll eat you up--we love you so!" This reveals that when max said "I'll eat you up" to his mom, he was actually trying to express his love to her. But in response to the monsters this time, max declined and said no. Max has learned not act that way anymore. It's a story of growth. And when he got back to reality, his mom's piping hot supper was waiting. Sending max to his room wasn't for the punishment... it was out of love.
I used to be a preschool teacher. This was my favorite book to read to my classes; kids love and understand the story. One of my favorite memories of teaching was working with a 2 year old boy who was just learning how to speak; he would ask me specifically for the story by saying, “Max?” It’s still my gold standard for picture books
I never thought too much about my favorite children's book, but this one is my mom's favorite, and one of my favorite movies is the adaptation. I actually have an old shirt of art from the book that used to be my mom's. I relate to Max a lot, creative, loneliness, I struggled with my emotions a lot and had argued with my mom a lot, and my parents are divorced. There is more from the movie too. I still struggle with emotional regulation at times and my mom and I still argue on occasion, but it has gotten a lot better with therapy and working on communication. My mom wasn't the best parent when I was younger, but now I see her learning and doing better with my little brother. (That little brother actually had a Wild Things themed first birthday.) She has also apologized for past actions and has been saying sorry more often after arguments or her anger outbursts. (It used to be really just me apologizing.) It's quite fitting how we both like Where The Wild Things Are, whether it be the book or the movie, I think we probably both think of each other when thinking of it. If you haven't seen the movie, I do think it is worth checking it out. Not everyone who watches it seems to really get it, but I think you would based on this analysis.
I really love that parable. It really feels like a summary of what Christianity is SUPPOSED to be. Wether or not lots of people ignore it, there's a lot of good stuff in the bible.
I love this book and I love seeing so many people feel the same love, but I must say the movie is SO SO SO WORTH WATCHING! It’s very emotional and hits hard
I think as a kid i didn't really understand that the wild things were imagined by max, but i did understand that max's role had changed and that as king and he treated the wild things the same way he was treated. for me when max left the island it was a relief firstly because i understood the wild things were dangerous and scary and that max had treated them poorly but also that max was now reverted from king/mother role to child role which felt like a fresh opportunity to learn how to treat people (or wild things). this is what i think i remember feeling, but i'm sure i was read this story a lot of times and read it a lot of times myself and was potentially fed or encouraged to think about the meaning. the last picture with max's dinner is a very deep memory for me, thanks for helping me to revisit it.
I started to cry when you read it. Max running into the wild and unknown, with only his thoughts, searching for something. Only to realize what he was searching for was back at home. I love this book and I almost forgot it existed
your writing is impeccable, and your ability to both notice seemingly tiny details, analyze them, and blend it with real world reactions to the book is truly remarkable. my only note is that your voice can often be monotone, and may create a barrier to a larger audience. keep it up though! i think that writing is a harder skill to learn than having a more upbeat voice, so you’re absolutely on the right track. loved this!
Oooh boy this one gave me a flood of emotions. Hadn't thought about this book in ages and I don't think I realozed until now how much of a great influence this book had on me.
One interesting connection is the text explicitly states that max stared into their without blinking. This whether intentionally or not parallels what Sendak's father told him as a child. Not to blink to see the angels. One could say that the wild things are the angels he sought to see. Sendak said adults looked to be monstrous as a child, this could tie in to the Wild things being representations of Sendak's family that would come to eat on those Sunday evenings when he was a child. His whole family aiding him in his growth process. The journey out of childhood into the wilderness and the complete unknown of growing up. His journey back into his room is him seeking out the comforts of childhood, the changed moon showing the changed time. The meal still being hot representative of the safety and ableness to return to home.
I loved this book as a kid and still do I remember watching the short animated video which I’m pretty sure was narrated by the author so much I basically know it all by heart ❤️
I also have not read this book since childhood. Thank you for this video! I actually found some printouts of pages of the book that I plan to frame and hang up in my future child's bedroom.
beautiful video about a beautiful book. im definitely going to buy a copy and read it for the first time in 20 yrs. my key memory to this book is performing it as a play in primary school. my class were the forest that grows in max's room. my face was painted green and it stained to the next day and i thought no one would recognize me with a green face so i played up on the playground and ran away from teachers trying to tell me off.
i really love your videos, i appreciate how much research and thought you put into analyzing children's books especially, something that not enough people take seriously.
Sendak reminds me a lot of the lovely Arnold Lobel the author for frog and toad. Both amazing men that will go down as my personal favorite children book writers. I love your analysis of this beloved story.
So, I was misled. Where the Wild Things Are is not in the public domain. It *would* have been if not for the pesky 1976 Copyright Act. So, basically, nobody better snitch! Just kidding, I'm sure it'll be fine. More importantly, let me know what you thought of the video, and feel free to suggest other books you'd like to see me cover!
Little Prince, the actual greatest children's book of all time. (In my opinion)
@@padenlisk2447 Thanks so much for the suggestion!
