Introduction
Alice in Wonderland (AIWS) also known as Todd Syndrome is a disease that affects the brain, it causes the senses to be interfered with and everything seems different. Alice in Wonderland syndrome is caused by migraines and too much electricity in the body(Discovery Fit and Health Writers, WHAT IS ALICE IN WONDERLAND SYNDROME?, howstuffworks.com). John Todd named the disease after the book Alice in Wonderland written in 1865 by Lewis Carroll. Some experts say that Lewis Carroll had Alice in Wonderland Syndrome. The book is said to represent the symptoms that Carroll was experiencing while having the hallucinations. In the book Carroll makes Alice drink and eat some food and she grows larger than normal and shrinks smaller than the drink she was drinking(Betty, Alice in Wonderland Syndrome, bbc.com).
Discovery
This syndrome was first discovered and described in 1955 by John Todd (1914-1987), a psychiatrist from Yorkshire, England. Todd was working in Yorkshire, when some patients requested his expertise in psychiatry, the patients were experiencing some odd symptoms, the patients knew that this was not reality, they knew the difference between the real world and hallucinations, so he automatically ruled out that the patients were mentally ill. Todd also ruled out brain tumors, alcoholism, and drug abuse, due to the fact that they had none of those symptoms(Betty, Alice in Wonderland Syndrome, h2g2.com).
Symptoms
When experiencing Alice in Wonderland Syndrome the patient will often feel like they are either growing or shrinking in size, they will feel like everything around them is bigger or smaller than it actually is. The victim may even feel like time is being messed with, such as everything may seem to be moving fas...
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...they will be altered from normal perception. The patient will want to rest because sleep deprivation will only enhance the hallucinations and make the person become more stressed and send them back into the state they were previously trying to escape from. If you do have Alice in Wonderland Syndrome then you will legally be able to get accommodations in the workforce and in school(Betty, Alice in Wonderland Syndrome, h2g2.com). If your Alice in Wonderland symptoms were caused by Temporal Lobe Epilepsy than you could be prescribed seizure medicine from your doctor including Topamax, Keppra, and Phenobarbital(Holmes, M.D., Temporal Lobe Epilepsy, epilepsy.com). When it comes to the Epstein Barr Virus you will just have to let the virus run its course. Since the Epstein Barr Virus is viral antibiotics will not do anything to help(Epstein Barr Virus, healthcentral.com).
The Diary of Anne Frank is about Anne Frank’s life in the Secret Annex hiding from the Nazi’s. The diary shows how the members of the Secret Annex help each other keep hope in spite of dark times.
Alice in Wonderland starts when Alice “sees” a rabbit exclaiming it was going to be late. When Alice starts dreaming about the Wonderland it may have been a little strange, but she ends up realizing that it helps with her problems in the real world.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a story about a little girl who comes into contact with unpredictable, illogical, basically mad world of Wonderland by following the White Rabbit into a huge rabbit – hole. Everything she experiences there challenges her perception and questions common sense. This extraordinary world is inhabited with peculiar, mystical and anthropomorphic creatures that constantly assault Alice which makes her to question her fundamental beliefs and suffer an identity crisis. Nevertheless, as she woke up from “such a curious dream” she could not help but think “as well she might, what a wonderful dream it had been ”.
Much work has been done to find the exact cause of hallucinations and what is going on in the brain when they occur. Some progress has been made. Charles Bonnet syndrome is the onset of hallucinations in psychologically healthy individuals who have recently become blind or seeing impaired. These are called release hallucinations because it is thought that they are 'released' or instigated by the, "removal of normal visual afferent impute to association cortex"(5). Experiments involving direct stimulation of the temporal lobe, and fMRI's taken during hallucinations have indicated that - at least for complex hallucinations - the cause may be that corresponding visual areas in the brain are activated in the absence of inhibition due to visual input. In other words, this is an example of the chicken with its head cut off - apparently normal visual input to areas of the brain responsible for interpreting different things may be the only thing that keeps us from experiencing hallucinations of this kind (5). A...
In the 1700s, "mad doctors" or doctors specializing in the mentally ill. "They began to devise their own unique classification system for mental disorders. Many cases of what we would now call schizophrenia were probably classified under one or more of these early attempts to devise a more scientific method of understanding mental illness"(Noll, xix). Doctors at this time described the symptoms of schizophrenia somewhat differently (Berle, 14).
