Lily Andersen
Mrs. Hellem
English-4
10 May 2016
Curiouser and curiouser
Whoever said fairytales are for everyone was right. Alice’s Wonderland is a dream come true, filled with talking flowers, clothes-wearing animals and colorful characters. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has long been a fanciful escape for young children and adults everywhere with the intent of exercising their imaginations and preserving their youth. But is this truly what Lewis Carroll wanted his novel to accomplish? Carroll creates an unusual and unique perspective and development of a child through Alice by describing her relationships with various characters. It’s interesting—one might even say curious—that Carroll’s story is often read as a fantasy but rarely as …show more content…
Alice’s crochet game with the Queen of Hearts is suggestive of young children’s process of learning to self-sooth and tame their anger. The Queen is a woman in a position of influence, suggesting that anger and sadness are powerful and consuming emotions. The Queen soon throws a fit, “Off with her head!” (Carroll 96). This symbolizes the upheaval of Alice’s emotions are in and her struggles to control them. Alice then eases this anger and sadness by diffusing the situation within herself, exhibiting major self-control. Similarly, Alice’s interactions with the Duchess symbolize children’s more positive natural attributes like curiosity, lightheartedness and their process in learning boundaries with them. Michael D`Ambrosio states that, “Alice, on the other hand, reasserts her innocence and prudence by maintaining that things don’t always have morals and should be accepted on face value” (1075). The Duchess is also a woman of power, and her status symbolizes the importance of optimism and positivity at all ages. The Duchess’s obsession with morals suggests that too narrow of focus can cloud one’s vision and causes people to make flaweddecisions. The Duchess displays her fondness for morals, saying, “’Tis so,” said the Duchess: “and the moral of that is—‘Oh, ’tis love, ’tis love, that makes the world go ‘round!’” (Carroll 109-110). The two …show more content…
The frequent resizing of Alice at start of the novel and her resulting problems help readers understand children’s process of maturity. When Alice shrinks, this is representative of her desire to stay young and childish to escape from the adult world. Michael D`Ambrosio encapsulates this best, writing “Thus the idea of change becomes a dominant theme—physical as well as political and social change” (1074-1075). In the beginning of the novel, Alice is uncertain about her path to growing up. She finds a tiny doorway to a beautiful garden that represents childhood and being forever fresh and young. But Alice finds difficulty returning to the maturity level of a child, saying “And even if my head would go through… it would be of very little use without my shoulders. Oh, how I wish I could shut up like a telescope! I think I could, if I only knew how to begin” (Carroll 7). This shows that she is capable and mature because Alice takes into account the physiological impossibilities of this endeavor and comparatively, the improbabilities of being able to remain a child. Alice also shows her maturity when she is faced with the sudden realization that she cannot stay a child forever and must begin to grow up. Alice wisely calms herself, saying “Come, there’s no use in crying like that… But it’s no use
Mrs. Hellem
English-4
10 May 2016
Curiouser and curiouser
Whoever said fairytales are for everyone was right. Alice’s Wonderland is a dream come true, filled with talking flowers, clothes-wearing animals and colorful characters. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has long been a fanciful escape for young children and adults everywhere with the intent of exercising their imaginations and preserving their youth. But is this truly what Lewis Carroll wanted his novel to accomplish? Carroll creates an unusual and unique perspective and development of a child through Alice by describing her relationships with various characters. It’s interesting—one might even say curious—that Carroll’s story is often read as a fantasy but rarely as …show more content…
Alice’s crochet game with the Queen of Hearts is suggestive of young children’s process of learning to self-sooth and tame their anger. The Queen is a woman in a position of influence, suggesting that anger and sadness are powerful and consuming emotions. The Queen soon throws a fit, “Off with her head!” (Carroll 96). This symbolizes the upheaval of Alice’s emotions are in and her struggles to control them. Alice then eases this anger and sadness by diffusing the situation within herself, exhibiting major self-control. Similarly, Alice’s interactions with the Duchess symbolize children’s more positive natural attributes like curiosity, lightheartedness and their process in learning boundaries with them. Michael D`Ambrosio states that, “Alice, on the other hand, reasserts her innocence and prudence by maintaining that things don’t always have morals and should be accepted on face value” (1075). The Duchess is also a woman of power, and her status symbolizes the importance of optimism and positivity at all ages. The Duchess’s obsession with morals suggests that too narrow of focus can cloud one’s vision and causes people to make flaweddecisions. The Duchess displays her fondness for morals, saying, “’Tis so,” said the Duchess: “and the moral of that is—‘Oh, ’tis love, ’tis love, that makes the world go ‘round!’” (Carroll 109-110). The two …show more content…
The frequent resizing of Alice at start of the novel and her resulting problems help readers understand children’s process of maturity. When Alice shrinks, this is representative of her desire to stay young and childish to escape from the adult world. Michael D`Ambrosio encapsulates this best, writing “Thus the idea of change becomes a dominant theme—physical as well as political and social change” (1074-1075). In the beginning of the novel, Alice is uncertain about her path to growing up. She finds a tiny doorway to a beautiful garden that represents childhood and being forever fresh and young. But Alice finds difficulty returning to the maturity level of a child, saying “And even if my head would go through… it would be of very little use without my shoulders. Oh, how I wish I could shut up like a telescope! I think I could, if I only knew how to begin” (Carroll 7). This shows that she is capable and mature because Alice takes into account the physiological impossibilities of this endeavor and comparatively, the improbabilities of being able to remain a child. Alice also shows her maturity when she is faced with the sudden realization that she cannot stay a child forever and must begin to grow up. Alice wisely calms herself, saying “Come, there’s no use in crying like that… But it’s no use