Hemingway’s The Good Lion and Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are both reflect ideas of wildness in a similar manner, using it to describe beasts out in nature. The Good Lion features lions out in the African wilderness. Likewise, Where the Wild Things Are has fictional monsters, called “Wild Things” who have “terrible teeth” and “terrible claws” like the lions. This also shows a similarity in how both sets of creatures act “wild”. The lions are shown to “roar and grow” while the WIld Things “roared their terrible roars”, establishing wilderness through making loud and threatening noises. These roars later culminate into proper threats in both stories. The good lion is attacked by the wicked lioness after saying “I think I shall kill you and eat you, wings and all”. Interestingly, the Wild Things threaten Max similarly, telling him that “We’ll eat you up!” These scenes showcase wild as a destructive and antagonistic force, with both main characters being threatened to be consumed.
One aspect of wildness that The Good Lion showcases that Where The Wild Things does not is in its main character, the good lion. The good lion is shown to be almost the complete opposite of the wild lions of Africa. He prefers “a Negroni or an Americano” over “the blood of the Hindu traders” that the lion pride was drinking and is called out for being a “pasta-eating lion”. The good lion also speaks in a multitude of romance languages, compared to the lion pride’s African dialect. The differences between the good lion and the African pride showcase what wildness is not. The African lions are highly “uncivilized” in comparison to the good lion, not having refined palettes of pasta & wine, and speaking in the non-romantic African dialect. However, the good lion still shows wildness through his wings. Having wings is incredibly unorthodox for a lion and in combination with his differences with the lion pride, his wildness is shown by being abnormal.
Max from Where the Wild Things Are portrays wildness much more light-heartedly. Max is shown to be a boisterous child, making mischief and yelling at his mother that “I’LL EAT YOU UP!” While he is behaving in an undomestic manner like the lions, he does not act as maliciously as them. Max’s actions are more playful as he wants to be free to act as he wishes, without his mother stopping him.
– Kenny Ly