A Picture Can Speak a Thousand Words
All of the pictures before this one were completely a white square in frame. In this fifth opening of the book, is when we see Max’s dream world break the frame for the first time. The trees are breaking out of the confines of his reality and branching off into his imaginative creation, this adventure he is about to embark on. When the illustrations break the frame, it builds excitement for the reader and allows for inferences about where the story is going to progress. It also starts to bring the reader into the story more, making them feel as if they are becoming a part of the story rather than being a third party reader. Max is placed on the left of the page but is shown walking towards the right side of the page. This symbolizes that he is retreating from what is known, his bedroom and reality, and moving towards his adventure, the land of the wild things. Max is snickering and laughing because even though he is in trouble he doesn’t seem to care because he is too lost in his own world right now. And it is almost as if you as the reader forget that he is in trouble too because you yourself are getting lost in Max’s world and wants to see where he is going. The trees branching out at the top, implies the freedom he finds in his mind—an imaginative solace if you will. White typically represents innocence and purity, therefore it is fitting that Max’s suit is one of the only elements of white in the story, as children are the quintessential representation of those things. The crosshatched lines suggest the motion of the story and building energy. These sorts of textures on this page between the walls, the plants and the grass, make you want to touch the page. The tree trunks that surround the natural elements of his room such as the bed and the door are excluded representing that reality is dissolving/becoming irrelevant as we move into the dream world. In the background we can kind of see the parts of Max’s room. His bed, door, and window slowly start becoming less and less visible through the beginning of the book, indicating his slow escape from reality. In the foreground are the trees and buses of the forest starting to form. The moon, which represents his mom, is still very visible. It shows that while he is still in his room, she is still watching over him. The colors on the page are soft, representing the nighttime but also it creates a warm atmosphere that lets the reader know to not be scared. The dominance of the blue gives a sense of detachment, detachment from reality. The significance of this image is it is showing the start of the boy’s journey. We can see the room still so we know he is in his room, but it's turning into the forest.