@@padenlisk2447 Yes! The Little Prince is so dear to my heart, I cry every time I read it
Hi, I'd want to suggest something though I'm not sure if you or others will like it. We read the book “Looking for Alaska” by John Green in religion class at school, and as a young girl it touched me so much at the time that, to this day, I'm afraid to revisit the book, but maybe your voice would make it bearable.
@@Unsigned-Me Have you seen the film? I thought it was great at adapting the story while also adding enough extra content to warrant a film.
I enjoy that Max's wild wolf is white - non threatening and innocent. Kind of signifying that Max's wildness isn't in fact a bad thing, its a child thing
@@neoworldorder8209 Max Geralt Roger Eric du Haute-Bellegarde.
true because black things are threatening and guilty
@@nathaniel.higgerson to children? Yeah typically. Hell to many adults… yes. Ever had Christian parents and said you got into D&D or became a goth or played Pokemon?
@@n0etic_f0xwhat?
Where the Child Things Are, so to speak :p
I always loved the subtle characterization of the mother. Especially how, in certain ways, she reminds me of my own mother. The dinner being placed there as a small “I’m sorry, I acted harshly” ends up being nearly nostalgic. Times when my mother yelled at me or punished me, only to seek me out after to apologize. I was almost always deserving of some type of correction, she just acknowledged that she didn’t handle it with the best type of correction. I always appreciate this about my mother, as it taught me to emulate that attitude of owning up to mistakes honestly.
That's super validating as a now parent who still remembers being a kid clearly, its weird how there isnt a point in your life where a switch flips to "you are a mature adult now". Having kids made me realize how immature I was/am in many ways and really helped me think more about my actions and how they are experienced by others.
this comment reminds me why i never liked this children's book as a kid, because it only hits home if you grow up in a well adjusted family. my family basically resembled the 'malcom in the middle' show but worse, so the ideal of returning home from fantasy land due to missing family... just never hit me as a kid. kinda hard to miss something "better" that doesn't really exist.
I wish more parents would do that
my dad was the same way
Aw that's so sweet! You're lucky. My mother never did that, even when she was wrong. She'd just blame me haha.
8:00 "they absolutely loved it despite generally thinking it as scary" - I don't think it's 'despite', the thrill of it being a bit scary and complex and touching on themes of childhood power and love, is why kids enjoy the story.
Stories are for being scared, and for exploring all kinds of feelings, safely.
Exactly! Feeling scared and facing your fears through imagination is such an important thing for kids. It helps teach them and let's them grow up braver and more prepared for the scary things in the real world. It makes me sad when parents want to completely shield their kids from everything, because it prevents them from growing up
Yeah i remember finding this book lying around as a kid and reading it, i went through all that you described in your comment there and as such always loved this book
Did I miss a note about how the illustrations grow?
At the start, the words had their page and the illustrations have their small window on the other. As Max’s imagination takes over, the illustrations grow on their page, spill onto the other, and push out the text until the Wild Rumpus is all there is.
Then the illustrations shrink, the words return, and the hood comes off. The words have their page, and the illustrations have theirs, but a full page of their own. And we end with words.
We can see Max letting it all out in their room, and we can see Max wanting to go back to their mom, and we can see their mom finding space for Max to be themself, and we end on Max’s mother’s warmth.
The book is a chiasmus, with its apex in the three full page illustrations of the wild rumpus.
I love everything about the book. The way that it builds and then recedes, both in its art and language (like the lengthening time intervals as he sails out that are reversed as he comes home), is just part of what makes it so amazing.
It breaks me every time I read, "And it was still hot."
Beautiful catch
This is a tough subject for me. I’ll be honest, I never had a single children’s book read to me growing up; not a great childhood. Many years later I watched “Where the wild things are” in cinema, I sobbed by the end. Hearing you read the book brought back that same sadness. It’s difficult to describe my longing for the course correction of a regretful parent, to know that behind those moments of imperfection or harsh treatment there remained a deep love for you, even if they struggled to express it.
Edit: I’m so grateful to all who’ve shared their stories or provided thoughtful responses under the replies, it is truly heartwarming to hear all of your experiences. And yes, I shall be reading my kids this and plenty other stories before bed and on cold winter days. Just before I head off, a friendly PSA to anyone reading this who survived an abusive upbringing: Our parents wronged us, we’ve promised to never be like them; but don’t over correct in the opposite direction. Smothering to avoid neglect is neglect of the child’s needs all the same, same vice versa. We have to be the Homebase to which our children can run back to when the feel overwhelmed exploring this world. Be an open but warm embrace, not a distant wave or a suffocating grasp ❤️
It's a powerful movie and I was pleasantly surprised by it. I think some adults thought it was "too deep" for kids, but it's just as imaginative in portraying how a child "thinks" and "feels".
I’ve been struggling with this feeling a lot now that I’m 25 and I didnt really know how to put it into words. “Its difficult to describe my longing for the course correction of a regretful parent”. With being 25 and getting married next year I know now that I will never see that from my parents and thats hard.
My parents didn't read to me either. 😟 Eh, it's something that I'm daydreaming about doing with my kids.
