Lil D

Hot diggity dog, I relate to this 9-year-old boy so so so much. Feeling unimportant and ignored by the people you want to talk to, while they are too busy with other people. I'm currently taking this early childhood education class, and it mentioned the idea of "reframing." For example, you have to reframe temper tantrums as the inability to properly express big emotions to really get to the root of somebody's actions. The way Max expresses his big emotions is through aggression, but showing that in the physical world, he gets reprimanded by his mother. It leaves him feeling misunderstood and even worse than before. Therefore, he resorts to "where the wild things are,” which is a place that is not external but internal. His transition to this place is not smooth sailing. And he meets these big monsters that are physical manifestations of his own emotions. Even though they are his emotions, they can clash with each other and with Max himself. They crowd around him and make him feel vulnerable, saying he "probably got those little bird bones" and that they are going to eat him because he's the problem. This shows that Max is internalizing how he is being treated in the real world, but the way he copes is to control and tame these Wild Things due to the lack of control he has in the real world. "So you were their king, and you made everything right?" "Yeah." "Well, you know, what about, um, loneliness?" "What he's saying is, will you keep out all the sadness?" "I have a sadness shield that keeps out all the sadness. And it's big enough for all of us." ... "I like it better when we have a king." And then there are the two owls, Bob and Terry, that squawk, but Max and Carol cannot understand them, and Carol is hateful of them. This represents the foreign ideas or emotions that are hard to understand that get pushed away to maintain a sense of safety and familiarity. "Max, what's wrong with the fort? I thought you said it'd be automatic." "What?" "Well, I thought you said if anybody got in here we didn't want, the fort would automatically cut their brains out." "Oh, well, I thought that then, but I kind of decided that if we know them, they should keep their brains. Even if we don't know them that well." Even then, it can be damaging to act like you are above your own emotions because even then these Wild Things carry a lot of weight (literally... they are big asf). "I really messed this place up." "You're not really a king, huh? You're just a regular. I knew it. I don't even know if there is such a thing as a king who can do all the things you said. Look, I don't care..." Then, Carol gets frustrated that Max was building a secret door as if he were being shut out by the very king who was supposed to bring everybody together. It hurts when the person hides from their own emotions. You can't pretend to be a wolf pretending to be a king to control the Wild Things because it is not true to who you are and it is hard to keep up that facade. "The sun's not dead; it's just nighttime." "How do you know? I can't trust what you say. Everything keeps changing... It was supposed to be where only things you wanted to happen would happen." Some things go awry and some arms get ripped off. It's frustrating when not everything goes your way. Carol threatens to eat Max just like they all threatened to do at the very beginning. This shows that these emotions are not going away or changing through pretending. "Can you believe him?" "He doesn't mean to be that way, KW. He's just scared." "Well, he only makes it harder. And it's hard enough already." ... "I'm not a viking or a king or anything..." "So what are you?" "I'm Max." "Well, that's not very much, is it?" Love the ending where Max goes home and hugs his mother as she takes the hood of his wolf onesie off his head to show that he does not need to falsely conquer or control to manage his big emotions. Great movie and book.

> *“Isn’t it true that deep down inside, very deep down inside, you know you need much more than your daddy can give you?”* > *”All you need is love.”*

I use Reddit as a search engine for all of my concerns too

It's always "How you doing?" never "How's Rasputia doing?"