Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is an amazing journey of a little girl who uses her imagination to create a world of absolute nonsense. The little girl, Alice, is first seen sitting on the bank, while her sister is reading her a story on a hot summer's day. Shortly after our introduction to Alice, it is presumed that Alice falls asleep, as the White Rabbit appears with his coat and stopwatch. Alice, never seeing this before follows and she journeys into another world, where nothing seems out of the ordinary.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, seems to attract many different readers as the children can read for the fantastical journey and adults can read to understand Lewis Caroll’s satirical humor. For instance, while the Caucus race may seem like a fun game to be played by children where everyone wins, adults understand this to be poking fun at the American government’s use of a democracy, with the North and South battling for control of the country. Likewise, the Queen of Hearts becomes a light hearted representation of Queen Victoria in England. This use of humor found within what is thought to be a child’s book at plain view, becomes much more as Victorian England mentality is throughout. Like a “good Victorian English school girl”, Alice attempts to recite her lessons while in Wonderland, trying to add reason and logic into the world of nonsense; while she does not understand what is fully going on, the reader sees Alice “grow” throughout her adventure. Each time she overcomes an obstacle within Wonderland, Alice grows physically at times (by eating mushrooms or even cake), and mentally as she ventures deeper into the world by herself, fearlessly.
In the end, Alice’s ability to fully immerse herself into her Wonderland, becomes a gate way to the older reader to embrace their own inner child or wonderland and attempt to let loose. Alice’s sister attempts to fully embrace herself within the tale, but “half-believed herself in Wonderland, though she knew she had but to open them again, and all would change to dull reality-” (Caroll 117). Here Wonderland becomes a memory of childhood to be passed on to generations and generations of children, in hopes that they too embrace their wildest dreams.
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I love how you wrote about childhood being a main factor in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Even though the book is, essentially, a children's story it is also an enjoyable read for adults. Alice's adventures kept me reading the story, while Carroll's satire had me laughing along the way. (I especially like when the mouse tells his dry story to dry off his sopping friends!) The sentimentality of the sister at the end of the story is a nice thing to write about, as well. The end of the story "ends" the adult reader's trip back into childhood, but he is also left with the remembrance of childhood memories. The child reader is told at the end of the story to never forget the magic of childhood.
ReplyDeleteI also thought it was really fantastic that Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland attracts people of all ages, adults and children alike, as such a lasting classic tale. I agree on one level that it’s nice for adults to be able to read into the satire of Carroll’s story, but at the same time, I think it’s nice that adults don’t have to. Unlike Kingsley’s Water Babies, where the criticisms of the Americans and the Irish are less-than-discreet, Carroll cloaks all of his satire or criticism with the magic of Wonderland, and you have to work harder to make any sort of interpretation as to Carroll’s motives or intents. This way, Carroll allows his adult readers to come away with the same sense of wonder as children do—which is wonderful, from my point of view. As Freddie says above, the story is sort of a trip back to childhood for adult readers, so it’s kind of nice that we don’t have any sort of authorial interjections to disrupt our imaginations from following Alice and her fantastic adventures.
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