Max and the 3 Posts of the Critical Theory


WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE


The movie Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak is a story about a naughty boy named Max. He was ignored by his sister and got scolded by his mother. Because of these,  he left home and later found himself sailing towards an island where he would later meet wild creatures.
He later became the king of those wild things because of his (max’s) claim that he is powerful and that he already successfully ruled a kingdom for about 20 years. The wild things believed that he could be the answer to their problems because he have a magical superpower that could solve their problems. He promised them many great things and he was able to convinced them not to kill him, in turn they even made him their king.
Max later encouraged everyone to move to an open space where they would build a fortress for them (the wild creatures). KW then brought her friends Bob and Terry which in turn made Carol upset because he wants the fortress to be only for them and not for some “outsiders”. To cheer everyone up, Max suggested for them to play a dirt ball fight. But the game was not much of a help and only worsen the situation when KW decided to leave.
Tension started to build up as Judith started to question Max as a king. She said that as a king Max should be fair and do not play favoritism. She also claimed that Max is not a good king. She demanded to see Max’s “special powers”. They discovered that Max doesn’t really have any magical powers and that he was just a normal boy. Carol got really really mad and started to chase after Max.
Later in the movie, Max started to realize that being a king is not easy, he then remembers his mother and realize how hard it must’ve been for her too. Missing his mother and hme, Max decided to go home and leave the wild things on the island.

POST COLONIALISM
Post Colonialism talks about the effects of colonialism to the colony.
In the movie, the lives of the wild beasts significantly changed as the little boy (Max) came to their island. Since Max have this uncanny ability that makes the beasts believe that he is sort of a powerful king, the beasts did not ate him unlike the previous people who came to their island. Not only their way of reacting to foreigners changes but also their way of living changed as Max came and begun to rule them.

Post colonialism usually tackles the creation of a hybrid culture where the culture of the colonizers tends to mix with the indigenous culture of the colony.Post colonialism also talks about the concept of othering. Othering means that a person having a different culture from a certain group would be an outsider to that group.
The movie shows how the lifestyle of the beasts changed the moment Max came. Their once individualistic characteristic (they have their own houses and their own lifestyles) became unified as Max commanded them to create a huge fort for all. A fort that have everything that they would need. In relation to the life of Max, Max is living in a house with his family and that house is limited to the members of the family unless a family member permitted someone to enter their house.The fort would be limited to the beasts and therefore outsiders were not welcome.

This study/theory tends to justify the works of the colonizers. Colonizers were viewed as people with educational and cultural dominance, hence, it is “acceptable” for them to invade other people for the sake of “saving them” and “enlightening them” through religion, education, and “creation” of a civilization.
In the movie Where the Wild Things Are, Max (boy) was the colonizer of the island of the wild beasts. In the movie, Max claimed that he has a magnificent power that could save the beasts from sadness and loneliness and other problems, Carol (one of the wild beasts) justified Maxs’ power to rule them.Carol also justifies Max’s dominance because he believed that Max actually possess wisdom and knowledge from the outside world that the beasts do not have.
POST STRUCTURALISM
We only experience limited aspects of the world, hence our interpretations and understanding may be faulty.


Max ran away because he felt like his mother was not giving him enough attention and always stays in front of computer or talking to somebody on the phone. Later in the movie, he learns about the burden and hardships his mother had to go through when Carol (wild thing) went out of control. He now understands how hard it is to lead a kingdom much more lead a family alone.

Post structuralists makes use of genealogy, genealogy has a thinking that “freedom at the level of self-consciousness may in effect be a self-denial that grows out of ressentiment, a  resentment of oneself that arises because one is not powerful enough and thus not free enough, to generate one’s own values” (Hoy 2004, 2-3).

While Max was in the island, Judith (one of the wild things) was hesitant to accept Max as her King but later agreed on because they need someone to rule them. They need a king who will look after them and set rules and values to keep them together. In the movie, Max portrayed himself as a someone with ‘special and magical powers’ thus making him fit for the position of kingship.

Post structuralism talks about resistance in which “particular social structure provides the grid of intelligibility for making sense of the action as conforming to or dissenting from the given power configuration” (Hoy 2004, 3).

After the wild creatures accepted Max as their king, they begin to almost change their way of living. They moved from the forest to a open area  and build fortress. Max tried to bring back KW and he succeeded but KW brought with her Bob and Terry in which Carol disagreed with. Carol even questioned Max’s way of ruling telling him that it should only be them (max and the wild things) not Bob and Terry. Judith followed and questioned Max’s as a ‘good’ or a ‘bad’ king. She said that as a king Max should be fair and just,  that he should not play favoritism. No one actually set the rules on what a king should or should not do and what a citizen should and should not do. It became very chaotic because the only clear rule they have is that Max is their king to whom they should follow and obey.
POST MARXISM
Post marxism emerged as a critique to the traditional marxism. While marxism usually talks about the powers of the economically dominant race and believes in the narration of those who are in power, Post marxism believes in the multiplicity of truths.From a meta narrative of the people in power, post marxism was into a much smaller narratives which is dependent on the standpoint of an individual.
In the beginning of the  movie where the wild things,beasts were seen as dangerous because they are wild and they destroy things.However, as Max was able to communicate with them, he found out that the beasts actually have different personalities and different characteristics
Thus, the perception that all the beast are all the same (ferocious and dangerous) contradicts the way the wild creatures are presented in the movie in which each one of them have their own attitudes, values and stories to tell.
As a conclusion, the movie is more than meets the eye. The movie does not only depicts wild imaginations of a naughty boy but it could also explain some critical ideas such as post colonialism, post structuralism, and post marxism.

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