Alice's Search For Identity In The Blue Caterpillar

Who, would you say, are you? A universal custom has given us a straightforward answer to this question: a name. For Lewis Carroll’s young Alice, Wonderland turns this simple identifier into something much more complex. Alice finds that the changes that she experiences through the duration of her stay in Wonderland cause her perception of her own identity to change. As a result, she no longer fits her name. One particular character brings this realization to light: The Blue Caterpillar. Alice meets the Blue Caterpillar early in her adventure, and he immediately presents the blatant question of who in the world Alice could possibly be. With three simple words, “Who are you,” the Caterpillar brings Alice’s issue of identity out into the open and forces her to face its roots. The Caterpillar’s question seems to float toward Alice through the air like the smoke from the Hookah, and, as Carroll notes, it “was not an encouraging opening for a conversation.” The Blue Caterpillar’s demeanor doesn’t seem to be conducive for any type of exchange, either. Alice sees, after peering over the side of

Looking back to Alice’s swimming session in the pool of her own tears brings out another piece of evidence to support this idea: that Alice lacks her identity because she has given it to her surroundings. The mouse that she comes to shore with demonstrates his proficiency in the history of William the Conqueror, information that Alice had just labeled as missing from her memory (Carroll 20). Seeing as Alice has surrendered her knowledge to the characters in Wonderland, involuntarily giving over her concept of normalcy would make an equal amount of sense. Therefore, Alice is indirectly excused from her inaccurate analogy between the Blue Caterpillar’s metamorphosis and her size changes, and the Caterpillar’s absolute command over the situation becomes