Tag Archives: Alice in wonderland

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Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland is a book that can be interpreted in many different ways. Just as it has been translated into many different languages, it carries different meanings for different people. Some feel it is just a children’s book, nothing to pay much attention to. It is filled with “nonsensical things” such as talking animals and absurd ideas. I think this is the beauty of this book. The fact that it can be interpreted in so many ways. There are so many abstract ideas and hidden themes in this book that I would have probably never seen had I not done such a close reading.  I think in many ways “Children’s Literature’ isn’t just for children. In the case of Alice I feel that this is clear. The themes and the underlying messages make this story very appealing. Reading this closely I feel as though I’m actually reading it as a child is. The deeper I read the less I see these things as nonsense, (although very unlikely), it’s a lot deeper than that. I honestly don’t know if this was Caroll’s intention but it really had me thinking. And also after reading this book, I’m tempted to watch the Disney version again, and pick out the differences and see if I can still pick up on these hidden themes.

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Falling deeper into the rabbit hole

As mentioned a lot in class, there is a lot to talk about when it comes to Alice in Wonderland.  Through a child’s eye we see the world differently and think of this story as nothing more but a fun journey full of vibrant and odd characters that will capture anyone’s attention, but is this really meant for children or was Lewis Carroll’s attention something more that he only wanted adults to understand?

Many Disney movies for instance, as we brought up in class are based of a more Grimm tale that is more of a tragedy rather then something we would expose a child too, I wonder if  this was  intentional so that we grow up to uncover the real truth ourselves and learn life lessons into our adulthood.  I also agree with other peers and the professor, that movies and the books are two totally different things that portray the story in their own version of it. Books are usually more detailed, where as the movies are more sweet and not as violent because they tend to cut off a lot of scenes we read in a book to make for a movie.

I’m sure that all over the world, people continue to seek an explanation for the stories, a deeper understanding or higher level of meaning, but I believe this is to be a pointless exercise. In the end, Alice was created for children, and it requires no great intellect to fully understand and enjoy her adventures. Even though, the story consists of violence like the animals being kicked around in a game, or Alice wondering off and almost drowning, and drugs even it still captures a child’s attention because they have yet to understand the truth. Despite the bizarre imagery and dreamy tone, I think that’s what makes this story so interesting through a child’s perspective because it makes them feel as if they are almost on an adventures themselves as they watch it unfold.

There’s a lot to think about when it comes to Alice like her curiosity, but that’s how children are they are curious too and a lot of the time just trying to make sense of their surroundings, because that’s how a child learns. The argument of uncovering the truth behind the authors attentions of Alice in Wonderland has been something we been trying to figure out for years, Personally I just think as we get older we just notice things more and view it differently but that doesn’t necessarily mean it shouldn’t be meant for a child too. No matter how people judge it, I grew up watching it myself and it remains one of my favorites.

 

 

 

 

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Alice In Wonderland, Story of a dimwit?

Through out Alice in Wonderland,by Lewis Carroll Alice is always found in an odd situations. These situations cause her question everything that occurs around her and find an explanation if necessary. While her attempt at trying to figure out what is happening to her is a sign of intelligence, her thoughts themselves end up being just as nonsensical or odd as the situation she is in. Alice’s thoughts begin in a reasonable place but she loses focus and her thoughts stray from their origin. Worse yet when she encounters a problem she failed to solve on her first attempt she becomes discouraged and cries.On the other hand even while she is in this state she actually still tells herself to keep a level head and think things through. This could be attributed to her age(which is believed, by scholars, to be seven based on her age in the sequel stories) but since her age is never explicitly stated one could argue against this. There is one scene in particular that shows just how dysfunctional Alice’s thoughts are. When she is at the white rabbits and she grows enormous, she takes talks about growing up but thinks that because her height is already larger than it should be she assumes she has already grown up. This shows she attributes aging to her height and nothing else. This scene immediately made her appear like a dimwit.

While Alice does not regularly have brilliant thoughts, or the ability to keep one thought in her mind for too long, she does display at least one good trait: the ability to learn. This is shown whenever she is in a situation that alters her physical height. When she first turned small she knew that she had to find something else to eat in order to change to her normal height. This is the only consistent thing in her thinking. Whenever she finds her height changed she knows she must eat something to alter her height.

 

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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.

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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.

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Alice in Wonderland

alice in wonderland

For years I loved the idea of getting lost in a fantasy world. It seemed exciting to wander off and encounter unusual things. Alice in Wonderland is great because the protagonist does just that; nothing has to make sense in this place and it’s one long wondrous adventure.  However, the story does mostly consist of Alice facing challenging situations and various forms of discomfort. The mouse, rabbit and caterpillar have strong personalities. This demonstrates that there will always be others who will challenge you in some way. Also, she continues to experiment with her physical growth and trying to “fit in” and be accepted.  As much of a fantasy world this might be, Alice deals with issues that all people must face throughout their lifetime. When people speak about “growth” they’re usually not referring to physical growth issues that Alice is dealing with but this a great way to relay information about psychological and emotional development to children. The nonsensical language can be either confusing or humorous and charming but either way it does make the reader think.

alice rabbit house

I loved a few parts of the story because they really made me laugh and are quite relatable. When Alice is in White Rabbit’s house and physically outgrows the house after drinking from one of his bottles, she starts to think about how much pleasanter it was at home than everything she is currently dealing with and at one point she says to herself,”…That’ll be a comfort, one way-never to be an old woman-but then-always to have lessons to learn! Oh, I shouldn’t like that!” I interpreted this to mean that she figures she won’t grow old because she is literally as big as she can grow, therefore in one way she is now a “grownup” but because she is still young age wise, she will still have to continue learning, unlike adults who know everything they need to know. When I was a child I  used to believe that adults knew everything because they are the ones who governed children, so of course I wanted to hurry up and become an adult so that I could know everything too. I find this line humorous because Lewis Carroll found a way to communicate messages that not only children can relate to but adults as well, since after all, they were once children and will understand the naivety. My favorite character thus far is The Caterpillar, it appears to have a strong sense of self, which is intimidating to Alice but it’s ironic because it’s not even a butterfly yet so it actually has a lot more transformation and learning to experience. What comes across as a strong sense of self through condescending and contemptuous language is actually another form of ignorance/naivety, which contrasts Alice’s self-doubt and shyness. Both characters have things that they can learn from one another just as in real life.

caterpillar alice