Transcendentalism of Where the Wild Things Are

              Where the Wild Things Are follows the journey of a boy named Max as he embraces his wild side beyond the confines of his home. When he dons his ‘wolf-suit’, Max becomes a troublemaker, causing havoc around the house and upsetting his mother. Upon exile to his room, Max is able to embrace his wildness as he journeys to the land of the Wild Things. The impulses that made Transcendentalists misfits in restrictive urban society afforded them apotheosis in the rugged wilderness. Similarly, Max bests the Wild Things with his own savagery and is subsequently crowned King. He centers himself as divine within the wilderness in the same vein as the Transcendentalists whose view of the world was egotistical and self-centered. Yet, although he is embraced in the Land of the Wild Things, ultimately, Max remains hungry, mirroring Thoreau’s return to urbanity following his harrowing excursion to Maine. When Max returns to his room, he finds a plate of hot food awaiting him and recognizes that home is where he is valued. Thoreau, too, could not survive without the luxuries of civilization: his mother washed his laundry and made him sandwiches while he inflated his self-importance at Walden Pond.

27 October 2023