Pat the Apple Digger

In the chapter “The Rabbit Sends In A Little Bill” there was a short conversation between the rabbit and Pat, whose identity we do not know. Pat said that he was digging for apples and the rabbit calls him a goose.

Could Pat the apple digger be a goose?

In Celtic Ireland, the goose was seen as a symbol of hearth and home, which Celtic people felt strongly about. Since the Rabbit was talking about what to do about the arm in the window of the house, this could mean that Pat is possibly a Goose. But since Carroll does not give us who Pat is, this is just a guess. Then there is the part about Pat digging for apples, which makes no sense to us. But in the margins of The Annotated Alice, Irish Apples was eighteenth hundreds slang that meant Irish potatoes. So then Pat the ‘apple digger’ could be digging up potatoes. But why would Carroll make an Irish character in the story?

The Irish economy was dependent on potatoes, but is there a joke behind it, like it says in the margins of the Annotated Alice?

There is the Irish brogue, or a strong accent, the Irish slang and Pats status. Was Carroll prejudice against Irish? From what I could find, he did have a little of Irish blood in him, but I have failed to find if he was prejudice. But the British were and still not in some areas not friends with the Irish, so he could have shared that trait and included a Irish farmer that served a timid white Rabbit. This is just another point of how different our culture is today then Carrolls time and how we don’t understand Carrolls writing.