Themes In Frank Beddor's The Looking Glass Wars

In Frank Beddor´s The Looking Glass Wars, the author puts a twist on the story of Alice in Wonderland. Beddor writes the tale from the perspective of Alyss, the princess of Wonderland who had to escape her queendom when her evil aunt Redd attacks the palace. She ends up alone in the middle of England taken in by the Liddles until she returns to Wonderland with Dodge Anders to reclaim the throne. When these changes were made to the story, real significance was provided with meaningful themes throughout the book. For example, the will to live is evident in Alyss, Dodge, and Redd. One character with the will to live is Alyss. Once Alyss had returned to Wonderland, Redd was alerted and ordered her glass eyes to kill everyone in the Alyssian camp. …show more content…
However, it is for evil reasons. When Redd was younger, she was going to become the next queen. That was until she became obsessed with black imagination. Because of this, her mother, Theodora, said that her younger sister, Genevieve would be queen instead. Her anger led her to kill her mother and run away from the palace to Mount Isolation. Her goal then was to take her rightful place as queen and to do that she had to live. Her will to live was tested when Alyss came back from England to take the throne from Redd. Alyss attacked Redd face to face and when Alyss conjured doubles of herself, Redd said, “I don’t have time to dillydally”(339). Redd was ready to battle Alyss to keep her place as queen and to keep herself alive. As the battle went on Alyss started winning and towards the end Redd knew she had no chance against her niece. She did what she had to do and Alyss “watched with disbelieving eyes as Redd launched herself into the Heart Crystal”(347). Redd did this because she knew it was the only way to survive and to come back and be queen again. She took a serious risk by doing this. She didn’t know what would happen, she just knew that it was the only way she had a chance at staying