Jane Gallop's Alice In Wonderland

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As this may not be surprising to all, the wonderful world of Disney has long been accused of hiding subliminal messages in its animated films loved by everyone especially children. From hundredths of animated films produced by Walt Disney Productions with today’s internet era one might not know what is truth or fake about Disney movies. From hearing multiples rumors about the dirty, hidden messages in Disney movies I decided to do what Jane Gallop calls “Close Reading” (looking at what is actually on the page, reading the text itself, rather than some idea “ Behind the text ) on one of my favorite childhood movies Alice in Wonderland also known as Alice Adventures in Wonderland. Through the lenses of Gallop I would be close reading the film, and looking deep into some “surprising elements” that one might not notice when focusing just on the main idea Disney wants the audience to see. Alice in Wonderland, otherwise known as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, is a staple of literature running for centuries. Many wonder whether Lewis Carrol intentionally snuck hidden messages into the story to hide his own psychological feelings about his sexuality, admiration for photography and the love for little girls. Others are convince that the story is a metaphor for a huge psychedelic drug trip or simply A STORY WITH SEXUAL UNDERTONE. The central theme that everyone knowns is Alice’s struggle to adapt to the rules of this new world: metaphorically speaking, it is Alice way of adapting to the strange rules and behaviors of adulthood. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland seemed a good deal less innocent when challenging the idea of magic cakes, secret doors, grinning cats and warbling turtles. …show more content…
By challenging the main idea “is a way of learning not to disregard those features of the text that attract our attention, but are not principal ideas” (Gallop 8.) Re-examining the text content, I found plenty of inappropriate imagery, from the rabbit hole itself to the phallic look alike caterpillar. Lock and keys were seen as symbolic of coitus, and the different type of drugs seen in the film used by the different characters. So what is the real message behind Alice journey to wonderland? Many others viewed Alice’s journey as being less about sex and more about a girl’s progress through childhood and puberty into adulthood. Everyone has their own interpretation of the movies but to me Alice in Wonderland is not as innocent as Disney portray it to be. In one of the scenes we see a caterpillar smoking a hookah on top of a giant mushroom- might just be all that. But what we tend not to see is that the movie is filled with drug imagery such as tobacco, mushrooms, LSD, cocaine and crystal meth. The different character Alice encounter through wonderland …show more content…
So what does this really mean? “Falling down the rabbit hole” to many psychologist represents female genitalia. Analyzing the content and the background of the originally story book, I discovered that Carrol became sexually attach to Alice which became an inspiration to his stories of Alice in Wonderland. “Lewis Carrol, having an unconventional relationship with the young Alice Liddell, wrote Alice in Wonderland” out of motivation and fear. Carroll’s motivation was the hope that someday Alive would be able to be his love; he fear was that if she did not reach womanhood successfully, she would end up like many women of the Victorian era that he loathed” ( O’Sullivan,

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