Where the Wild Things Are (and Why It's All About Sex)

“Where the Wild Things Are” is a story well recognized by many young people in this generation. On the surface, it is a story about a young boy named Max who runs away from his mother to an island of “Wild Things,” where he romps and plays until he is tired and wants to go home; however, there is much more to say about the story. The children’s book, and especially the film, when examined from a psychoanalytical perspective have some very prevalent themes of Freudian’s theories of sexuality.

The book begins with Max getting into a fight with his mother, and as a punishment he is sent to bed without any supper. He then enters what we understand to be a dream sequence, which begins by him discovering a secret ocean, and then getting into a boat to cross it. According to Freud’s analysis of dreams, the boat represents the female genitalia, and the ocean represents the birth canal; by traveling across an ocean in the boat Max is being reborn into a new life. When he gets to the island of the wild things they are aggressive towards him at first, but he tames them and becomes their king. They romp and play until Max is ready to go home, and he sends them all off to bed with no supper. Freud theorized that parents in dreams are often seen as royalty, so by Max being crowned king of the wild things he is taking the place of his mother. The wild things represent his sexual desires, so he is able to get the desires and satisfactions he wants from his mother. This theory is backed up by him sending them off to dinner without supper. When he returns home, he finds that his mother left supper for him, symbolizing that he now feels the satisfaction he wanted from her.

The film demonstrates even more Freudian ideas. In the film, the mother has a boyfriend that Max does not approve of. This plays toward Freud’s theory of an Oedipus Complex; affection for the mother and jealousy towards the father. The full argument with his mother is shown in the film, and then is mirrored in a later argument with one of the wild things, where Max takes the place of his mother and the wild thing repeats the dialog Max screamed at his mother at the beginning of the film. This heavily supports the theory that in the dream Max switches roles with his mother to show his need for his mother to satisfy his desires.