The book Alice in wonderland was published in 1865, by Lewis Carroll, this book has become part of many adults and children’s lives and has been a cherished fairy tale for many years. The story begins with a young girls dream called Alice, and the adventures that are about to take place in the unconscious mind of Alice, due to her starting to drift off to sleep by becoming bored of her sister reading her a novel with no pictures. (Carroll,1992). However, since it’s traditional origin, many generations have been eager to find hidden meanings in the tale. To some readers they feel that the author created something more than a child’s storybook, in which continues to fascinate both adults and children today, (Reichertz,1997). As the story begins Due to Alice’s child like mannerism, she does not understand why the mouse does not like cats or dogs and is oblivious at first to the distress that the mouse is feeling as she praises what a good cat Dinah is and how helpful the farmer’s dog is. The mouse informs her that they kill all rats, (Carroll, 1992) which makes Alice realise the mistake she has made. She apologises, just like an adult would do when understanding their mistake. In each chapter the reader can reflect on their own life’s, which makes the reader continue with the story. (Thomas,1990). Wonderland starts to become obvious to the reader that it is a lawless world, which leads them on a strange journey following Alice’s metaphorical experiences, (An analysis of Alice’s adventures in wonderland, 2016). Throughout the novel, Alice is forever asking herself “who in the world am I” (Carroll, 1992). This is something that almost everybody can relate to, as most people ask themselves this time and again throughout their After ignoring her for a while, it lazily begins to ask her some rather difficult metaphysical questions “who are you?” (Carroll, 1992). At this point Alice cannot explain to the caterpillar who she is anymore, as her body is forever changing shape every time she eats or drinks something. She compares herself to a caterpillar morphing into a butterfly, in the hope of making the caterpillar understand the changes she is experiencing. This the reader can relate to, due to themselves having been asked who they are throughout their lives.( The caterpillar then goes on to ask her to quote the poem “You are old, Father William”. This poem is about a young son telling his father that he is too old to be doing the things that he still does, (Poem origins: Alice in wonderland ,2016). This could be seen as though the caterpillar is trying to tell Alice that she is getting older as she travels through wonderland, leaving the reader to wonder if Alice grows to become a young women throughout the
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 ”.
Thus, Alice in Wonderland is a good illustration of a Hero’s Journey. This story allows us to see how Alice overcomes the three main phases, and most of the stages identified by Campbell in her journey-transformation from an undisciplined child to a wise young adult. Throughout the story, Alice overcomes the nonsense of the young and the old before she truly understands what adulthood is all about. All through her adventures in Wonderland, she encounters numerous new situations and meets different archetypes that are necessary for her to be considered a Hero.
Alice from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Oliver from Oliver Twist represent the characteristic Victorian children who are naturally good and appeal to the sentiments of the reader when facing difficult situations that aid in finding who they are. The children are required to decide between two conflicting ideas such as childhood and adulthood in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and even good versus evil in Oliver Twist while they search to find where they belong in the natural order of society. Death and horrible outcomes hover around Alice and Oliver as they are shoved into different social situations without their approval. Alice and Oliver’s identity crisis, while they are at a stage of limbo, are evident in the obstacles they must face including repressive new secondary environments which parody and mirror real life struggles imposed on them, being vehicles to aid in adult’s favor as they pull the children in varying directions and the inability for Alice and Oliver to take control of their lives their own hands.
In the end there are many situations where Alice feels that she is different from everyone else around her. Alice realized that she was always different but more so when she was with these three characters who are the Mad Hatter, the caterpillar and the pigeon, and lastly being the Queen of Hearts. When she met the Mad Hatter is more so when she started to realize that she was different from everyone else in Wonderland. Throughout the book Alice just kept finding out how different she really was. Then she met the caterpillar and the pigeon who both made her question who and what she is. Then lastly she met the Queen of Hearts and really found out how different she was from everyone that was surrounding her in Wonderland. To conclude these were just a few examples where Alice felt like she was different from everyone else.
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...
