Growing up is a scary time for almost everyone in the world. The new feelings, experiences, perspectives, and way of thinking changes us. It is a time that can be both full of surprises and disappointments, and also intimacy. Lewis Carroll became a very successful author in portraying everything that is encountered growing up. It has been proven that many readers and also professors from high universities like Princeton and Yale, have claimed that the story completely pertains to adolescence and every experience gained from it through the uses of symbolism, themes, motifs, and imagination. Alice in Wonderland is full of different objects and uses of symbolism through the story. Each character introduces a new problem and challenges Alice to …show more content…
The most evidence found would be the motif of a dream and the very sudden change from reality to Wonderland. The story itself was written to be all a part of Alice’s imagination. It was meant to be just a dream that she finds herself in one afternoon while out with her sister and tired of recitals and living with boring rules and traditions. But the dream soon vanishes and as Alice wakes up, she suddenly changes perspective on those boring things she once thought of and learned to appreciate more of the company that she had of rational and real people unlike the mad hatter or every other character introduced in the dream. This sudden dream, however, was also used to portray the strange and freaky dreams that teenagers have sometimes due to caffeine consumed or watching certain movies and video games, and the classic lack of sleep because they are up most of the …show more content…
She had to learn the rules and the consequences for not learning them. For example, the Caucus race to the strange croquet game with the queen and to the fact that the royal court is a living deck of cards and death is the consequence of not learning to play by the queen’s rules. Language and logic are also very important themes used to point out confusion and madness. Every creature that was introduced can justify the most absurd behavior, and their arguments told are very complex themselves. The strange reasoning behind it all is also another delight for the reader and challenge for Alice. She had to learn to discern between the unusual logic and utter nonsense. There has been some people that have claimed that Lewis Carroll wrote the stories while influenced by opium. A big piece of evidence found in the fifth chapter with the introduction of the smoking blue caterpillar and its hookah. Although there has not been enough evidence to claim that maybe Lewis had been under the influence of drugs while writing these stories, there is enough evidence and representation of some of the side effects that could have been part of the reason why the story would take certain twists and poor decision
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 ”.
...ich are somewhat symbolic of religion as a whole and finding her own beliefs. For instance, the garden that Alice has trouble accessing represents Eden, the flawless world Adam and Eve lived in before they sinned. She has trouble reaching this garden being Alice isn’t yet ready to go to such a perfect place as she herself isn’t pure of heart and still struggles with understanding what she believes in. Throughout Alice’s journey, however, she begins to learn more regarding herself with each curious encounter in wonderland.
Her eventual attentiveness could be borne from her polite nature and want of companionship, as well as from the persona of the Red Queen. The Queen represents a governess or teacher-type and thus Alice learns to listen, even when she does not fully want to. Whenever Alice is afraid she has offended someone, she tries her best to remedy the situation. “Alice curtseyed again, as she was afraid from the Queen’s tone that she was a little offended: and they walked on in silence till they got to the top of the hill” (Caroll). Alice gives of a persona of being well-trained, yet still childish and demanding. However, as she moves further through Wonderland she begins to gain more control of her childish impulses, such as being angry with the world for ‘making things difficult’ for her when she could not find her way through a maze. In this way, Alice is a dynamic character. She matures throughout the story as she finds out more about
Through out Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll also uses the symbol of the food and Alice’s actions to convey that growing up can be unpredictable. When Throughout the book, she eats food that changes her body size. The way that Alice’s body fluctuates in the story is similar to how a girl would feel when she goes through puberty. Alice questions her identity throughout the text by changing her size frequently, making it seem like she does not feel comfortable in the body she is in, but trying to find the perfect size until she feels right.
SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2005. Web. 30 Oct. 2013.
Lewis Carroll's Wonderland is a queer little universe where a not so ordinary girl is faced with the contradicting nature of the fantastic creatures who live there. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a child's struggle to survive in the condescending world of adults. The conflict between child and adult gives direction to Alice's adventures and controls all the outstanding features of the work- Alice's character, her relationship with other characters, and the dialogue. " Alice in Wonderland is on one hand so nonsensical that children sometimes feel ashamed to have been interested in anything so silly (Masslich 107)."
