Write a 500 word response to the prompt listed below. Your response should use three (3) direct quotes with MLA citations (at least one quote from a primary source.)
In an interview with NYCGO.com, Maurice Sendak said in response to who the Wild Things Are: “They were my relatives. I fixed on the people in my own life who would come to our house—from Europe, bewildered and frightened by the idea of coming to America and not being able to dress well or look well or eat well… I couldn’t bear them. My sister, brother and I would usually hide out. They would pinch you very hard. That was supposed to be affection. Everything about them was alien and foreign.”
You’ve now seen two (2) depictions of the “Wild Things”, from Sedak’s book and Spike Jonze’s film. Do the wild things come across as “bewildered and frightened [OR]…. alien and foreign,” in either version? Are they a representation of Max’s imagination or his reality? How much of the experience of childhood is alien?