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Where the Wild Things Are

Last Saturday night, wild things took over my living room, dancing the wild rumpus. There was a little blond wild thing, and a 2-year-old redheaded one, a small male one with glasses, a towhead in stripy pajamas, one with long brown pigtails, a toddler wild thing with watchful eyes, and my very own birthday-girl wild thing.

The seven little wild things were all attendees of my daughter’s fourth birthday party. The theme? Surely I’ve given it away by now. Maurice Sendak’s book, Where the Wild Things Are. My daughter first saw the book at school, where they read it when the movie came out this past October. So we had all the guests come wearing pajamas, and strung up crepe paper vines, and embraced the wild within for a few hours.

Since fall, my daughter and I have read the book countless times. And I’ve wondered: exactly what makes this particular book so popular, decade after decade, and with each new generation of children?

I’m no expert and no literary analyst. But I think the continued appeal lies in the blend of reality and fantasy. Every child can relate to the reality that is the beginning of the book: Max misbehaves and is sent to his room for punishment. He is angry at his mother, and his anger fuels the fantasy that follows. The world he imagines is one where he has control, unlike the world of his reality. As a child Max is at the whim of others. He wants to be big. Being small, and sometimes powerless, brings frustration. (We tend to forget this as parents, but it is good to remind ourselves on occasion, to better understand our own little wild things when they lash out.) So in his world, Max goes where he wants, does what he wants, and is the king of the wild things on an island where it is okay, even normal, to be wild.

But Max grows tired of the fantasy, and grows tired of being in control, being king. After a time, he longs to return to where someone loves him best of all, and so he chooses to abandon the island of the wild things to return home to a warm meal and his loving family.

The power of the story is in its truth. We all, children and adults included, long for control in some way or another, and we all have to give up some measure of control at times in the name of relationships, compromise, and love. The power of Where The Wild Things Are also resides in Sendak’s sparse, tight, evocative writing, and in the unforgettable illustrations.

It is a book not readily forgotten. And our little party too.

Dana Petersen Murphy is a stay-at-home-mother who lives Janesville. Dana is a community blogger and is not a part of Janesville Gazette staff. Her opinion is not necessarily that of the Janesville Gazette staff or management.