Literary Devices in Where the Wild Things Are
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
Max's Home, Early EveningA hallway, a staircase, a bedroom. This story could take place in anyone's home anywhere in the world, during any time period. There's nothing to anchor it to one particula...
Narrator Point of View
While we don't get a ton of information from the text about what characters are thinking or feeling, we are told straight up that the wild things are frightened by Max (27) and that Max feels lonel...
Genre
It's for the KidsThe main character in Where the Wild Things Are, Max, is a child. But that's not what makes the book children's literature. Where the Wild Things Are is kid lit because it's writte...
Tone
With its twilight setting, illustrations of dimly lit rooms, and sparse text, we immediately feel a bit unsettled by this story. Max, who is up to some serious mischief, appears menacing in his wol...
Writing Style
Where the Wild Things Are has just 10 sentences (338 words over 37 pages, to be precise). So there's the "sparse" bit. But don't mistake sparse for shallow. The book's 10 sentences flow over its 37...
What's Up With the Title?
Maurice Sendak had to illustrate many other picture books in order to gain enough credibility to do one of his own. But when the time finally came, he had a great idea. He wanted to write and illus...
What's Up With the Ending?
In the last picture, Max finally eases back the hood of his wolf suit and returns to being a boy. Not a wild, menacing, growling, emotionally out-of-control, "I'll-eat-you-up" wolf child, but a rea...