Poor Parenting Techniques Displayed in Maurice Sendaks "where the Wild Things Are"

Poor Parenting can cause poorly behaved children

'Where The Wild Things Are' was first published in 1963 and is the first part of a trilogy of award - winning books by American author and illustrator Maurice Sendak. 'Where The Wild Things Are' is haunting and imaginative and describes how a young child, called Max, creates a fictitious fantasy world in order to deal with the terrifying reality of anger.

Poor parenting is a lack of parenting techniques and skills in relation to the responsibilities and obligations, which need to be fulfilled in order to accomplish prominent problems within the family relationship. Poor parenting is most likely to come from an absence of cooperation from both child and parent, satisfying both needs and wants so that they both reach common ground. Depending on the age of the child, a lack of parenting techniques and skills affects a child differently psychologically, mentally, physically, socially and emotionally. However, it is manipulated by the events happening outside the home environment, which can include a divorce or war. The role of the parent in a child's life is very influential and possible outcomes of inadequate parenting techniques and skills can result in the child becoming poorly behaved. This is represented in the children's picture book, ' Where The Wild Things Are' by Maurice Sendak. While Max battles for authority, his mother demonstrates many parenting techniques, which have led to severe consequences in relation to his poor behaviour. Bad behaviour influences a child's long-term growth as a human being and stunts their journey from child to mature adult.

Children develop a sense of acceptable behaviour based on the methods employed by their parents. Negative behaviour comes as a result of the child feeling insecure, becoming aggressive, angry, antisocial, demanding, dependant, undisciplined and also developing a hateful desire to 'get back at the world.' These bad behavioural aspects are outcomes reached as the parent has reacted to become over-controlling with orders, reminders of poor behaviour and warnings. With the parent being the unquestioned boss, it is common for the child with an authoritarian in the household to feel irritable, and get angry and temperamental quite quickly. As a result of being given orders and constant reminders on their behaviour it is no wonder why some children experience behavioural problems and why many parents seek help in order to constrain their child and try to straighten them out.

As Max interprets the difference between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour in the picture book 'Where the Wild Things Are' by Maurice Sendak, it is clearly evident that the ways in which he and his mother are portrayed influence the depiction of characters by the implied reader. Max's mother is represented in the text as the authoritarian. She has the dominating position in the family and is likely to be the family decision maker. In the 1960's, women were the housekeepers and wives and were the sole minder of the children as the father was a workingman who supplied the bread and water. It should come as no surprise to the implied reader that Max's mother was therefore the dominant authoritarian as her main job was to care for the children.

Max is represented as an adventurous but monstrous 6 to 8 year old child with destructive behaviour. He is wearing a wolf suit as a disguise; it symbolizes a sense of development and privacy. Max's behaviour is represented in the monster picture he drew. It suggests the adventure he is about to enter is not something that is new. He could have been thinking of a fantasy world, far away from the reality of his anger at his mother, and that he has a history of destructive behaviour. Max's poor behaviour and characteristics are influenced by his mother's parenting skills and techniques. In a time of great development and growth in this phase of his childhood, Max's social development characteristics included defying his mother - which is evident at the start of the book when he was sent to bed but instead embarked on an adventurous journey. Max also doesn't have a definite of right and wrong and it is clear from the development of Max and his character in the children's book that he would have had a clearer idea of right and wrong if his mother had enhanced her duties to accommodate for his poor behaviour. This misrepresentation influences Max's overall behaviour and personality traits, if his mother had better parenting skills she may have been able to avoid such a situation and prepare him for the many obstacles he would face as he went through the process of maturity.

The ' wild things ' are represented as friendly and kindly creatures that are almost human. It is clear that Max is fed up with them when he arrives at the place where the wild things are. This is a result of a role reversal. Max is now the authoritarian rather than his mother and the wild things are now the cowering 'child.' It is evident in the illustrations and text that Max is the person with the power as the monsters are cowering with their claws over their heads. The illustrations reinforce the fact that Max is boss, especially when he is crowned King of all wild things. The wild things are praising him as he has courage and bravery that they do not, which is not stereotypical as monsters are usually considered frightening creatures. If Max's mother had not acted as an authoritarian so often, Max would not have employed her ideas of solving conflict and would have been able to show different qualities without making commands and reminders.

If Max had been bought up to be aware of what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, and his mother had helped to define the concept of right from wrong without Max having to figure it all out for himself, then Max may not have had to resort to living the fantasy of a dream world where he could escape the anger in reality and for once have the authority rather than being the one who is controlled.

It is important to examine the happenings of the time of publishing in order to be able to effectively deconstruct and appreciate the text. Maurice Sendak was born in Brooklyn in 1928. He was the youngest out of three children and his family was Jewish. They immigrated to America from Poland before World War 1 and lost many of their relatives to the Holocaust during World War 2. His father was a unique storyteller, and so Sendak grew up enjoying and appreciating books. While he was still at high school, he became an illustrator for the All - American Comics and as a result, he became known for his illustrations quite early in life.

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