My parents were pretty awful when I was young. But they were going through a Whole Lot and they didn't have the best childhoods either to put it mildly. The one thing that both sets of my grandparents had was they always tried to become better people and learn more even when they got older. Neither set ever gave up. They passed that on from their parents to my parents, and to me I hope. My parents never stopped trying to be the best parent they could to me where I was at that time. Whether they succeeded or not, I give them credit for the TRYING and not giving up. They were messed up just like we all are, but they gave their best. So even though my childhood was so awful in so many ways, by the time they died both of them had healed most of the damage(or at least healed all the pain and resentment I had felt) they had done by just trying to be the best person they could right then.. even if it wasn't that great they still tried. And honestly my mom was really much greater of a person than I actually knew or understood when I was a kid. I feel lucky. How many people had awful childhoods and terrible parents and never get an honest "I'm sorry...."
@@lisa2stewartwhat you said really spoke to me!! It reminds me so much of my mother but in the opposite way. She was so loving and caring to me or atleast that's what I believed when I was younger but the truth of the matter is that she was a backstabber and manipulator willing to do ANYTHING TO GET HER WAY!! The thing is she really does love and care for me as her favourite but that's probably part of her narcissistic personality showing. They always have a favourite child after all but the truth of the matter is that she has done some terrible things to my family specifically to my sister and dad. She is someone who is very good at pretending to be innocent and make you look like the victim. She can never accept herself being at fault and boy did she have a temper. One that could make a grown man cower!! The thing is she claims to be sorry for what she did to this family but she never changes her ways. She will do the same thing again and again and again and again and again. She is so good at being pitifully and meek cause she truly believes that. She'll never understand why her family left her even favorites son who stood by her side and atleast believed and still sort of does that he truly loved his mother. She was just too toxic to this family that we had to leave her. The point I'm trying to say is that your parents are better than my mom cause they actually tried to change their ways while she'll never change and she'll never reflect on why she is alone in this world which I think is the greatest tragedy of them all.
I’ve always interpreted “I’ll eat you up” as an expression of need. Like, I am hungry for your attention and perhaps angry that I don’t have it. This fits well with the destructive behavior that could at least in part be a cry for attention. It also explains why the wild things followed “eat you up” with love you so”.
I love this insight! It then ties in nicely with his mother at first withholding food and then in the end giving it to him, as a metaphor for her doing the same thing with her love and attention - by giving him dinner, she is also giving him the attention that he needs as much as he needs food.
imo, the reason this book resonates with so many people is because it doesn't really beat around the bush. despite it's simplicity, it treats it's readers, both young and old, with respect, and it doesn't hold your hand like a lot of the books contemporaries. ESPECIALLY picture books. i still love this book to this day and i think it's one of the few pieces of media that is unanimously liked.
🍜🌌 look up Christopher Watkins reads where the wild things are. You will love it!
this is the exact reason why the movie is my favorite movie ever. so incredibly strong in it's beliefs and what it's trying to say.
Definitely check out the film. It not only pays wonderful tribute to the book, but the changes Spike Jonze made are just as abstract and "out there" as Sendak's book. Sendak apparently loved the movie and had told Jonze, "Be Dangerous because that's how I made the book. As much as the book is me, the movie must be You."
One of my favorite interaction between Maurice Sendak and his many fans, was when he sent a drawing of one of the monsters to a kid, to which the kid loved it so much he ate it whole, and Sendak took it as the biggest compliment of all.
The illustration that fascinated me the most as a child was the way the bed posts morphed into the trees of the forest.
I vaguely remember finding the last line of the book strange as a younger. A whole page to itself, nothing to distract from it, and all it says is "and it was still hot", which doesn't really add anything to what we just read- that max came back to find his supper waiting for him, but this essay actually got me to realize how important that ending is for the book as a whole.
It makes the book, to some extent, about *forgivness* both from parents to their children, and from children to parents by emphasizing that the food he was given after he and his mother stopped being angry at eachother was still hot- it hadn't gotten cold or soggy or worse because of their fight, it was still hot, still good. They still love eachother a lot, and getting angry at eachother didn't change that.
That a beautiful subtlety of the book. I should make sure I get my 1 year-old nephew a copy.
4:00 When my mom read this book to me and got to the wild rumpus, she would shake the book back and forth and chant “rumpus, rumpus, rumpus! Rumpus, rumpus, rumpus!” And it was years before I realized there were no words on those pages-
That's how my dad and mom did it, and that's how I read it to my kids - "Dance, rumpus rumpus rumpus, MARCH, rumpus rumpus rumpus!"
Because I come from a different culture, this is my first time hearing of this book. It reminds me so much of the relationship I have with my mother. That part where the article mentioned that good parents give their children second chances was my breaking point and made me tear up.
Your interpretations summed up mine perfectly, I often think about the fact that kids will often act the same way as their predecessors did, even if they don't want to admit it. I see the Wild Things as the kids of future Max, as they perfectly capture the way Max's mom describes him.
Thank you for this video.
Almost made it through without crying. Great video, made me very sentimental! This is one of my favorite ones to read to the kids at work.