“’But I don't want to go among mad people,' said Alice. 'Oh, you can't help that,' said the cat. 'We're all mad here.'” quoted by a very creative and imaginative author, Lewis Carroll, author of the hit Alice novels. This short novel was written by an extremely upright, ultra conservative man in which his unique character and many experiences had a great influence in the creation of Through the Looking Glass. Of all of Carroll’s works, Alice’s Through the Looking Glass, has a unique way of expressing adventures and stating the events in which occur throughout the whole novel making the novel standout in the category of whimsical, nonsense literature. The novel includes 12 chapters in which every new chapter brings you into different exotic settings introducing you to many peculiar characters involving the only and only Alice, the Tweedledum twins, Red Queen, White King, Humpty Dumpty Walrus and Carpenter. Meeting these characters brought her to finally achieving what her destination had been since the start; she finally became her normal size, making it into the garden. The events and settings involved with Through the Looking Glass make it a very fictional, imaginative novel. Carroll's imagination takes readers with Alice into where she finds the Looking-Glass House. Using the game of chess as the setting of his novel, he fills the novel with situations and puzzles from the ordinary to the extraordinary; including silly characters and adventures in which may be nonsensical, using the game of chess as the setting.
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.
When she falls in the hole she is confronted with no exit except a tiny door to escape from. She, therefore, shrinks into pocket size only to find that the door was closed, constructing her to grow into an enormous size, larger than what Alice began. The idea was to drink to shrink, allowing her to proceed past the miniature door, however she had to eat a small cake to sprout again to gain access to a key placed on a table as it unlocks the door leading to the garden. At any rate, providing that she stop crying, she would realize what a substantial puddle of tears she’s created while being a colossal giant resulting in being stuck in the same place she’s been, therefore, can not escape into the magnificent garden. Alice, no matter how diligent she tried or wanted, was not capable of admission into the garden correlating that it was very slim. The representation of the garden can be looked upon as childhood during the time period, with this intention, lacking the ability to gain entry to the state of being a child. Thus, the reality of the Victorian era was the removal of entrance into childhood as they comforted an age of the Industrial Revolution. The passageway was infancy to young adulthood with no in between the stages, however that was the typical norm during those
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 ...
Here she finds a strange caterpillar on a mushroom smoking a hookah. It doesn’t even matter that the caterpillar talks and questions Alice about her identity, the way he looks should be enough for Alice and the audience to question their sanity. Upon being asked who she is by the caterpillar, Alice has no idea anymore. She is becoming as mad as she believes the inhabitants of Wonderland to be. The caterpillar seems to be able to read Alice’s thoughts now ‘Just as if she had asked it aloud’ - which leads us to believe that Alice is so confused about her identity that perhaps her thoughts aren’t even hers anymore. By the end of this chapter we again see characters leave Alice in anger as she insults the caterpillar on his height and scares the pigeon who believes her to be a serpent. The caterpillar and pigeon both found Alice to be very strange indeed, yet their surroundings were absolutely normal to them - which again shows that Alice is the only odd thing in Wonderland and is able to upset the
Lewis Carroll's use of puns and riddles in Alice in Wonderland help set the theme and tone. He uses word play in the book to show a world of warped reality and massive confusion. He uses such play on words to reveal the underlying theme of growing up', but with such an unusual setting and ridiculous characters, there is need for some deep analyzing to show this theme. The book contains many examples of assonance and alliteration to add humor. Carroll also adds strange diction and extraordinary syntax to support the theme.
As Alice’s journey following the White Rabbit continues, she found her standing in his home. When Alice saw the strange drinks and cookies on the table, her desire to grow got the best of her and she began to taste them. Alice began to change size after drinking the mysterious liquid, “…she had drunk half the bottle, she found her head pressing against the ceiling and had to stoop to save her neck from being broken” (Carroll 44). This event relates to the theme of Alice growing up. Alice being small when entering the house symbolizes her being a child. Her yearning to become bigger is representative of her want to grow up and become an adult. Although, after drinking the bottle Alice becomes unsure if she really wanted to grow. The transitioning between sizes shows how Alice is torn between wanting to stay a child and wanting to become an
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.