Monthly Archives: October 2014

by

Questions for Discussing Alice next Wednesday

Discussion Questions for The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland

1)  What do you think about Alice?  Do you like her?  Is she funny?  Is she innocent?  Do you sympathize with her?

2)  Who is your favorite character and why?  (Alternately you may answer what is your favorite moment and why.  Only do this option if your moment is a very specific moment.)

3) Who is your least favorite character and why?  (Same alternate question applies.)

4 Identify a trope in The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland, which you see in a book, movie, artwork today.   For example the idea of falling into a hole or going through an everyday portal that takes you to a magic upside down land is a trope well established in the novel.  We can see that same trope in Harry Potter, particularly the first book or The Lion,  the Witch and the Wardrobe.

by

Humor Reached through Nonsense and Realized through Common Sense

My reading of both the New Wave Nonsense chapter within Humor in Contemporary Junior Literature and Alice in Wonderland helped me both better understand and enjoy this concept of using nonsense as a form of literary humor. The chapter had a lot of interesting divisions of nonsense that involve language, double-meaning, gross-out humor and context, but the exerts within the New Wave Nonsense chapter about nonsense being used as humor through the use (or rather lack) of logic was particularly funny to me. This is particularly true in Alice in Wonderland, as Wonderland’s inhabitants use almost all of these types of nonsense humor, but it’s when they go against logic, and both Alice and I (the reader) must really dial into their words in an effort make sense of it, that I end up smirking the most.

The interrogation scene within Alice in Wonderland where the king analysis’s the found note, while he tries to find the Knave of Hearts guilty for stealing the Queen’s tart’s was particularly funny, due to its use of literal language and disregard for logic. When he reads the part about the letter mentioning that its writer cannot swim, and then links this automatically to the Knave of Hearts (the Knave reminds him that he cannot swim because he is made out of cardboard) was particularly enjoyable. Additionally, when Alice reminds him of the part where it acknowledges that the letter says that nothing was taken in the first place, and the king’s sudden triumphant exclamation of this fact by pointing at the plate of tarts within the courtroom as if he had found them himself, added additional humor to this scene. It took me a moment to find the humor in it, because I had to analysis the situation and figure out both exactly what was said and how it supposedly makes sense to the character. I often found myself rereading the songs, poems and statements of most of the inhabitants in Wonderland, in hopes of doing something similar and this often ended with me understanding why it was funny. Interestingly though, when they made absolutely no sense (even with my use of common sense to understand it) it was still funny because of the absolute lunacy and needlessness of it being said in the first place (an example is the Hatter’s telling of a riddle and then him not knowing the answer to it when finally asked for it).

by

Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland: Fantasy or Reality

Throughout the story of “Alice’s Adventure In Wonderland” Alice our protagonist have been eating and drinking sweets of some kind which alter her size in some way, but what really is interesting is the mushroom or fungi which was different compare to the other food Alice have intake thus far. Looking up the year the story was publish it was around the 1860s somewhere in Europe which made me dug a little deeper in identifying the type of mushroom which Alice might have eaten. After eating the mushroom Alice experience something that might be of a fantasy which she ether grew in size or shrunk depending which side she took a bite from, but this might be reality because there is a type of fungi known as Psilocybin which causes hallucination which in Alice case growing bigger or shrinking smaller. These fungi other than causing the eater hallucination can also changes the perception and distort time of a person. So is Alice’s adventure really just a fantasy or reality mixed with a little hallucination either way this is all happening in Alice’s head.

by

Alice in Wonderland: Behind the Scenes

Alice in Wonderland is a classic piece in children’s lirature. It has been translated in so many different languages and has so many different version that Morton N. Cohen says it’s only second to the bible. There are many different rumors as to how Alice in Wonderland was created (the most popular being that Lewis Carroll was on an ecstasy trip; which I have seen no evidence of thus far). You would think that Lewis Carroll must have spent half of his life creating the fantastical world of Alice, would it surprise you that Lewis Carroll actually made the story up in only half a day! Lewis Carroll, better known as Charles L. Dodgson to his friends, was doing a favor for a fellow colleague by taking his three daughters and a friend on a boat trip in 1862. This afternoon is often referred to as the “golden afternoon” because it was at this time that all of the little girls started to get bored and fidgety on the boat and it was at this moment that Dodgson decided to tell a tale to the girls to come them down. You see, even though Dodgson was the very image of a boring man (he was a mathematician and was very shy, no one would think he held an ounce of creativity), he already had the experience of story telling off the top of his head. Dodgson was the eldest son of ten children and the responsibility of caring for and entertaining the children was often left to him. And thus, the story of Alice began, on that very boat trip. Dodgson uses many names that are familiar to him and the three girls, for example, his favorite of the three was Alice Liddell, which is why he named the main character Alice; his friend on the boat was named Robinson Duckworth and acted as the inspiration for the duck in the book; and lastly, Cheshire was a town he was fond of which inspired the Cheshire Cat. Dodgson himself said that the book would have never been written if it were not for Alice Liddell who upon hearing the story was very fascinated and harassed Dodgson for weeks until he agreed to make a paper copy for her so she could read it whenever she wanted. It took a couple of years, but Dodgson finally wrote one single copy of the tale. The book was displayed in Alice Liddell’s father’s office who was the dean of the school at that time and had many visitors. All of the visitors would sit to read the Alice book as soon as the saw it and became fascinated with it, eventually urging Dodgson to write an official copy and get it published.

