The Wild Children Themes

Shmoop is a safe place, so you can be honest with us—doesn't your family drive you crazy sometimes? Alex feels the same way in The Wild Children. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that h...

Poor Alex is scared. His family was kidnapped in the middle of the night; his favorite uncle met a similar fate; and to top things off, he's stuck in an unfamiliar city without a dollar to his name...

There's no shortage of bullies in The Wild Children. We see Soviet soldiers who intimidate regular people for kicks and giggles. We see orphanage directors who abuse the children they're supposed t...

Times are tough on the mean streets of Moscow. Thousands of kids have been left homeless, forcing them to steal just to make ends meet. Hundreds of shopkeepers have had their business taken from th...

Make no mistake—The Wild Children is no Disney movie. There are no fairy godmothers to help young Alex find his way. There are no magic spells that protect the good people from getting hurt, and...

Although he probably would have chosen otherwise, Alex takes the fast track to adulthood in The Wild Children. First his entire family is arrested in the middle of the night, leaving him to fend fo...

Peter and his crew of unlikely misfits save Alex's life in The Wild Children. Funny how that works out, huh? Just days earlier, Alex would have freaked out if he ran into a bunch of homeless kids o...

If living in the U.S.S.R. was anything like it's depicted in The Wild Children, then you'd be better off in Mordor. Need some proof? Well, just look at how the government abuses its power over its...