Alice in wonderland has compelled many artists and writings to adapt, Lewis Carroll 's book into movies. The original animated movie of Alice in Wonderland came out in 1951; which was produced by Disney. There have been many remakes, but for the purpose of this essay the 2010, live action remake by Tim Burton can reveal the most change. Keeping these two versions in mind, it is possible to get a snapshot of some ways American culture has shifted over the 59 year period. There are five main changes of importance from the original and the remake of Alice in Wonderland. Those changes are: the age of Alice, the dynamic of characters in Wonderland, the Gender roles, the violence, and the agency of Alice throughout the movie. These key changes can be linked to many subliminal messages being conveyed about American
“All living things contain a measure of madness that moves them in strange, sometimes inexplicable ways.” Yann Martel’s Novel Life of Pi directly describes the feelings that Pi had during his stay on a lifeboat while stranded in the middle of the Pacific. Sharing that feeling of isolation is Alice from Lewis Carroll’s books Alice and Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Both individuals are isolated from the real world. Due to this isolation they become prisoners to their minds’ and create delusions that help them cope with the truth of life.
Lewis Carroll demonstrates paradoxes within Alice and Wonderland as Alice is tossed within an entirely different world. Yet one of the greatest paradoxes is the transformation of Alice over the course of the novel as well as the transformation of the duchess. Alice begins as an ignorant child; she has difficulties in morphing to the logic and needs of Wonder...
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.
The musical piece “Alice’s Theme” was composed in 2010 by composer Danny Elfman. This piece was written for Walt Disney Pictures’ “Alice in Wonderland”. Danny Elfman has represented Alice as lonely, questioning herself and anxious until the end of the film where she discovers her true purpose. Her journey is gradually revealed and represented through the different sections, instruments and lyrics. This is through the successful use of all the musical elements. These musical elements include duration, expressive devices, pitch, structure and texture.
Many have compared life to a journey over the course of which, one experiences many tumultuous changes and transitions. On this journey, the human body continually undergoes a developmental pattern of physical, mental, and social modifications. Even in the realm of literature, fictional characters inevitably follow this fate. In literature, the stage between childhood innocence and adulthood transforms characters, this is frequently referred to as "coming of age". Because all humans experience this transition, it establishes "coming of age" as a timeless universal literary theme. Among such "coming of age" novels is Lewis Carroll’s tale about a seven-year-old Victorian girl named Alice. In the novel, "Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland", Alice falls into the curious world of Wonderland. Alice assuages and manages inter-conflicts, such as her identity. Through the confusion, experimentation, and uncertainties of the Wonderland between childhood and adulthood Alice realizes in her unconscious state that she is changing from simple child into a young woman.
The title character, Alice, is a young girl around pre-teen age. In the real world, the adult characters always look down on her because of her complete nonsense. She is considered the average everyday immature child, but when she is placed in the world of "Wonderland," the roles seem to switch. The adult characters within Wonderland are full of the nonsense and Alice is now the mature person. Thus creating the theme of growing up'. "...Alice, along with every other little girl is on an inevitable progress toward adulthood herself"(Heydt 62).
My mother often told my sisters and me stories of her childhood move from Virginia to North Carolina. She’d describe the heartbreak of being ripped away from her home, family, and best friends. Although it was painful in the moment, in hindsight she can honestly say that the move was one of the best things that even happened to her. Here she met the love of her life and gave birth to her three girls. The change of environment impacted her life forever. In Great Expectations, Charles Dickens writes of a boy named Pip as he grows and changes as he transitions from his home in the marsh to the hustle and bustle of London. In his novel he proves that our surroundings have a life-changing impact upon us.
Alice’s interactions with the characters of Wonderland reflect her struggles with adults in real life. Naturally curious as she is, Alice asks questions to learn from the adults. Since they understand the subject at hand well, they do not need to express their thoughts in order for them to understand themselves. However, Alice does not see this internal
...inal realization that she is growing up and that is normal, therefore, she accepts it. In brief, Alice in Wonderland is a book about growing up, and Alice definitely has grown up since the beginning of her journey and she has entered the adolescence phase when she rebels against everyone. Although she is not able to control herself when she gets angry, in other words she is behaving like a normal adolescent, she has gained a new “power” from this confusing experience: being a person with a voice to say something that matters.