by

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Alice in wonderlandAs a child I don’t really remember hearing much about Alice and Wonderland, so reading it now as an adult was an extremely interesting task. While reading the story, I noticed that everything happening to Alice happened because she was curious. The whole reason why she ended up falling down the tunnel into wonderland was because she wanted to see more of the white rabbit. Even though she was a very young child, she was smart enough to recognize that seeing a rabbit with a coat and a stopwatch was something that was out of the norm. So, since she knew this she wanted to further explore this peculiar creature. Furthermore, in my opinion I also feel that Alice’s curiosity sparked everything that happened to her after she fell down the tunnel to wonderland. Since she wanted to know what was behind the small door, she stuck her head through it and found out that it was a beautiful garden. After this, she drunk a potion with a label on the front of the bottle that said “Drink Me”, not knowing what was going to happen to her after she drank it. However, her curiosity caused her to drink this mysterious liquid in a bottle, which started so much more chaos than she originally began with. Ultimately, toward the end of the first half of the book Alice began to wonder how to get anywhere away from all of the weird things that were happening to her in wonderland. So, I think after a while Alice began to appreciate the life she considered to be boring in the beginning of the story and she wanted nothing more than to return back home; however this furthered her curiosity even more because she started to wonder what she needed to do to get back home.

by

Alice in Wonderland

The stories of Alice’s adventures in Wonderland have always been a favorite of mine. I was excited to read Lewis Carroll’s book again from a different perspective now that I am older. One of the first things that surprised me was when Alice was drinking the “drink me” potion, and eating the “eat me” cake. Alice checks the bottle to see if it says poison, and when she sees that it doesn’t she drinks it. When I was younger this didn’t strike me as odd. Now, I think of all the different things that could have happened to Alice other than a change in size. In todays society it does not matter if a drink says poison or not because it could very well be drugged and very dangerous. The fact that Alice drinks and eats what she finds led me to start thinking about how crucial it is that Alice is a child. Any adult in Alice’s position most likely wouldn’t have followed a strange rabbit down a hole in the ground, let alone drink and eat random things they find along the way. A child can sometimes be seen as curious, and naïve. Alice doesn’t imagine this drink as dangerous at all as soon as she sees that it is not marked poison because she is naïve enough to believe that no one would purposely deceive her in such a way. Alice is also a very curious child, but still believes in things many people believe are impossible. Alice’s imagination and curiosity bring her to the amazing world of Wonderland where nothing is impossible. All of her adventures in Wonderland only happen because she doesn’t question whether or not this strange talking rabbit is real or not, but simply, where is he going?

by

Alice in Wonderland

As reading Alice in Wonderland, it very much reminds so of children growing up. As Alice was a very curious girl, so are many young boys and girls growing up. For example, children are very wondrous and want to seem to know the answer to everything, such as “Why do I have to go to school”, and sometimes even more difficult questions such as “Where do babies come from?” Just as how Alice was very curios about many things, such as seeing the rabbit with a waist-coat pocket, it really has her young mind wandering all over. What I noticed is that Alice constantly uses the term “I wonder”, which means she is repetitively using her mind and imagination. This could not be anymore relevant to children today, who are also constantly always wondering why things are the way they are. Also like children, Alice is very careless and carefree. Not caring whether a Wednesday falls on a Monday. As Alice continues to shrink, instead of panicking and behaving frantically, she just continues to wonder what would happen if she continues to get smaller. This innocence shows me that this story is directly for children, as they can relate to it so much.

by

Alice

In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, throughout the story, Alice is very curious about the new things she encounters. We first see Alice being curious when she sees a rabbit going about while she is thinking about what to do. She finds it peculiar that the rabbit had a “waistcoat-pocket” (2) on and even pulls out a pocket watch from it. Out of her curiosity of this peculiar rabbit, she immediately follows him and even jumps in with him when he jumps down a hole “never once considering how in the world to get out again” (3). By jumping in without considering her next actions and the consequences of her actions, Alice appears to be curious because she follows her instincts to learn more about this rabbit which she finds peculiar. In the hole, she begins her journey exploring a new land. To these new things she always says “I wonder.” The usage of “I wonder” shows the reader that she is curious because she’s always questioning things and wondering about them. For example, when she’s falling down the hole, she says to herself, ” I wonder how many miles I’ve fallen by this time” (4) thinking about what is going on. She continues to wonder her location. In addition, later on, she discovers a drink that makes her shrink. She thinks of it as a “curious feeling” (11). She didn’t fear for her life when she continued to shrink but wondered instead, “what [she] should be like [when she goes out] like a candle” (11). Therefore, with her constant wondering and disregard for her safety, Alice seems to be a very curious child.

by

When to Be Big and When to Be Little

I loved to read as a kid, but I didn’t read Alice in Wonderland all the way several years later when I was well into adulthood. I made plenty of attempts as a child, but the book stressed me out. This most recent reading was my third time through the book. I’d say I got over my aversion.

When I was young, during the first attempt, I do remember Alice changing sizes really stressed me out. This happens well before I’d meet the Caterpillar, Cheshire Cat, or the Mad Hatter- all characters I’ve come to really enjoy. I never made it very far into the story because I got so uncomfortable with Alice’s fluctuating height.

Alice isn’t exactly comfortable during these shifts either. She often seems too big or too small to get where she’s going. It occurred to me that I didn’t like when I was  a kid because Alice couldn’t be the right size the situation. She was either too big or too small; she was either too much a child or too grown up. It’s hard for Alice to know what’s expected.  On this most recent reading I got the impression that, like Alice, I got treated like was supposed to be more “grown up” when I was little. I also got treated like was I was “too little” when I knew I was capable of more. As I got older, matured, I started to learn how to act my size.