This reminds me of something Jacob Geller said in his video "Every Zelda is the Darkest Zelda"; "part of being a kid is wondering why a grown-up is crying while reading a book about a tree out loud [he was talking about The Giving Tree, I think], and a part of being an adult is being the crying reader." I think the older I get, the more love I have for children's media - and the more important I believe it to be. It's such a great way to send a genuinely sweet message.
Even as a kid, even if I didn’t have the ability to articulate it at the time, the story felt like a kid struggling to control his impulses, Max uses visual metaphor because he doesn’t have any other way to articulate what he’s feeling. He travels to his inner world of the wild where there is no authority telling him what to do, and when he gets there he’s greeted by a bunch of wild things that act on what ever impulse they have. The first thing he does when he meets them is assert dominance over them, which is him asserting that he is in control of his own actions. Then he indulges the impulses, but after a while he grows tired of them and tells them to stop. When they don’t want to he punishes them, giving him the power over his impulses, not just the ring leader of them, and so having taken control of his impulses, he returns to the real world, where he’s greeted with the food he was denied earlier for not being able to control his impulses.
I remember taking the book out as kid. Maybe when I was like six or seven. It didn't really scare me. But I always wished I was Max. There was a part of me that wanted to escape the world and go into my own imagination. even at that young an age. It made me want to be somewhere else. Later when the movie came out I wanted to go see it. My divorced parents agreed to both go with me and my brother. The movie was so upsetting to me and my brother we cried in the theater, at the restaurant we went too after, and that night when we got home. Upsetting in a good way too. We resonated with it. It was the first time we really let a movie get under our skin like that. It made me look at the book differently. It made me want to go deeper into my imagination. Maybe in a way it lead me to wanting to be a creative type. I saw monsters, and I also something that looked better than what I had. I also wasn't allowed to pick what movies we watched any more, since I always picked the ones that made everyone cry.
15:42 I justst realised that this part was also used in Alt-j's 'Breezeblocks'
"Please don't go, I'll eat you whole
I love you so, I love you so, I love you so"
Felt good making that connection!
Yea, I noticed that connection too! High five
Where the Wild Things Are always gave me a sharply melancholy feeling as a little kid about Max's age. He was the only other character I've ever seen in a book who was just like me and knew the feelings I felt-he was violent, hyper, chaotic, and full of huge tumultuous emotions. A kid who rages at timeout, loses themselves in vivid bouts of imagination, then feels achingly lonely and longs to be reassured with love. Nothing I had read before had ever quite captured that aspect of the feelings of what it's like having ADHD as a kid (which is what I now know is what was going on with me). No kid wants to feel like an explosive little hand-grenade of intense emotions that somehow just can't seem to stop being in trouble. You just start believing that you must just be a bad kid... a 'wild thing', so to speak.
The movie provides me with a sense of solace. It is my escape to be "THE wild thing." After a stressful evening or a cruddy test, the movie lets me escape to feel free and to let my emotions run.
Although this video isn't about the movie, the book provides that same feeling. The movie only has more visuals and sounds that enrapture me in a world where one can yell and scream to just be free and not care what people think.
There's a ps3 game for it too :)! I grew up on it
This book meant so much to me as a kid. It was tied with the Giving Tree as my favorite book. The movie is criminally overlooked. It’s beautifully shot and the way it adapts this simple story into an hour long film is amazing.
One of my mother's many talents is knowing this book by heart. I have such dear memories of sitting with her and her reciting it from memory as if it were a poem, not a book. To this day she's still able to repeat each word, permanently ingrained into her mind and soul, and if thats not a testament to how wonderful the story is, that someone loved it so much she read it so many countless times she simply committed it to memory, I dont know what else could be
i feel like my parents (or reading rainbow lol, blends together) would read about the wild things with the emphasis on the roars and gnashing and etc, that whole bit. it made it fun and that’s how i’ve read it ever since!
the bit where you talk about the wilderness made me think oh, that’s like the hero’s journey! going from the known world to the unknown world, and then returning a better person/armed with knowledge/etc.
great video and i loved all the interpretations you shared!
I played Max in a version of the book for stage in first grade. I was reciting it as you read.
I love how there's this chidlike unreality to book. Your reflections on that one word, "and"... ring very true.
This book scared me soooo bad as a kid hahaha - great video btw!!
I know, me too! I always found it really unpleasant as a kid. I guess I just didn't get it, but I really really disliked it. I still very much do not have fond memories of it.
lovely video! this is a book i never understood (despite its simplicity) but the images always stuck with me and gave me a unique feeling. thanks for sharing!
I wish My mother was kind enough to remember to give me food after sending me to my room.
growing up in a big family, Being sent away to your room basically erased you from existence unless you left a trace of yourself behind.
Which since most of my transgretions were verbal, I was basically a ghost after being sent away.
I remember hiding in random places in my house, Hoping people would find me, Only to give up after getting so hungry or uncomfortable that I came back out.
Nobody even noticed that I was gone. Which maybe in reality I was gone maybe no more than an hour or 3 but as a kid that was an eternity.
