Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll

This blog will be about Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland”. My first impression of this book was that it started off as story about a little naive girl that does anything she is instructed. For example, when she finds a bottle, a cake and a mushroom which are instructed to eat or drink, she does so without thinking of the consequences. However, throughout the book she learns to be independent and make her own choices. In the end, when the prosecution of Knave takes place, Alice finds herself defending Knave even though everyone is against him and finds herself confident enough to say “You’re nothing but a pack of cards!” (Carroll, 1865). After which she finds herself waking up next to her sister where the story started off.

A pattern that occurs in the book is wordplay, their meanings and their meaninglessness. This is also a thing that has been discussed in the class discussions. It starts when Alice falls into the rabbit hole where she starts questioning everything the world takes for granted, especially language. In the book, sentences and words are twisted so that they mean different things at once, causing misunderstandings and confrontations between characters. For example in the Caucus-race the Mouse misunderstands Alice and leaves her offended. Another pattern that was consistent throughout the story is her eating and drinking things that leave her growing and shrinking. ““What a curious feeling!” said Alice; “I must be shutting up like a telescope!”” (Carroll, 1865, p. 6). She says this after drinking the potion that caused her to shrink. The shrinking and growing that Alice goes through symbolizes growing up from childhood to adulthood and the changes of size and sometimes identity it brings.

The class discussion was about the symbolization of the garden she desperately wants to get into and thus does anything she is instructed in order to get there. We thought this garden represents adulthood, as a child you would like to be older and not a child anymore and when she ends up in the garden she finds philosophical puzzles and existential problems that confuse her very much, just like adulthood can be very confusing at times. When she meets the Caterpillar the first thing he asks her who she is. ““Who are YOU?” said the Caterpillar. This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly “I-I hardly know sir, just at present- at least I know who I WAS when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.”” (Carroll, 1865, p. 34). Alice tries to find a consistent answer to his question throughout the whole story, this means that she is unsure of her identity because this is all very new for her. According to Appleyard (1991) the child leaves the familiar world of family and home and enters a wider world of peers and non-familial adults. This is also the case with Alice because when she enters Wonderland, she leaves her family and home behind and meets new characters of which most of them are non-familial adults.

Since Alice is seven and a half years old according to the sequel “Through the Looking Glass” also by Lewis Carroll, she could be categorized into the “Industry vs. Inferiority” stage created by Erikson in his theory of psychosocial development (1970). This is also clear in the story, in the beginning, Alice feels the need to win approval by demonstrating tasks which are valued by society. When she is instructed to eat or drink something, she does.

I can partly identify with the Duchess because she is a chaotic character who is furious one minute and affectionate the next. She likes moralizing and justice just like I do.

I do not think that this book is suitable for young adults, since young adults are aged 13-18 years old. This book symbolizes the transition from childhood to adulthood, which most young adults have already passed. “Children aged 7-12 read books that have to do with discovering information about the world they live in, such as books about nature, animals, adult occupations and how things work.” (Appleyard, 1991). This description of books matches Carroll’s book because his book is about how things work.

My last impression is that this book is so much more than a story about a naive girl. It is about childhood and adulthood, dreams and reality and words, their meanings and meaninglessness. The underlying meanings or even meaninglessness made me thoroughly enjoy reading this book that seemed simply about a girl in a wonderland.

Bibliography:

Appleyard, J. A. (1994). Becoming a Reader. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.

Carroll, L. (1865). The adventures of Alice in Wonderland (1st ed.). New York, Verenigde Staten: Macmillan Publishers.

Erikson, E.H. (1970). Reflections on the dissent of contemporary youth., International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 51, 11-22