The Wild Things by Dave Egger

"The Wild Things" is a story loosely based upon the children's book, "Where The Wild Things Are". It tells the story of a boy named Max who has a very distant and unusual relationship with his sister and mother. Max struggles with being normal and he desperately wants his mother to be happy and for his sister to accept him. It seems though that Max may struggle with some sort of ADHD which prohibits him from acting "normal" according to his sister. I really want to focus on his relationship with his sister since that seems to be a very big issue in the book so far.

Max wants his sister to notice him, just like any other little brother would. As his sister, Claire grows up she wants Max to leave her alone so she can just be with her friends. Max does not understand this concept and plays a practical joke on Claire which results in her being extremely furious with Max. Max doesn't seem to realize that what he does to Claire that may be mean or annoying will result in a consequence. It seems that Max may have ADHD because when Claire yells at him he becomes very confused and describes that he cannot organize his thoughts. This may lead to him non-purposefully annoying his sister.

I believe that Max is a complicated character wishing that he could understand his thoughts and understand his relationships with others. I think that if he truly understood what consequences he would always face no matter what he did, he would realize that he is just an annoying little brother and his sister believes she's too cool for him. Max is also a very interesting character because he watches people and observes how they live but never tells anyone if they are doing something wrong. Max is almost a wallflower in this sense. This is Max's relationship with his sister and why he is such a complex character.