Why Outside Over There?
Written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak
Plot Summary
Ida's Papa is mysteriously "away at sea," and her Mama is equally mysteriously "in the arbor," leaving Ida alone to watch her baby sister. However, instead of doing this, Ida plays her "wonder horn," and while she is distracted, goblins sneak in and kidnap her sister. Upon realizing this, Ida leaves the safety of her room to venture "outside over there," into a strange world. There, she confronts the goblins, who turn out to be babies strangely like her sister, and through playing her horn, she drives the goblins into a stream and rescues her sister.
The text of this story is quite simple and describes events without explaining why they happen. However, through its intricate details, Sendak’s illustrations elaborate on and at times counterpoint the textual narrative.
Illustrations
The artwork in this picturebook is a blend of realism, surrealism, and expressionism. What this means is that some of the drawings portray events and characters realistically, while others portray them as dreamlike or as expressions of how the character is feeling.
These layers of style help to merge the worlds of the real and unreal. The point of this is to validate a child’s feelings and emotions as experiences that are just as real to them as "real" events are to adults. Sendak has said of his work that a main focus is to replicate “the emotional quality” of specific points in a child’s life (Lanes and Morton 7).
This focus on emotions is important to keep in mind when reading Outside because it implies that the illustrations will contain more narrative than the text.
"Ida played her wonder horn to rock the baby still -- but never watched" (10). "So the goblins came" (12).
Transformative Potential
This child-centred yet somewhat creepy story reflects the sobering reality of childhood neglect and abductions. It also suggests that simple inside/outside dichotomies do not ensure that danger stays out. Put differently, parents may try to protect children from an outside world, but these attempts do not actually keep dangers away from the child. Ida's story suggests that sometimes fear needs to be confronted; in today's climate of tension and censorship, this is an overdue lesson for both children and adults to hear.
This exhibit will examine how Outside Over There has transformative potential for readers, and it will contend that this 40+ year old picturebook has continuing merit for both children and university classrooms.
Some of the points that will be discussed in the analysis are:
- Parental absense and neglect
- Lindbergh kidnapping
- Illusions of protecting children (the failure of an inside/outside dichotomy)
- Ida's character transformation as she goes outside
- Sendak's use of geometry and color to evoke emotion and convey meaning
Sources
Lanes, Selma G., and Robert Morton. The Art of Maurice Sendak. Abrams, 1980.
Sendak, Maurice. Outside Over There. New York, Harper Collins, 1981.