An Analysis of Where the Wild Things Are

SYNOPSIS

 The story begins with Max, a lonely nine-year-old boy with an active imagination whose parents are divorced, wearing a wolf costume and chasing his dog. His older sister, Claire, does nothing when her friends crush Max's snow fort (with him inside) during a snowball fight. Out of frustration, Max messes up her bedroom and destroys a frame that he had made for her. At school, Max's teacher teaches him and his classmates about the eventual death of the sun. Later on, his mother, Connie, invites her boyfriend Adrian to dinner. Max becomes upset with his mother for not coming to the fort he made in his room. He wears his wolf costume, acts like an animal, and demands to be fed. When his mother gets upset, he throws a tantrum and bites her on the shoulder. She yells at him and he runs away, scared by what has transpired. At the edge of a pond Max finds a small boat that he boards.

The pond soon becomes an ocean. Max, still in his wolf suit, eventually reaches an island. There, he stumbles upon a group of seven large, monstrous creatures. One of them, Carol, is in the middle of a destructive tantrum (caused by the departure of a female Wild Thing named K.W.) while the others attempt to stop him. As Carol wreaks havoc Max tries to join in on the mayhem, but soon finds himself facing the suspicious anger of the Wild Things. When they contemplate eating him, Max convinces them that he is a king with magical powers capable of bringing harmony to the group. They crown him as their new king. Shortly after, K.W. returns and Max declares a wild rumpus, in which the Wild Things smash trees and tackle each other.

The Wild Things introduce themselves as Carol, Ira, Judith, Alexander, Douglas, the Bull, and K.W. Soon, they all end up piling on one another before going to sleep, with Max at the center. Carol takes Max on a tour of the island, showing him a model he built depicting what he wishes the island looked like. Inspired by this, Max orders the construction of an enormous fort, with Carol in charge of construction. When K.W. brings her two owl friends Bob and Terry to the fort, a disagreement ensues, as Carol feels they are outsiders (Max had said earlier that if any outsiders entered the fort, they would "have their brains automatically cut out"). To release their frustrations, Max divides the tribe into "good guys" and "bad guys" for a dirt-clod fight, but Alexander is hurt during the game. After an argument between K.W. and Carol, K.W. leaves once again.

Max finds Alexander alone in the fort and has a conversation with him. Alexander reveals that he always suspected that Max is not a king with magical powers, but warns him to never let Carol know. Soon enough, at pre-dawn, Carol throws another tantrum — this time, about the fort, K.W.'s absence, and the eventual death of the sun (which Max had talked to Carol about earlier in the film). When Carol gets angry with Max for not doing a good job as a king, Douglas tries to explain to him that he's "just a boy, pretending to be a wolf, pretending to be a king", thus exposing the truth to the rest of the Wild Things. Carol becomes enraged and ends up ripping off Douglas' right arm (though only sand pours out of the wound). Then he chases Max into the forest and threatens to eat him. Max is saved by K.W., who hides him in her stomach. Max listens as Carol and K.W. have an argument over Carol's misbehavior. After Carol leaves, K.W. explains that their lives are difficult, with Carol's tantrums only making it worse. Max realizes what his mother is going through, and decides to leave the island and head home.

Max finds the crushed remains of Carol's model island (presumably destroyed by Carol himself in a rage) and leaves a token of affection for him to find (a letter C inside a love-heart made of twigs). He finds Carol and tells him he is going home because he is not a king. The other Wild Things escort Max to his boat. Carol runs to join them after finding Max's token and arrives in time to see him off. He starts to howl and Max howls back, then all the other Wild Things join in. Carol looks at K.W. and she smiles kindly at him. Returning home, Max is embraced by his distraught mother, who gives him a bowl of hot soup, a glass of milk and a piece of cake and sits with him as he eats. He watches as she falls asleep.

