Alice In Wonderland
Essay by 24 • December 3, 2010 • 991 Words (4 Pages) • 2,924 Views
"I don't feel you any more you darken my door. Whatever you're looking for
Hey! Don't come around here no more."-Tom Petty Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, though an example of nonsense literature, does embody a wealth of deliberate purposes.
Alice Adventures in Wonderland is about a girl coming out of her puberty stage, and on a road of self discovery. "Who in the world am I?" Just after Alice turned into a giant and scared the white rabbit away. Alice realizes the question is no longer about the world around her but about her self and who she is. Since Wonderland is a byproduct of Alice's imagination, the journey to figure out wonderland is in direct relationship to her self perception. Wonderland has already token toll on Alice as she realizes her perception wont work in a world with rules drastically different from her own.
Alice is from a wealthy English family who finds herself in subversive world made by her own imagination. Alice feels comfortable in the world of logic and consistent features she knows in her own world and understands herself very well. Alice approaches the world like an anthropologist but maintains her nobleness that comes with her class status. She becomes obsessed with the idea of good manners and she constantly encounters the rude characters of wonderland. Alice fixed sense of order contradicts the chaotic wars of Wonderland. Her perspective on life is constantly questioned by characters insulting her and being very rude to her. This constant questioning turns into an identity crisis. Alice must choose if she continues with the way she already knows or conforms to the nonsensical world of Wonderland.
The Cheshire Cat is a unique character of Wonderland. The Cheshire Cat points as place has more influence on her then do the people of it. Wonderland is made up of nonsense and as a result Alice becomes inconsistent in her way of things there way mixing in with the way of Wonderland. The Queen of Heart represents the literal heart of Alice's Conflict. The Queen of hearts is not as concerned as the characters with the nonsense of Wonderland because she is of absolute rule, she even dominates the King of Hearts. Alice finally become fearful after encountering the Queen. The Gryphon informs Alice that she doesn't ever actually kill anyone she sentences to death. Which represents that Wonderland is devoid of substance.
Throughout the course of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Alice goes through different physical changes. The discomfort she feels at never being the right size acts as a symbol for the changes that occur during puberty. The fluctuations in Alice's size through the story represent puberty and the way it may feel to a child. She struggles to find a comfortable size and in chapter one she becomes upset about being too big or too small and not being able to get in the garden.
The puzzles that Alice constantly comes across puzzles in Wonderland which seem to have no clear solution. Alice expects some situations to make some sense but these puzzles frustrate her expectations making reference to the real world. Alice tries to understand the Caucus race, the Mad Hatter's riddle, the Queen's croquet game but finds no sense in them. Alice learns from this that she cannot expect to find logic in things that the world throws at her.
Alice begins to understand the idea of consequence as she starts to realize that Wonderland maybe not just made up of ridiculous stuff and may pose a real threat to her well being. "Off with its head!" When
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