I'm so sorry for you 😞
I appreciate the link to the Prodigal Son. I'm not sure what your history is with Christianity, but I'm a Christian, and something that I've always found powerful about Christianity is having such a library of stories. Reading those stories over and over and over and over causes them to become a part of your life a little bit.
Now, when I encounter a new work of art, my mind leaps to Job, or to Peter's denial of Christ, or to the parable of the workers in the vineyard, or to the life of Hosea, or to John on Patmos.
Part of being a Christian is believing these stories are true (insofar as they were intended to be taken as true: parables are parables, history is history). It's almost indescribable how valuable integrating these stories into my personality has been. I'd be a different person without them.
The only difference is the Max doesn’t actually run away. He dreams about running away. The reason it was a dream if look at Max on the part where the forest grows in his room his eyes are closed and near the end when he sailing back his eyes also closed! Plus that is only reason his dinner was still hot
Another great video, I didn’t have much of a connection to this book as a kid tbh but this video helped me understand why others might like it so much.
First off, I’ve never read this book, so thank you for taking the time to read it to me. What I can tell you, as someone who used to get sick often and would wake up weeks-or sometimes even months later-this feels like the kind of dream I might have imagined while being sick and unable to play with other kids.
The part of the dream that seems to want you to stay feels so familiar. As a little child, it’s scary to leave, knowing that time has passed without you. Thankfully, I don’t get that sick anymore, but in my calmer moments, I sometimes revisit where my wild things are. And they always seem to be welcoming.
This book is likely the reason I love fantasy worlds that are all monsters. Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, and of course Humans are rejected out of hand. Just be the monster, humans are... far worse.
3:20 I love how when the ocean "tumbles by" it actually reaches the other page.
Only cried a few times watching this... I read this book to my son often, to the point where I can recite it from memory and sometimes do when the book isn't nearby. To your comment about parents feeling regretful and course-correcting, it is endless. Regret and guilt are those things no one tells you about when becoming a parent. I remember watching the movie in the theater and thinking just how well it shines a light on the emotional instability of being a child, and how difficult it is for a parent to navigate that. Where the Wild Things Are is special, and you did an amazing job of analyzing it. Thanks.
i don’t remember how the book affected me as a child, but the soundtrack from the movie was a really formative part of it. for YEARS my favorite song was All Is Love-i have clear memories of playing it to get to sleep one night, and even more of going on long walks as an 8/9 year old while listening to the soundtrack on my moms ipod. i was actually upset when i learned it was from a movie the first time lol. i didn’t watch the movie until late adolescence and i watched it again a couple years ago and it remains one of the pieces of media that has made me cry the most. the book means a lot to me too now, but in a way i couldn’t possibly communicate. i think i relate to it more now as a teenager than i ever did as a child, especially as an artist who can see the skill in the drawings. i would VERY heavily recommend the movie. it’s very different from the book (which is to be expected) but it is one of my favorite pieces of media. i should watch it again, it might make me cry even more this time. really good video btw!!
I never thought I'd watch and enjoy a video essay about a literal children's book made 60 years ago, but here we are. Great job!
I loved this book when I was a little girl, still do! I was kind of bummed that he went home, I wanted him to stay wild. I thought the wild things were adorable, not scary and just right, because wild is the best way to be.
I never felt particularly drawn to this book as a little kid. I was very well behaved, and found wild things and children who admired them distasteful and confusing. I understood the theoretical sadness of being sent to bed with no dinner, but very little else. Actually, I was in the habit of inflicting the same punishment on my dolls (my children), despite never receiving it from my own parents. Now, as a teenager, I have more sympathy for Max. Maybe this is a very simple and obvious interpretation, but to me the main conflict is about true self and false self. Max seems to be very young, and he and his mother are just starting to navigate his transition from a near-toddler to an emotionally and socially aware person. Max has big feelings and a lot of creativity, and it’s frustrating to him that his mother would vilify impulses that bring him excitement and allow him to express himself. The story has a lot of respect for this side of Max, which I think shows respect to the children hearing it. However, Max has to learn that the wild part of him simply won’t always be compatible with other people. He might be too young to feel the effects of his actions on his mother, but he clearly comes to understand that even though his mother still loves him best when he behaves like a monster, ignoring the rules she needs to feel safe and respected around him will prevent him from staying close with her, represented by his journey and return home. Neither of them are quite in the right and neither are entirely in the wrong. Both children and adults need to work together to manage and express their emotions without trampling the other’s, or else they will struggle to connect and feel accepted. In retrospect, I might have benefited from taking inspiration from Max and exploring my more selfish and disruptive desires during that phase through make-believe, instead of solely fixating on praise and punishment even while playing alone. Where the Wild Things are is most beautiful to me because it illustrates to children that a little wildness is natural, without calling it good or evil. It shouldn’t be lived in all the time and it shouldn’t be condemned, it is just special, because it is a part of you and you deserve for someone to love you best of all.
That's really well said! I loved the book as a child even though I also was well behaved, at least on the outside. Part of it was obviously the beautiful illustrations, and the depiction of a child's imagination, but narrative really captured my heart too.