THE CHARACTERS and THEIR TYPES
CHARACTERS		Type of Character
·         Max – a nine year old boy with a wild imagination and the main character of the story		Round, dynamic
·         Connie – Max’s mother		Flat, static
·         Adrian –  Connie’s boyfriend		Flat, static
·         Claire – Max’s sister		Flat, static
·         Claire’s friends (4)		Flat, static
·         Max’s Teacher		Flat, static
·         Ira – Judith’s boyfriend		Flat, static
·         Judith – Ira’s girlfriend who attempted to kill and eat Max		Round, dynamic
·         Kw – loner Wild thing whom Carol fell in love with and the reason for Carol’s tantrum		Round, dynamic
·         Carol – Max’s dearest friend who showed him his kingdom when he was hailed king by the Wild Things  - the wild creature who fell in love with K.W.		Round, dynamic
·         Bob and Terry – owls caught by K.W. in the seashore		Flat, static
·         Alexander – the bullied wild creature who knew of Max’s secret that he was not really a king		Flat, static
·         Douglas – KW’s teammate and the reason for stepping on Carol’s head - the wild creature who revealed to Carol that Max is not really a king		Flat, static

Max was a round, dynamic character because he started to be a good boy with wild imagination but later on turns to be a bad boy because of his tantrum. He ran away from home and reached an island where he found the wild creatures whom he stayed with and he told them lies that he was once a king but when everybody finds out that he was not really a king, he decided to return home to his mother; otherwise, these creatures might think of eating him. When he saw the great despair of his mother brought upon by his absence, he thought of becoming a good boy once again.

Connie was a flat, static character because she only portrayed a character of a very busy mother who paid very little attention to daughter, Claire and son, Max. There was only very little development in her character at the near end of the story when she waited patiently for her son. It was only at that time that she showed concern for her son.

Adrian was a flat, static character because he had very little help in the development of the plot of the story. He was shown in the story only as Connie’s boyfriend and nothing more.

Claire was a flat, static character because she portrayed a single character as the sister of Max who never paid attention to him and the person who allowed her friends to bully his brother but there was nothing more told about her. She just appeared at the beginning of the story but was disappear throughout the story.

Claire’s friends were flat, static characters because they appeared only once in the story. The plot did not tell us any development in their characters.

Max’s teacher was a flat, static character because he also appeared only once in the story as the teacher who taught Max and his classmates about the death of the sun. The plot did not show any changes in his character.

Ira was a flat, static character because he did not play major roles in the development of the plot and there were no changes in his characteristics throughout. He was shown as one of the Wild Things who just did whatever his companions did.

Judith was a round, dynamic character because she appeared to be an enemy to Max when he first came to their place and she even wanted to eat him several times but as the plot developed, she was befriended by Max for she paid respect to him as their king. At that time, she showed more concern to him rather than those that concerned her self – interest.

K.W. was a round, dynamic character because at first she appeared to be a loner who didn’t want friends with her and a creature with hidden plans against Max but only in the course of the rising action and climax that her truest character was revealed for she was the savior of the main character, Max. She saved him from Carol by hiding him in her stomach.

Carol was a round, dynamic character because from the first time Max saw him, he was already very wild and he acted outrageously for the absence of his only love, K.W. but he turned out to be good when Max was hailed their king. He showed Max everything he wanted for the island and worked with him to carry them out but he became a bad creature again when K.W. brought with her two owls she caught in their “kingdom” for he thought it was only for them, the “Wild Things”. He only turned out good when Max was about to go home. So, Carol changed characteristics as the story went on.

Bobby and Terry were flat, static characters because they did not change at all. They remained owls and they helped very little in the development of the plot.

Alexander was a flat, static character because he was only an ordinary wild creature that never changed. He just went through the story without contradictions to Max as hailed king even if he knew the truth that he was not. He even was a friend of Max when he warned him not to reveal the truth to Carol.

Douglas was a flat, static character because there was a very minimal change in his characteristics throughout the story. Yes, he appeared to be not liking Max from the start until the falling action when he revealed to Carol the truth about Max. He remained like that and changed only by the time Max went home but that was a very little change.