Where The Wild Things Are Character Analysis

Where The Wild Things Are

Oranus Salimi

301201582

The movie entitled, “Where the Wild Things Are” holds a main character named Max. Max is a young boy who seems to be full of imagination and creativity but lacks the ability to handle his family problems. Max’s family consists of his mother and Claire, his sister. The father is not seen in the movie, but it is shown as if his father has left their family. According to my observation of Max, it is evident that he displays various symptoms which could lead to a diagnoses of oppositional defiant disorder. For example, he is seen exhibiting angry and irritable moods, specifically when he destroys his sister’s room, and then again when speaking to his mom and biting her. He

One of the main creatures was Carol. Carol is introduced in a scene where he is seen loosing control and ruining the houses of the other creatures because KW, his friend, has found new friends. In this situation, what I realized was that Carol is representing Max, meanwhile KW is representing Max’s sister. For instance, Max destroys Claire’s room because he felt betrayed when Claire spent more time with her friends and avoided Max, similar to what Carol felt with KW. KW can also be a representation of Max’s father who left his family just as KW left Carol. So in other words, Carol is in the fantasy world resembles Max’s anger towards the changes that occurred in his life. In another scene Judith and Max get into an argument where they imitate one another, and Max ends up yelling at Judith, after which Judith tells Max that it is his job to love her and not yell at her back. In that scene with Judith and Max, Judith was a representation of Max, and how he felt with his mother. In other words, Max expects his mother to listen to him when he is angry, and understand him instead of getting angry and yelling back. I also noticed that Judith could be seen as the rude one, which could be Max himself in certain situations such as when he bit his mother. The reason that Max does not get along with Judith is because he has not accepted that aspect of himself. Another character, Douglas the goat, was the creature who was always to be ignored in Max’s fantasy world. Douglas represents the feeling of loneliness, which Max experiences in his reality. For example, like Douglas, Max is always ignored. In the scene where Max is seen comforting Douglas, it is him trying to confront his loneliness. Perhaps the comfort he provided Douglas is the comfort he lacks from his family when he is ignored. Furthermore, it may be Max trying to convince himself that although he feels