Alice In Wonderland Literary Analysis

Poor Message Portrayed in Alice in Wonderland For several decades, parents have been allowing their children to watch Disney movies based on the misconception that they are appropriate for children of any age. Whether it be princesses like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, or other movies such as Bambi and The Lion King, parents have always found these films to be suitable for children. However, many of these movies contain a much deeper issue then meets the eye. One movie where this occurs is Alice in Wonderland. In the movie, Alice in Wonderland, a poor message for children is displayed through the extensive use of various drugs and the lack of consequences that are shown as a result at the end. Alice in Wonderland opens with Alice being

From the moment she finds him, he is smoking out of a pipe. He uses the smoke that he produces to spell out the letters while he is talking to her. Here, she inhales the smoke that he is breathing in her direction, which would have enhanced the high she felt from the substances that she consumed prior. The substance that the caterpillar is smoking parallels with both hookah, because of the way he consumes it, and opium, because it originates from a plant. As her time with the caterpillar continues, she also takes two pieces from a mushroom, which cause her to both grow and shrink suddenly. This occurrence directly aligns with one taking “shrooms”, which would be followed by more hallucinations. Immediately after leaving the area with the caterpillar, she encounters the Cheshire Cat in the forest with trees that light up in different colors and make sounds. Again, hallucinations generally “include lights, colors, lines, or simple geometric shape” (Borreli). The things that she experiences in the forest parallel completely with hallucinations because not only does she see lights and colors in the trees, but she also sees lines and other, simple geometric shapes that make up the Cheshire Cat. However, at this point in the film, she has encountered many different substances, which would result in more drastic hallucinations. As Alice in Wonderland progresses, she experiences many more scenarios, such as the Mad Tea Party and the Queen of Hearts. Finally, at the end of the movie, she finds her way back out of the rabbit hole. However, she believes that all of the characters that she encountered in Wonderland are chasing her. This paranoid experience at the end parallels with a “bad trip”, which “include[s] terrifying thoughts and nightmarish feelings of anxiety and despair that include fears of losing control, insanity, or death” (NIDA), but