Character Analysis
The wild things are, well, wild. Maurice Sendak has said that he based his drawings of these creatures on his relatives—his immigrant aunts and uncles who didn't speak much English, had pointy features, and dressed and groomed themselves differently from what he was used to. As Sendak put it:
"All relatives look like wild things to children, isn't that true? Especially when they speak a foreign language—Yiddish—and they hug you, and you think your ribs are breaking." (
So that's whom the drawings of the wild things are based on. But just who—or what—are the wild things, anyway? To answer that, it helps to think about how they interact with Max. When Max spots the first wild thing, the snorty one in the ocean, the boy is clearly frightened. But then, when all the wild things join together to menace him, Max tames them all by staring them down.
Once the wild things are under his control, the real fun begins. With his new friends, Max howls at the moon and swings through the trees. He basically goes completely primitive with them until they're all spent…which is an awful lot like what happens with overwhelming emotions. (Check out our analysis in the "Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory" section for more on that.)
The point is, the wild things give Max a chance to turn the tables on his situation. Instead of being powerless, Max is in charge in the land of wild things. In fact, he's their king! And instead of being sent to bed without dinner, he's the one doing the sending.