The Journey Through the "Space in the Text" to Where the Wild Things Are

Abstract

The Journey Through the "Space in the Text" to Where the Wild Things Are by Ann Moseley Though Northrop Frye's assertion that the quest is the "central myth of literature" (18) is debatable, certainly many of the best works of children's literature—from Grimms' folktales to realistic novels such as Paterson's Bridge to Terabithia to fantasies by Tolkien, Cooper, and LeGuin to modern picture books by Maurice Sendak—have employed the quest, or journey, motif. The quest myth represented in Max's imaginary journey is indeed central to Where the Wild Things Are, but equally important to this now classic picture book is how Sendak expands Max's quest both spatially and temporally. Traditionally, the plot of Where the Wild Things Are would have been seen as time-oriented and the illustrations as space-oriented, but the theories of Joseph Frank, Rudolf Arnheim, and E. H. Gombrich about the integral and complex relationships between space and time and the application of these theories by literary critics such as Sharon Spence, Eric S. Rabkin, W. J. T. Mitchell, and others now allow us to view both text and illustration more fluidly, for the interdependence of word and picture is paralleled by the interdependence of time and space. One of the earliest theorist/critics to recognize the importance of spatial form to literature was Joseph Frank, who observed as early as 1945 that modern literature as well as modern art was "moving in the direct of spatial form" (57). Sendak himself has emphasized the importance of both space and time in his work, asserting that "You must leave a space in the text so the picture can do the work. Then you must come back with the word and the word does its best, and now the picture beats time" (Lorraine 326). In contrast to standard expectations, then, Sendak associates the traditionally spatial form of the picture with time and the traditionally temporal, or narrative, text with space. The resultant use of spatial and temporal forms in Where the Wild Things Are is indeed complex, existing on at least four levels: textual, physical, psychological, and mythic. Perhaps the most obvious textual characteristic of Where the Wild Things Are is Sendak's use of white space—decreasing in the first half of the book and increasing in the second half. Sutherland has observed this fact, noting that the "drawings get larger and larger" (13), and Géraldine DeLuca has commented on "the gray confining space of the house opening up, as the borders disappear. . ." (14). Perhaps the most detailed description of this spatial phenomenon, however, is that of Townsend, who states: As the story opens out from the confines of Max's home to the fantasy world he is creating for himself, the pictures expand. From post card size with broad white surround, they grow to near-page, full-page, page-and-a-bit; then the "wild rumpus" fills three great wordless double-page spreads; and in the return journey everything gradually closes in again. (313) Thus, the text itself—the way in which white space, print, and illustration appear on the page— is a basic spatial construct of the work, with the relationship between white space and illustration serving as the key to physical reality on the one hand and imaginative, or psychic and mythic realities, on the other. The white space itself comes to represent the real world, perhaps suggesting its vacuity when compared with the depths of psyche and myth, for the white space is most overpowering at the beginning and the end of the book when Max is most absorbed in the sensual realities of playing and eating. Moreover, the white space itself completely disappears in the three double-spread pages that appear at the climax of Max's imaginary journey. These spatial aspects of the literal text are paralleled by the temporal, for as Mitchell has observed, "We cannot experience a spatial form except in time" (544). That is, though the spatial form exists of itself, it is perceived by the observer only in time. And indeed, the 96 child or adult who "reads" Where the Wild Things Are will spend as much or more...