Illustrations: The Story's Backbone
The images in the book start out with a thick white border but as Max gets sent to his room and his adventure with the wild things begins, the pictures start to break out of the frame and become full bleeds. This pulls you in as the reader. They also start out only being on one of the two pages in the double spread. As Max starts his adventure, they start bleeding over into both pages. This symbolizes how his world/imagination is taking over everything. The words of the text are never embedded in the picture. They are either on a completely separate page surround by all white or on the bottom half of the page in a strip of white separating it from the illustration. This is because the author wants to clearly show the separation between imagination and the real world, with the words being the real world and the pictures being the imagination. The ending supports that your mom or even family in general will always be there and love you, even if you are in trouble. While Max’s mom sent him to his room without supper, she still ends up leaving some in his room because she knows he needs to eat and cares about him. The moon represents his mother. Like the actual moon, it changes phases but is always there as protection, which is how Max views his mother.
Home-Away-Home: Illustrative Positioning
This common home-away-home structure brings Max through a full cycle that is supported by the illustrations through Max's shifts in position as well as his eyes. When wants to leave the known on the left to the adventure on the right, he is looking down towards the right where the action is. On his voyage to the land of the Wild Things, his positioned towards the right but he is looking right at the reader inviting us in to his dream world. When he returns home he is very content as he is faced back towards reality.
Why the human feet?: A Sub-story hidden within the pictures
**SPOILER ALERT** THE WILD THING WITH HUMAN FEET IS MAX'S MOM!
There are many reminders of his reality through out the book such as him reenacting his fight in reality. The Wild Thing with human feet, aka The Wild Mommy Thing, doesn't show up in the story until Max presents his authority and the "wild rumpus" starts. The acting role of this wild thing seems to be keeping all of the others in check while still giving the illusion that Max has all the authority. This is shown during the wild rumpus the second scene the wild things Mom comes into the picture and calms things down always protecting Max discretely. On the page where Max is riding The Wild Mommy Thing, shows the climax of his problem resolution as he flips the role of control between him and his mother but she never loses sight of Max. While all the other Wild Things in the scene are romping around having a good time, Mom always keeps a steady eye on her baby. The next proof is on the following page when Max sends them to bed without supper to make himself feel better, he finds that he is just lonely and maybe that wasn't the best idea. When he gets lonely, Wild Mommy Thing is the only one that stays close by to comfort him and send him off back home with the rest of the wild things.