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Alice's adventures in wonderland coming of age
Alice's adventures in wonderland coming of age
Alice's adventures in wonderland coming of age
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“Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise” (Carroll 105). This and advice of this kind are often dispensed by the Duchess in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to Alice, and like the transition from child to adult, the advice is generally rarely fully understood if not confusingly difficult to wrap logic around. Many illustrators have undertaken the task of conveying a clear picture of the struggle that Alice goes through in order to triumph over childhood and nonsense into the realm of adults and logic. Angel Dominguez shows Alice’s struggle to grow up and out of childhood, a major theme of the text, in such a way that the audience can almost feel her anxiety. The use of the body language of Alice, the Duchess and the supporting animals, in addition to compositional elements such as proximity and framing, is a principal mechanism of Dominguez in evoking Alice’s anxiety and emphasizing the uncomfortable passage into maturity on one’s own while dealing with the pressures and advances of an adult world.
Dominguez prevalently uses facial expressions to convey emotions in his illustrations, and that of “Alice and the Duchess” is no exception. The looks on the Duchess and Alice’s faces are stark contrasts of each other. While the Duchess seems delighted in having a companion, Alice is wrought with consternation over the closeness of a person who once told her “If everybody minded their own business the world would go round a deal faster than it does” (Carroll 71). The Duchess’s genuine grin, given away by the crinkling of her eyes, shows her pleasure at being so near Alice w...
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...ted advances of the Duchess, but also it exhibits the trapped nature that many adults feel when thrown into the “Adult world” of work and responsibility. The hedgehogs show the ability to escape from the world of responsibility and work that many children take for granted trying to run toward the world of adults and the flamingo evokes the suffocating hold that maturity entails when in a world that places it on a pedestal from an early age.
Works Cited
Carroll, Lewis, and Tan Lin. "The Mock Turtle's Story." Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; And, Through the Looking-glass and What Alice Found There. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2004. Print.
Straker, D. "Social Distances." Changing Minds and Persuasion -- How We Change What Others Think, Believe, Feel and Do. 12 Sept. 2004. Web. 07 Feb. 2011. .
In the story Alice was a little girl of seven with blond hair and a long blue dress with a white smock, she has been transformed into a monstrosity in the Wonderland. They changed her hair color to black representing her newfound dark nature that is exemplified in her brutal slashing and murdering of her foes. Her outfit transforms from a childish attire to a more Gothic attire, her heavy boots accompanying a blood splattered smock. Satanic symbols show the alterations of her attitude that is revealed by her rude comment to the Cheshire Cat about how “There is more than one way to skin a cat, if you don’t mind the expression” (Alice). The transformation of Alice shows the concept of categorical contamination or the blurring of lines between what the mind describes as two separate entities in that she is a representation of childhood innocence blurred with the adult sin. Her companion, The Chesire Cat, follows her
SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2005. Web. 30 Oct. 2013.
Carroll, Lewis, John Tenniel, and Chris Riddell. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Revised ed. London: Puffin Classic, 2008. Print.
Some children, like Alice in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, use an imaginary adventure in a made-up world as an explanation for the physical changes they are experiencing that accompany development into maturity. Throughout the book, Alice undergoes multiple changes in size; from becoming very small to growing so large her arms and legs stick out the windows of a house. Her constant changing of size throughout the novel represents the changes that many young girls are confronted with the onset of puberty. These changes can leave both boys and girls feeling awkward and feel a loss of self-recognition and identity. When Alice meets the Caterpillar, he asks, “Who are YOU?” Alice replies, “’I— I hardly know, sir, just at present— at least I know who I WAS when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then…I'm not myself, you see.'” (Carroll; Kindle Locations 353-356). It i...
In 1969, Salvador Dali, a surrealist painter and admirer of Sigmund Freud, appropriated John Tenniel’s illustrations for Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. Often expressing the capacity of dreams and imagination, Dali and Carroll become linked together as the center of surrealist concerns. Both men create a world where logic and reality get twisted creating an alternative universe. Dali’s expression of Alice, in a realm of unconscious, brings forward the idea of Freudian understanding. Dali’s strong use of color and symbolism in his works, while understanding Freudian Principles, represent Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland just as well as if not better than Tenniel’s illustrations.
“My Last Duchess”, by Robert browning, is a dramatic speech delivered by the Duke of Ferrari which highlights the covetous and cruel nature of his personality and the questions which surround his bride’s death.
