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Text and Illustration: A Stylistic Analysis of Books by Sendak and Mayer

1985; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 10; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/chq.0.0259

1553-1201

Paul G. Arakelian,

Themes in Literature Analysis

Text and Illustration:A Stylistic Analysis of Books by Sendak and Mayer Paul G. Arakelian (bio) Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are and Mercer Mayer's There's a Nightmare in My Closet share several qualities. They were both written and illustrated by one person. In each the protagonist is a young boy who, when he speaks, speaks in the imperative, in an attempt to control a strong emotion. They both turn that emotion into a manageable image: the boy in Nightmare comes to grips with his fear by confronting and controlling a good-natured creature, while the boy in Wild Things confronts his anger (and himself) by traveling to a magical place where he controls a band of mischievous creatures. And finally, the books are both set in a night which ends with the child's successful mastery of his problem. But even though these books have much in common, they differ stylistically. By "style" I am referring to four aspects: the arrangement of text and illustrations on the page; the structure of the text; the structure of the illustrations; and the relationship between the text and illustrations. The arrangement of text and illustration depends on a distinction between page and panel. The term "panel" refers to two facing pages linked by a common text and/or drawing, or to one page with an independent text and/or drawing. Wild Things has nineteen panels, and Nightmare has twenty. The panels are arranged in this way: Click for larger view View full resolution Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 122] Click for larger view View full resolution Sendak uses four different arrangements of panels. First, the text is on the left page of a panel while the drawing occupies the right page. Second, both the drawings and text run over the two pages of a panel. Third and fourth, either a drawing or a bit of text occupies a panel by itself. Mayer depends on quite different arrangements. Either an illustration runs across two pages while the text occupies the right page, or else a single drawing and text occur on each page. In short, Sendak always works in two-page panels, while Mayer fluctuates between one-page and two-page panels. The only thing they share is the two-page drawing without text; Mayer uses this device to end his story with an image, while Sendak ends his story with bare text. The choice of format should be linked to the story. Nightmare's first double-page rianel is a view of the boy's room in which the boy announces treat "There used to be a nightmare in my closet" (panel 1). On the left page looms the closet door representing the unknown, while on the right page is the safety of the boy's bed. Each of the eight double-page panels depends on this same scene. The mystery of that closet is reinforced not only by its separation but by the text, which occurs on the right page with the boy. As the boy describes first his habit of sleeping with the closet door shut, and then his decision to "get rid of my nightmare once and for all" (panel 7), the single-page panels are used to focus attention on the characters. For instance, in panels 5 and 6 the boy first looks out over the end of his bed to announce "When I was safe in bed, I'd peek . . . " and then ducks beneath the covers to admit "sometimes." Similarily, in panels 13 and 14 the boy stands in a small green rectangle, arms crossed with a frown, claiming "I was mad . . ." and then melts into a smile, "but not too mad." This distinction between the broad room and the close up of character is not consistent, however, because in three of the single-page panels the boy or nightmare-creature confronts the closet door. For example, in panel 3 the boy pushes the door—"I always closed the closet door"—and in panels 10 and 11 in front of an open door the boy threatens a frightened creature. Despite this inconsistency, however, Mayer reinforces the confrontation of creature...