I remember pretending that I ruled over a land of dinoaur-like monsters, inspired by the pattern on my pillow. I didn't connect it at the time with Where the Wild Things Are, but looking back on it, there was probably some bit of the book that always lived in my brain, quietly giving me perspective on the world. I wish there were more books like it; even though that would make it less unique, it would be no less special.
Wow. Your comment is super well written. It gives quite an insight, and leaves me thinking about even deeper things than I normally do as I revisit this book and story that I love so much. Check out Christopher Watkins reading of this book, you will love it.
PLEEEEEEASE make a video about the film because it’s genuinely one of the most subtle and mature family films ever made.
Every time there's a touching story or moment between a son and a father I always get emotional. I'm not religious, but the story of the prodigal son made me cry. I long for that father-som relationship, but I refuse to seek it from my father because he's already rejected me.
When I was little I always sympathized, maybe empathized, with Max in this story, I was of that young age around 5 where I was still sometimes rude to my mother, and still rambunctious. The story feels like my own young childhood, living with my single mother. Similar to how max made a tent in his room, I would play with stuffed animals and make stories at night because I couldn't sleep. This video really took me back to that part of my childhood, and it's particularly interesting to watch an analysis of the story as an AP Literature student.
This is such a beautiful video, especially since this book means so much to me. I am now 15 and my mother would always read this book to me. My favourite top, which I've had for as long as I remember and was my mother's before it was mine, is a 'where the wild things are' top - which I'm coincidentally wearing right now. Thank you for this video.
I’ve never read this book as a kid, but it definitely feels like I can feel the warmth of its message
I'm not ashamed to admit I teared up through this video.
This book was always one of my favourites .. I've not read it in some time, and I didn't really expect it to get to me this much but
here we are, I suppose
"And while I never saw an angel for myself, I'd like to think that I was a very lucky kid, too." Yeah. Yeah. I buy this book for all of my nieces and nephews and I hope it touches them like it touched me as a rambunctious child. I'm crying about Maurice Sendak, now. What a beautiful spirit.
I have been rereading this story to my children and I gotta say, this book is even better as an adult. The language slowly showing time losing meaning as the visuals slowly expand the space of his room is beautiful.
On the last flip through it hit me that the illustrations slowly grow to take more of the page until they spill out into the other page, and then shrink back. Cool editing detail
my meemaw read "where the wild things are" to my dad and uncle when they were boys, my dad read it to me and both of my siblings when we were kids. it's my favorite story of all time and i'm sure, 10 years after my parents last read it to me, i could still remember every word. i'm glad i found this video.
I think there's also an allegory regarding mental health : Max seems to meet the Wild Things during his sleep, after an event that left him feeling mad, unloved and victim of an injustice. With their scary, disgusting and incomprehensible appearance, they remind us of emotions like anger, hatred, antipathy, which are all so hard to comprehend and fight against, and can lead us to do wild things. "Where the wild things are" : they're in his mind.
Furthermore, the way the Wild Things tell him they're gonna eat him up because they love him strongly reminds us of the way he told his mother that he is going to eat her up, which seems to be his only way of asserting his dominance over her and the injustice, showing he's in the right and mightier (just like most kids think they're out of reach for danger and punishments). Again, we sometimes feel like violence and hatred are the only answers for injustice, showing their seductive power on weakened/corrupted minds in search of justice, and this is why the wild things tell him that they're gonna eat him up (take control over him, remove his rationality and empathy which are weaknesses when seeking revenge and justice) because they love him (they're the best solution).
The way he joingsthem by thoroughly staring at them, just like if he was tring to grasp at them, understand them truly, recalls the moments when we flirt with wild emotions and give in. He managed to dominate them because he had the greatest sin in mind (m*rderous intent towards his mother), which meant he was already possessed by much worse emotions than simple anger and hatred, and scared the Wild Things, making him their new king.
The wild things never stop : it took Max's authority (the supreme authority since he's the king, and also the bearer of these emotions) to make them stop messing around, highlighting that, in reminiscence of his mother, he understood that these emotions which never stop never lead to anything productive (something as useless as dancing around doesn't help solving injustices), and actually lead to loneliness and closing yourself off. Telling them to stop is forgiving his mother, because he now understands her point of view, and that his shenanigans can be annoying, and that's a call-back to his mother's love and forgiveness since he then smells the supper made by her.
Finally, as he's trying to leave these emotions behind, they're trying to get back at him and now truly take over his mind, but he's already sailing back to sanity (notice how he took his hood off when waking up, showing that he's not a beast anymore.
Also, there is not a single religious reference in this book, since Sendak was jewish, and jewish people don't recognize Jesus (and by extent, the entirety of the New Testament). Forgivneness, especially towards your kids is a natural instinct seen in a lot of animals (peculiarly great apes, but all mammals seem to show an incredibly strong parent-infants bond), since parents are the ones to show the right example and teach the right manners. It's universal and definitely not something that the Bible invented, and such a book should not really be a reference for an educational behavior, though it is a very good and explicit example.