The novel Alice 's Adventures in Wonderland written by Lewis Carroll was originally published for the first time in 1898, and illustrated by John Tenniel, however there are multiple versions of this fantastically bizarre story that leads a young girl through a series of adventures and encounters with some unique fantasy creatures and beings; with many artists completing their interpretation of this literary masterpiece available. Two of those versions will be looked at in this paper; Salvador Dali illuminated in 1969, and Bessie Pease in 1931. The images that will be compared and contrasted are an accompaniment for chapter five: Advice from a Caterpillar. The images are created in two very different time periods, yet they both have the same
Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” is a satirical fiction novel where the main character, Alice finds herself in a strange chaotic world that causes her to question all she understands in her young mind. Carroll creates the memorable character of Alice through the characteristics of emotional maturity, youthful inexperience, and kindness.
	Of all of Lewis Carroll’s works, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has a unique standing in the category of whimsical, nonsense literature. Much has been written about how this novel contrasts with the vast amount of strict, extremely moralistic children’s literature of the Victorian time Lewis Carroll lived in. Yet, as odd as this novel appears in relation to the other Victorian children’s stories, this short novel is odder because it was written by an extremely upright, ultra conservative man; a Victorian gentleman. Even though the novel seems to contrast with the time of Lewis Carroll, many experiences of Lewis Carroll and his unique character have a great influence in the creation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland follows the story of young Alice trapped in the world of Wonderland after falling down through a rabbit-hole. The rabbit-hole which is filled with bookshelves, maps, and other objects foreshadows the set of rules, the ones Alice is normally accustomed to, will be defied in Wonderland. This conflict between her world and Wonderland becomes evident shortly after her arrival as evinced by chaos in “Pool of Tears” and Alice brings up the main theme of the book “was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I am not the same, the next question is who am I?” (Carroll 18). After Alice fails to resolve her identity crisis using her friends, Alice says “Who am I, then? Tell me that first, and then, if I like being that person, I’ll come up: if not, I’ll stay down here til I’m somebody else” (Carroll 19). Hence in the beginning, Alice is showing her dependency on others to define her identity. Nevertheless when her name is called as a witness in chapter 12, Alice replies “HERE!” without any signs of hesitation (Carroll 103). Close examination of the plot in Alice in Wonderland reveals that experiential learning involving sizes leads Alice to think logically and rationally. Alice then attempts to explore Wonderland analytically and becomes more independent as the outcome. With these qualities, Alice resolves her identity crisis by recognizing Wonderland is nothing but a dream created by her mind.
In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll tells an entertaining story about a young girl’s adventures in a strange “Wonderland.” This novel represents a typical girl’s struggle to break away from adult control and receive a desired freedom from their absurd society.
Wonderland is a place of imagination for children of all ages. When Alice’s sister awakens from her mini-dream about Alice’s wonderland, she hopes that Alice will be able to keep this imagination with her as she grows up. She wishes Alice to be able to make other children’s “eyes bright and eager with many a strange tale” (Carroll 120). Although the novel she reads in the park with Alice no longer has the pictures that Alice enjoys reading, her sister still carries a part of wonderland with her hidden waiting to expose itself.
Although the novel is notorious for its satire and parodies, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland main theme is the transition between childhood and adulthood. Moreover, Alice’s adventures illustrate the perplexing struggle between child and adult mentalities as she explores the curious world of development know as Wonderland. From the beginning in the hallway of doors, Alice stands at an awkward disposition. The hallway contains dozens of doors that are all locked. Alice’s pre-adolescent stage parallels with her position in the hallway. Alice’s position in the hallway represents that she is at a stage stuck between being a child and a young woman. She posses a small golden key to ...
One of the main purposes for writing Alice in Wonderland was not only to show the difficulties of communication between children and adults. In this story, almost every adult Alice talked to did not understand her. At times she messed up what they were saying completely as well, which many times stick true to real life circumstances. This book shows that kids and adults are on completely separate pages on an everlasting story. Carroll points out that sometimes children, like Alice, have a hard time dealing with the transition from childhood to adulthood, 'growing up.' Alice in Wonderland is just a complicated way of showing this fact. Lewis Carroll's ways with words is confusing, entertaining, serious, and highly unique all at the same time. And it's safe to say that it would be difficult to replicate such and imaginative technique ever again (Long 72).
There exists several differences between Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. These differences may be due to the disparity in time between the writing of both stories and the circumstances that surrounded Carroll’s writing, as well as the intention that Carroll possessed when he began to tell the tale. However, these differences are essential to the distinctive nature of each story and convey to the reader a different portrayal of the view that Carroll had of the relationship between child and adult. Whether it was the difference between characters in the stories, or the style in which the story was written, they play an important role in the development of Alice and in the depiction that Carroll intended.