Ernest Hemingway’s The Good Lion and Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are both entail their own idea of the “wild.” Hemingway’s story utilizes the “wild” to describe his ideals of civilized versus uncivilized individuals. His comparisons between the lions metaphorically demonstrate Hemingway’s underlying racist ideology through the fictitious lions to compare European and African culture. Sendak’s work uses the “wild” to illustrate the protagonist’s desire to escape reality. He uses wildness to express the desire to be liberated rather than be contained. These works differ because Hemingway uses the “wild” to illustrate the racial disparity between Europeans and Africans. Sendak uses the “wild” to illustrate the desire to be free.
Hemingway’s short story uses “wildness” to differentiate savagery and civility. The good lion is characterized as a civilized and cultivated individual. Rather than kill other animals and humans to eat, the good lion only eats pasta and other Italian food. In contrast, the “bad” lions are described as savages and wicked creatures. They differ from the “good” lion because they make fun of the way he looks, and their violent nature demonstrates their barbarity. In the story, Hemingway describes the disparity between the “good” and “bad.” He writes, “Adios,” he said, for he spoke beautiful Spanish, being a lion of culture. ‘Au revoir,’ he called to them in his exemplary French. They all roared and growled in African lion dialect.” By making this distinction of different dialects used by the lions, Hemingway demonstrates which languages he deemed “civilized.” This only perpetuates the idea that some cultures are uncivilized compared to others, in this case, African versus European culture. By doing this Hemingway indirectly states that certain cultural groups are seen as “wild” in comparison to others.
Sendak incorporates “wildness” as means of escape. The protagonist, Max, is sent to his room by his mother. To retaliate, Max creates an imaginary world where there are creatures “wild” like him. However, Max soon realizes that he wants stability and structure rather than freedom. Sendak writes, “And Max the king of all wild things was lonely and wanted to be where someone loved him best of all.” This demonstrates the dilemma of craving freedom while also needing support and stability. Sendak uses “wildness” to create the dilemma of Max wanting to live by his own rules while also desiring structure and love from his mother.
-Anna Allen
I like how you talk about wildness in relation to freedom. Wildness can be freeing but at times it can be lonely. I like how you spoke about language in terms of wildness. It seems that the European Countries believe they are more civilized than the African countries and think they are better because they speak languages of “civilized” countries instead of ones from different cultures they don’t want to understand.
The paragraph on wildness as a form of savagery was very interesting. The discussion of the dialects used by the good lion and the bad lions really highlights the racist undertones of the book. The painting of African culture as wicked and uncivilized is also notable.