Thanks for the video, really intersting on all points.
great video and the analysis! I never had the book as a kid, but once was taken on a school trip with my classmates to see the movie; I remember after it ended and we were waiting for a bus outside our teacher asked what we thought the movie was about, and I was the only one who wanted to answer and discuss it (as the others already got busy chatting about other stuff); so I think my favourite thing about it actually was that moment of connecting with an adult and having a "serious" discussion about a piece of art together!
This video was the reason I found out Maurice Sendak was gay. I'm sobbing right now because it's so wonderful to know that such a good and wonderful man who is so beloved shared that trait with me, even if he died before I ever discovered that part of myself. I'm so glad I live in this world.
I find it strange how a lot of our beloved children's authors were gay, tomie de Paola, the guy who made frog and toad, tove jansson, and I'm sure there's more.
@@berniekatzroy I mean doesn't seem that strange to me. It has been statistically proven that us gay people are much more likely to retain the whimsy in our hearts into adulthood
@cobbington773 strange, I just thought creative people would always be creative like Dr. Seuss
The illustrations are so distinct and original that I still remember having read this even though I dont remember the story or message.
I never really liked this book as a kid. I think I thought it was boring or something. But I loved the breakdown and your thoughts
I was fully expecting this to have like 2 million views
This video definitely deserves thta
Wow, it's been forever since I've revisited Where The Wild Things Are. This video has got me to remember a conversation I had with my sister when we were god-knows-how-young about Max's father. We (being children of divorce) both quickly came to the conclusion that he must have been living with his mother then, although it didn't occur to me at the time that this may have been an example of something like the "visit by the divorced dad" trope. It's an oddly happy memory, I'm glad to have it back!
I’m in AP Lit this year, and we’ve been working on literary analysis. Prior to this semester, I hadn’t analyzed a work in any way short of a summary with a good point or two. I’ve especially struggled with understanding poetry and how to convey my thoughts on such, and this video is really opening my thought process up to what I can do and say when analyzing a work. So, thank you!!
Loved this book. My teacher would read this and 50 shades of grey to the class constantly. Great books.📖
idek how I ended up shedding a couple tears from this video but this was a beautiful analysis of the text and the author. tysm :)
I've always been more of a Giving-Tree-type-gal, but this video really touched me and I have a renewed appreciation for this children's book. It really is a masterpiece in understanding growth and love in the most profound way. I think a lot of parents wonder and worry whether their children love them and how they love them, and i think this book is an expression of a child's love for his mother purely from a child's perspective.
This was beautiful my friend. I appreciate your work.
Your RUclips channel and its videos are fantastic. The insight into the author's lives- and experiencing these stories again has been a positive experience.
As I turn twenty this year, these stories are cathartic. I don't remember much from my childhood- (mostly playing video games and hating School,) and these videos have helped me be more content with what I do because the joy I had in remembering that the boy's name was Max felt so pure lol. Recalling these stories so clearly and now being able to view it as an adult makes me appreciate them and thosewho read to me as a kid.
20:29
man this guy is based
wonderful analysis mate. You Christian? Seemed like a pretty in-depth comparison to the Prodigal Son parable, and it actually got me tearing up the way you narrated it. I rarely ever cry.
Thanks for this reminder of the book. I really do love this book, it's always been one of the most interesting children's books to me, and I could never place why when I was younger. You just did.
I read the story to my kid many years ago. I didn't attempt to analyze it too much but I did enjoy the meter and illustrations. My child seemed to enjoy it but never asked me me to read it again. I wouldn't place it on a list of best children's literature. I did enjoy your exploration of it. Thanks!
i love this book. i still have memories of reading this book as a kid. my mom used to quote the book, saying 'i'll eat you up i love you so!' and it makes me smile whenever i think about it. i watched the movie for the first time about a year ago and cried. it's one of those movies that makes you remember we're all going through life together, and it's ok to have feelings. we can work things out, and it will be ok in the end, even if it's bittersweet
Thank you for reading the book to us. It was honestly so relaxing.
I’m only part way through the video so maybe this gets touched on, but I love the detail that going to where the wild things are is so quick but returning takes him so long.
It’s easier to turn to fantasy and imagination than it is to escape it
watching all these videos about childrens books and dissecting the meaning makes me understand my english teacher just a little more
You can see max use his imagination to wrestle with the interaction with his mom. He yelled at his mom, "I'll eat you up", and for that he was sent to his room.
Later, when he was leaving "where the wild things are", the monsters yelled at him "We'll eat you up--we love you so!" This reveals that when max said "I'll eat you up" to his mom, he was actually trying to express his love to her.
But in response to the monsters this time, max declined and said no.
Max has learned not act that way anymore. It's a story of growth.
And when he got back to reality, his mom's piping hot supper was waiting. Sending max to his room wasn't for the punishment... it was out of love.
