Being one of the most known and savored English novella ever since published in 1865, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland tells of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy Wonderland populated by unusual, even grotesque anthropomorphic creatures and attempts to come to terms with the puzzle of Wonderland as she undergoes great individual changes while entrenched in Wonderland. The adventure can actually be seen as an odyssey to foreign lands-- a voyage of growth.
The writer, Lewis Carroll, prefaced the story with an intriguing prefatory verse indicating part of the allusions, themes and motifs of the ensuing story going to be told. Scenes shift swiftly and plots thicken amusingly while our protagonist, Alice, follows the White Rabbit down a well and pursues him through Wonderland. After swimming in the pool of tears, competing in a “Caucus Race,” getting stuck in the White Rabbit’s house, wandering off into the forest, coming across the house of the Duchess, joining the tea party at March Hare’s house, she finally gains control over her size and enters the garden previously seen, where she is sent to visit the Mock Turtle with the Gryphon and later participates in the trial of the Knave of Hearts. Following the climax at the court, she realizes that Wonderland is a sham and knocks over the Queen’s army of playing cards, causing her to wake up and dispel the dream of Wonderland. The story was wound up with Alice’s sister pondering her adventures and the meaning of it.
In literal aspect, the tale plays with logic, allegory, parody, science, mathematics and abundant linguistic conventions like pun, symbol and anagram. With humorous wording, agile narrating, and adaptive point-of-views (mostly in third person, occasionally in first and second person,) the narrator follows Alice around on her travels and voices her thoughts and feelings with a rather straightforward tone, making the reading extremely entertaining, even exciting as we recognize more symbols and discovering more clues chapter by chapter. These features give the story lasting popularity with children as well as adults. In fact, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is considered to be one of the best examples of the literary nonsense genre. Its narrative course and structure have been enormously influential, especially in the fantasy genre.
In contextual aspect, two themes are obviously portrayed in the story: growth and puzzle-like essence of life.
On one hand, Alice goes through a variety of absurd physical changes. The discomfort she feels at never being the right size may symbolize the changes occurring during puberty. As we can see, these changes can be uneasy, frustrating even traumatic to her. (E.g. in Chapter 5, she loses control over specific body parts and her neck grows to an absurd length.) However, different sizes provide her different sights into the world as well. Thus, the constant fluctuations of her size may represent the way a child feels as her body grows and changes during puberty. On the other hand, Alice’s mental ability and occupational performance make significant progress in the whole course. When she first gets to the hall and finds herself in the uncanny situation which gets her nowhere, she can barely keep her saneness and composure (as formerly shown in 1st chapter) to keep herself from panicking and crying. Yet, as her dream draws to a close, she is brave, self-possessed and able to hold herself against the most baffling logic and preposterous trail on the court. Her growth into a giant in the end may reflect her interior sight as she grows and becomes much stronger. Either aspect shows that the adventure is used as a metaphor of both physical and mental growth.
Second theme—“life can be similar to a meaningless puzzle” is much more obscure. Yet the trail is there, especially in the poems and songs. As the storyline unfolds, Alice encounters a series of puzzles that seem to have no clear solutions, just like the way life frustrates expectations. Alice tries to understand the Caucus race, solve the Mad Hatter’s riddle, and understand the Queen’s ridiculous croquet game, but all end in vain. In every instance, the riddles and challenges presented to Alice have no purpose or answer. Lewis Carroll makes a farce out of words, jokes, riddles, and games of logic in wonderland. Alice, as well as the readers, gets to understand that a certain logic or meaning simply cannot be found in the situations she encounters, even when they appear to be problems that would normally have solutions we could figure out. The fact that life frustrates expectations and resists interpretation is sometimes cruel yet real in the course of our life.
In conclusion, growth can be uneasy, life can be puzzle-like, yet we can always find a reconciliation between our inner self and the outer world by duly learning, challenging, sometimes accepting things as they are. While growing can change our thoughts and strengthen our mind, understanding and embrace a rather unexplainable world can be the happiest solution to life when there’s no way out. The best thing we can do is to give everything a try, including believing some things will never be able to logicalize by us. After all, Life is an adventure.
On one hand, Alice goes through a variety of absurd physical changes. The discomfort she feels at never being the right size may symbolize the changes occurring during puberty. As we can see, these changes can be uneasy, frustrating even traumatic to her. (E.g. in Chapter 5, she loses control over specific body parts and her neck grows to an absurd length.) However, different sizes provide her different sights into the world as well. Thus, the constant fluctuations of her size may represent the way a child feels as her body grows and changes during puberty. On the other hand, Alice’s mental ability and occupational performance make significant progress in the whole course. When she first gets to the hall and finds herself in the uncanny situation which gets her nowhere, she can barely keep her saneness and composure (as formerly shown in 1st chapter) to keep herself from panicking and crying. Yet, as her dream draws to a close, she is brave, self-possessed and able to hold herself against the most baffling logic and preposterous trail on the court. Her growth into a giant in the end may reflect her interior sight as she grows and becomes much stronger. Either aspect shows that the adventure is used as a metaphor of both physical and mental growth.
Second theme—“life can be similar to a meaningless puzzle” is much more obscure. Yet the trail is there, especially in the poems and songs. As the storyline unfolds, Alice encounters a series of puzzles that seem to have no clear solutions, just like the way life frustrates expectations. Alice tries to understand the Caucus race, solve the Mad Hatter’s riddle, and understand the Queen’s ridiculous croquet game, but all end in vain. In every instance, the riddles and challenges presented to Alice have no purpose or answer. Lewis Carroll makes a farce out of words, jokes, riddles, and games of logic in wonderland. Alice, as well as the readers, gets to understand that a certain logic or meaning simply cannot be found in the situations she encounters, even when they appear to be problems that would normally have solutions we could figure out. The fact that life frustrates expectations and resists interpretation is sometimes cruel yet real in the course of our life.
In conclusion, growth can be uneasy, life can be puzzle-like, yet we can always find a reconciliation between our inner self and the outer world by duly learning, challenging, sometimes accepting things as they are. While growing can change our thoughts and strengthen our mind, understanding and embrace a rather unexplainable world can be the happiest solution to life when there’s no way out. The best thing we can do is to give everything a try, including believing some things will never be able to logicalize by us. After all, Life is an adventure.
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