Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a masterpiece when you get to the core of the story. A young girl named Alice is the narrator of the story, and her journey begins when she follows a White Rabbit down a rabbit hole and into an alternate universe. She experiences some forms of shape shifting as she changes size throughout the story by ingesting random liquids and desserts. She meets a Mouse, has a “Caucus Race” with a few animals that are in the vicinity, and continues on her journey. Alice meets the White Rabbit again, goes into his house, and experiences shape shifting again as she becomes large enough to fit a house. By the time she manages to shrink, she’s already on the way to continue on her adventure, and the next step is her meeting a Caterpillar, whom she has an argument with. After their argument, Alice continues to wander until she’s invited into the house of the Duchess, where she meets the Cheshire Cat, who explains that everyone in Wonderland is mad, including Alice. The Cheshire Cat gives Alice directions to her next destination, the March Hare’s house, and finds the March Hare, the Mad Hatter, and the Dormouse having tea together. The three have supposedly wronged Time and are trapped in tea-time forever, and once again, Alice takes her leave and meets the Queen of Hearts at a croquet ground. The Queen is constantly yelling the phrase, “Off with their head!,” and in the midst of the chaos, Alice continues to wander into the croquet ground. The story continues to progress from this moment into a world of mysteries and lore.
The overall storyline is full of twists and turns and there are plenty of things that aren’t logical, but Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland proves that sometimes, things don’t have to make sense. After all, Alice is a young girl, having a mystical dream – so what if the storyline isn’t reasonable? I’d forgotten that books don’t have to make sense, and if the plot or characters seem “mad,” isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Even though the language that Carroll uses is old and not used the same way it is today, his story is able to reproduce a theme regarding the times when we never thought of things as “mad”; simply put, by reading Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, you have to read with the mindset of someone who has the view of a child, and by doing so, you’re being carried on a journey back to your own childhood. In a sense, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland reminds me of Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, a French tale of a little prince from a foreign planet who bumps into someone on Earth and learns from his outer space travels. Both stories have seemingly harmless plots, but both have aspects where the author inserts their own criticism of adults and society into the characters’ dialogues and the situations that their characters face. When authors are able to incorporate themselves into the stories they weave but position the situation so that it fits whatever creative scenario they decide to take on, as a reader, I’m undeniably happy while reading, and as a writer, I’m in complete amazement. I tend to write pieces that are purely me or purely the character, never quite having found a balance between both, so when others are able to do so, I find it to be a highly respectable talent. Naturally, when the loss of childhood theme is put into place, I get particularly teary eyed, so as expected, both Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Le Petit Prince have made their way onto my favorite books list.
By Joyce