I used to be a preschool teacher. This was my favorite book to read to my classes; kids love and understand the story. One of my favorite memories of teaching was working with a 2 year old boy who was just learning how to speak; he would ask me specifically for the story by saying, “Max?” It’s still my gold standard for picture books
Really loved the video and it really did bring back memories of reading it and being terrified of the monsters in it
I never thought too much about my favorite children's book, but this one is my mom's favorite, and one of my favorite movies is the adaptation. I actually have an old shirt of art from the book that used to be my mom's. I relate to Max a lot, creative, loneliness, I struggled with my emotions a lot and had argued with my mom a lot, and my parents are divorced. There is more from the movie too. I still struggle with emotional regulation at times and my mom and I still argue on occasion, but it has gotten a lot better with therapy and working on communication.
My mom wasn't the best parent when I was younger, but now I see her learning and doing better with my little brother. (That little brother actually had a Wild Things themed first birthday.) She has also apologized for past actions and has been saying sorry more often after arguments or her anger outbursts. (It used to be really just me apologizing.)
It's quite fitting how we both like Where The Wild Things Are, whether it be the book or the movie, I think we probably both think of each other when thinking of it.
If you haven't seen the movie, I do think it is worth checking it out. Not everyone who watches it seems to really get it, but I think you would based on this analysis.
I really love that parable. It really feels like a summary of what Christianity is SUPPOSED to be. Wether or not lots of people ignore it, there's a lot of good stuff in the bible.
I love this book and I love seeing so many people feel the same love, but I must say the movie is SO SO SO WORTH WATCHING! It’s very emotional and hits hard
Such a beautiful showing of the book and Sendak.
I never remembered the name of this book, or even the book itself. Until I saw the art. Something about it dug up an old memory.
I think as a kid i didn't really understand that the wild things were imagined by max, but i did understand that max's role had changed and that as king and he treated the wild things the same way he was treated. for me when max left the island it was a relief firstly because i understood the wild things were dangerous and scary and that max had treated them poorly but also that max was now reverted from king/mother role to child role which felt like a fresh opportunity to learn how to treat people (or wild things). this is what i think i remember feeling, but i'm sure i was read this story a lot of times and read it a lot of times myself and was potentially fed or encouraged to think about the meaning. the last picture with max's dinner is a very deep memory for me, thanks for helping me to revisit it.
I started to cry when you read it. Max running into the wild and unknown, with only his thoughts, searching for something. Only to realize what he was searching for was back at home. I love this book and I almost forgot it existed
your writing is impeccable, and your ability to both notice seemingly tiny details, analyze them, and blend it with real world reactions to the book is truly remarkable. my only note is that your voice can often be monotone, and may create a barrier to a larger audience. keep it up though! i think that writing is a harder skill to learn than having a more upbeat voice, so you’re absolutely on the right track. loved this!
this is one of the best analyses of anything ive ever seen. good shit. earned a sub. and make me cry also
Oooh boy this one gave me a flood of emotions. Hadn't thought about this book in ages and I don't think I realozed until now how much of a great influence this book had on me.
i had heard of this book but i had never read it. it actually made cry. its so much and in so simple and so little words!!!!
This video is just as comforting as the book it talks about
this video is so well done and beautiful! it made me see this book in so many new ways
I got so excited when you started story time
Another beautiful video from this channel, you are quickly becoming a favorite. Much love from one part of the world to yours
Beautiful analysis, beautiful story of an amazing man
One interesting connection is the text explicitly states that max stared into their without blinking. This whether intentionally or not parallels what Sendak's father told him as a child. Not to blink to see the angels. One could say that the wild things are the angels he sought to see. Sendak said adults looked to be monstrous as a child, this could tie in to the Wild things being representations of Sendak's family that would come to eat on those Sunday evenings when he was a child. His whole family aiding him in his growth process. The journey out of childhood into the wilderness and the complete unknown of growing up. His journey back into his room is him seeking out the comforts of childhood, the changed moon showing the changed time. The meal still being hot representative of the safety and ableness to return to home.
I loved this book as a kid and still do I remember watching the short animated video which I’m pretty sure was narrated by the author so much I basically know it all by heart ❤️
Your vid’s are some of my favorites!! Thanks for the amazing content!!
I also have not read this book since childhood. Thank you for this video! I actually found some printouts of pages of the book that I plan to frame and hang up in my future child's bedroom.
beautiful video about a beautiful book. im definitely going to buy a copy and read it for the first time in 20 yrs.
my key memory to this book is performing it as a play in primary school. my class were the forest that grows in max's room. my face was painted green and it stained to the next day and i thought no one would recognize me with a green face so i played up on the playground and ran away from teachers trying to tell me off.
i really love your videos, i appreciate how much research and thought you put into analyzing children's books especially, something that not enough people take seriously.
Love this book and read it to my children every night when they were young.
This fire dropped and RUclips didn’t notify me! Love your vids!
my thoughts are I'm crying my eyes out, i loved this so much thank you
This video compelled me to do something about something I've been needing to sort... Thank you.
This gonna be good ❤
Very nice video, subscribed and looking forward to your next draft!
Best video I’ve seen in a while. Great job!
Sendak reminds me a lot of the lovely Arnold Lobel the author for frog and toad. Both amazing men that will go down as my personal favorite children book writers. I love your analysis of this beloved story.
amazing video as always, man. thank you for the time and effort you put into these; we appreciate it!