Alice's conversation with the Caterpillar is a concise summary of the story's themes. While it seems like the Caterpillar is speaking cryptically in order to confuse Alice, his words contain advice that represent a wise and mature view towards her worries. Each of the Caterpillar's responses address Alice's concerns about growing up and becoming older. The inclusion of the poem "Father William" is a direct answer to her fear of losing her childhood innocence. The Caterpillar's advice is a way of getting Alice to find her identity.
Whether on page or on the big screen, young Alice struggles with questions about her own identity and continually strives to gain agency in order to legitimize herself. Her journey through Looking Glass Land in Lewis Carroll’s novel and Wonderland in the film version, produced by Disney in 1951, are metaphorical expeditions to find her place in the Victorian society. Prior to visiting these alternate universes, she lived in a world where children were seen as inferior to adults. It is important to notice that in both the book and the film, the authoritative figures are highly satirized. This is evident because although they seem to know the answers to everything, their answers are contradictive to common knowledge or are even made-up. When comparing these places to Alice’s reality, one can come to the conclusion that this is how Alice perceives adults in the real world. As Alice travels through Looking-Glass Land and Wonderland she gains knowledge from these absurd, imaginative characters. However, the question remains:
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.
Lewis Carroll’s novels Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass take us through a journey Alice has while she is asleep. The Alice books are considered by some to be light and humorous while others believe that these books are heavy and sober. According to Martin Gardner, those who claim these books are heavy and sober have visions of “the monstrous mindlessness of the universe”. As people go through life, there are going to be ups and downs. There is no way to tell what will happen and how it will affect a person. It is through these experiences that one learns to go forward and continue through life. What Lewis Carroll is trying to get across is how a child views the world adults live in as they grow to live in it. Alice
The inventive world of Wonderland and Alice’s journey in to her own imagination is more then merely a children s story. Looking deep at the symbols and structure of the story one can see that it becomes more complex and abstract as Alice gets deeper and deeper in her journey in Wonderland. Lewis Carol wrote the book in 1876 and Disney produced its own animated version of Alice in Wonderland no more then twenty years ago. The Disney production aimed at a younger audience, shows Wonderland as a very colorful and vibrant place, full of flowers, trees and a majestic garden of wonder and glory. Although Disney is successful at doing that, it fails in showing the hidden aspects of the story, the aspects of the novel that need to be dug into to comprehend. This is most likely because it was made a younger audience.
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 ...
Upon entering Wonderland, Alice lost sight of who she was and started second guessing herself. This can be observed after she fell through the rabbit hole and landed in the dark room. Alice states, “Dear, dear! How queer everything is to-day! And yesterday things went on just as usual. I wonder if I’ve changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different” (Carroll 19). This is just one of many instances in Alice’s journey that demonstrates an identity crisis. It is almost as if she did not want to believe what she was seeing and was incapable of separating her reality from fantasy. Another example that shows Alice being unsure of her identity is when the Caterpillar
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).
The characters in Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass are more than whimsical ideas brought to life by Lewis Carroll. These characters, ranging from silly to rude, portray the adults in Alice Liddell’s life. The parental figures in Alice’s reality, portrayed in Alice in Wonderland, are viewed as unintellectual figures through their behaviors and their interactions with one another. 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.
Alice in Wonderland belongs to the nonsense genre, and even if most of what happens to Alice is quite illogical, the main character is not. “The Alice books are, above all, about growing up” (Kincaid, page 93); indeed, Alice starts her journey as a scared little girl, however, at the end of what we discover to be just a dream, she has entered the adolescence phase with a new way to approach the mentally exhausting and queer Wonderland. It is important to consider the whole story when analyzing the growth of the character, because the meaning of an event or a sentence is more likely to mean what it truly looks like rather than an explanation regarding subconscious and Freudian interpretations. Morton states “that the books should possess any unity of purpose seems on the surface unlikely” (Morton, page 509), but it’s better to consider the disconnected narrative and the main character separately, since the girl doesn’t belong to Wonderland, which is, as Morton says, with no intrinsic unity. Whereas, there are a few key turning points where it is possible to see how Alice is changing, something that is visible throughout her journey. Carroll wants to tell the story of a girl who has to become braver in order to contend with challenges like the pool made by her own tears, or assertive characters, like the Queen.