Comparing Power In Treasure Island And Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

When children grow up to become adults, an essential part of this process is learning the structures of power around them that are embedded into society. Though exposure to structures of power can come from first-hand experience, it can also derive from literature. Trites expresses that children’s literature “often affirms the child’s sense of self and personal power” and young adult literature has “protagonists explore where they fit in within structures of power such as family, school, government, …” (3). Treasure Island and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland fit into both of Trites’ descriptions of children’s and young adult’s literature. In both books, the protagonists, Alice and Jim, develop as individuals as they explore where they fit …show more content…
Although Carroll imitates Alice succumbing to the stereotype of being motherly towards the animals in Wonderland, Alice breaks free from this stereotype when she speaks up to the Queen. When the Queen tells Alice “Speak when you’re spoken to!”, Alice cleverly responds, “But if everybody obeyed that rule, …nobody would ever say anything –” (Carroll 220). As Ren states, Alice “inherits the typical femaleness of a Victorian woman” while simultaneously “displays features of a male hero like assertiveness and independence” (1659). Alice disobeys the expectations of being a Victorian female and child by speaking her mind without being asked to first. Though Alice fits into the Victorian stereotype of femininity, she also has the agency to push beyond those boundaries by exhibiting masculine traits. In Treasure Island, Jim is surrounded by some characters who are clear-cut pirates or gentlemen, while other characters fall somewhere in between. Stevenson gives Jim agency by providing him with fluidity between the expectations of a pirate and gentleman. When comparing Jim to the epitome of a gentleman (Dr. Livesey) and a pirate (Israel Hands), Jim’s agency becomes more apparent. Unlike Dr. Livesey, Jim is empathetic towards others – which proves to be a valuable trait to have. Whereas Jim “burst into a flood of tears” over Billy Bone’s death, Dr. Livesey, upon thinking Jim may have died, continues boasting about himself (Stevenson 24). Additionally, Jim’s repulsion towards Israel Hands for killing crewmate O’Brien portrays his dislike for the more brutish aspects of pirate life, as he expresses to Hands: “But if I was you…I would go to my prayers, like a Christian man” (Stevenson 135). For both scenarios, Jim’s empathy separates him from the molds of being a gentleman and pirate. Thus, his agency lies in the