The Wuggly Ump
The Wuggly Ump is one of Gorey’s lightest texts in terms of content, illustrations, and narration, which identifies this book, more than any other we have included, as intended for a younger audience.
The story is written about a monster who “lives far away,” but he slowly becomes a looming presence for the three siblings. As he heads to their house to eat them, the children are bothered by his approach, but don’t seem outright frightened. They speak of the Wuggly Ump in quaint terms, as having “nasty little wilful eyes” and “uninviting” claws and jaws. The text is composed of rhyming couplets and has several refrains instructing the reader to sing nonsense words. At the end, the children are even singing from within the belly of the Wuggly Ump.
The illustrations are bright and colorful, the text is sparse and rhyming, and the drawings are simplistic and child-like. The vocabulary, aside from the nonsense words, are fairly low and not too difficult to understand, even for a young child. These aspects combine together to lead us to believe that this is meant to be a children’s book, despite the presence of death and monsters in the text.
The combination of the intended child audience with the children’s attitudes towards the Wuggly Ump and death leads us to believe that in this text, Edward Gorey means to convey the message that death should not be feared. The light-hearted book pokes fun at the typical child’s fears of death, monsters, and the unknown in a way that encourages them to face their fears. Even if they will not conquer them, as no reader will escape death, the book seems to reassure them that it will still be okay.
In these three particular pages from the text, the progression of plot is shown from the Wuggly Ump being a distant threat, to its approach, to its consumption of the children. The illustrations remain just as cheerfully colored throughout the text. The only change is in the children’s facial expressions. Their smiles fall, but they do not furrow their brows in distress; the result is them appearing to be inconvenienced and confused by the Wuggly Ump’s appearance, but not frightened.
The synopsis of the book, located inside the front cover, describes the text as being enjoyed by a “wide and varied audience.” Despite the fact that this text is predominantly known as a children’s book, even the publishers recognize Gorey’s popularity among highly varied age demographics.
The Wuggly Ump seems to represent what children often fear: monsters and the unknown, or even death. It appears that Gorey wants to send the message that, inevitably, scary things will happen in life. The monster will show up at your home and there is no escape, but you can choose to sing through the strange and scary parts of life like the children do in this book.