Sarah Gilead wrote an essay that analyzes the closure in children’s fantasy, including Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The title of her essay is the first sign in reference to her accepting Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as fantasy. In her essay, she talks about recovery and consolation in children’s fantasy. Gilead’s analysis of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland reiterates to the reader how Alice has matured: “the ending suggests the successful maturation of the child protagonist” (283). As Tolkien said in his essay, recovery “includes return and renewal of health” (57). By articulating that Alice has matured, Carroll gives us a sense of recovery in its own by showing that Alice has grown up, is healthy, and has her own children. Gilead says that the last pages of Alice in Wonderland “postulate that the adult can recapture childhood or that childhood innocence can persist in the adult’s storytelling imagination” (283) and I believe that this is exactly what Carroll meant to showcase in the last paragraph of his book.
