Theme Of Adolescence In Alice In Wonderland

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Adolescence is a time of great turmoil, in which we straddle the border between childhood and adulthood. It is a chaotic time where ideas of identity, responsibility, and change swirl around us in a whirlwind of confusion. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a text that plays with this confusion. Her journey through Wonderland can be read as a metaphorical journey through adolescence itself, where Alice encounters the plights and fears of trying to define who she is as a person, who she will be as an adult, and where she struggles to cling to the joys of her childhood. Much like adolescence, Wonderland is constantly in a state of change. It is a difficult world to navigate for Alice, fraught with instability and uncertainty, and she must do this without a clear roadmap, and with no real set of rules, much like the muddy road that a child must navigate on the way to adulthood. When Alice starts her journey through Wonderland, she plunges down a deep hole of curiosities, wanders through a hall of many doors, and encounters one …show more content…

The youth in the poem admonishes father William for acting in a manner that does not befit his age. Because he is old, he is expected to operate within certain limits: he isn’t supposed to stand on his head, remain active and limber, eat hard food, or even see very well, but Father William defies those expectations and remains as vibrant and capable as ever. The caterpillar comments that the poem Alice recites is incorrect. Through her muddled recitation, she reveals her anxieties of growing up, of losing her vibrancy, and she shows a desire to cling to the joys that youth offers. When Alice leaves the caterpillar she continues to stumble through Wonderland, with no real sense of direction or purpose. She blunders constantly, continues to fluctuate in size, and finds no clear answer regarding her

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