You Were There…and You, and You, and You!

This blog was inspired by Angela Wiseman’s post, http://aliceproject4.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/where-is-the-rabbit-going”

If you’ve seen A Christmas Carol starring the Scrooge, you know he is visited by three ghosts of Christmas. Three ghosts that may be very beneficial to himself molding his future. His future seems to be destined because of the fact that he is even visited by these ghosts. Scrooge is a grumpy, old man who has no Christmas spirit. During the night he is visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future. They show and explain to him what may happen to his life if he continues with his bitter, careless attitude. They show him all the ruthlessness he has committed and also what will happen in the future; a lonely death with no one to even care.

Oh, and here’s the catch: after he realizes what a horrible, cruel life he has been living…he wake up from his dream! After he awakens from a self-induced dream of morality, he goes on to slowly repair his life.

Alice on the other hand has a dream of imagination, playfulness, awkward situations, and irony. We don’t know much about Alice out of Wonderland, only that she seems to be a little girl with an adventure side. Well we can’t really be sure of that fact because it’s all a dream. Perhaps non-Wonderland Alice was the opposite of the story. Like Scrooge, maybe her self-induced dream was to teach herself the morals that she subconsciously knew she needed to learn? She could have been a child too stuck in reality, morbid perhaps. Her dreams surely taught her to imagine and dream. I mean what is a childhood without an imagination?

Happily Ever After…

So in my blog Curiosity Killed the Alice my parting words were “and they lived happily ever after…”. This got me thinking about Alice’s happily ever after. Is Alice happier after her journey to Wonderland? Would she have been better off never chasing that white rabbit?

We all know this is significant for Alice but I don’t think she does. Children rarely understand the impact certain events have on them. Even though it was just a dream, it was a powerful one with many hidden messages that would take her a very long time to uncover and comprehend. I bet that years down the line Alice is still realizing new things about that journey to Wonderland she took so long ago. I’m not sure if happy is the right word to describe Alice after she awakens from Wonderland. I think a better phrase is ‘in awe’. It’s like a kid that just saw Santa Clause or the Tooth Fairy; something that seemed to pop right out of their imaginations and into their real lives.

Staying with the idea that it’s something Alice has always dreamt of, but never expected, was it really what she wanted? Like my fellow blogger Abbie P., I’ve found some lyrics that remind me of Alice.

“What kinda dream is this?
You could be a sweet dream or a beautiful nightmare
Either way I don’t wanna wake up from you
(Turn the lights on)”

This is from the song “Sweet Dream” by Beyonce that replays constantly on the local top 40 radio station (uhh..that I love of course!). While I was jamming out doing blogs I heard it and I instantly felt the connection to Alice in that part of the song. First of all “What kind of dream is this?” That’s the question we’ve all been trying to answer from day one, when Alice fell down the rabbit hole. It goes on to talk about the contradiction, is this just a dream or a nightmare? It’s funny though, because the song still uses the word beautiful to describe the nightmare and I think that is similar to Alice’s situation. Yes, this Wonderland is a bit nightmare-ish, but it is still beautiful in it’s own way. All of the hidden tid-bits of symbolism and social commentary are truly genius and that’s what makes Wonderland so amazing. The last line of those lyrics really hits me, though. Even though this is something scary and new to you where you don’t know what to expect, you STILL want to be apart of it, regardless of the risk. This just proves that the experience and journey are much more valuable than the end result.

So, I don’t think Alice lives ‘happily’ ever after. That’s not quite the emotion I felt when I finished this story. When I ended Alice’s journey with her I felt a sense of relief, that it really was a dream, disappointment that it was over and a feeling of growth and maturing of Alice and myself.  It was almost like that moment when you watch one of those feel-good movies and you sit there and sigh, thinking about what a great story it was and replaying certain scenes in your mind and appreciating the director’s (or author’s in this case) creativity. So amidst Alice’s fumbles and stumbles through Wonderland there was some light at the end of the tunnel.

• What did you think of the book as a whole when you were done reading?
• How did you feel when the journey to Wonderland was over, and we were brought back to reality?

Curiosity Killed the Alice

Oh, Alice. She is a dare devil. Falling down rabbit holes and getting lost in a mysterious world is not the normal agenda of a 7 year old. Didn’t Alice’s mother teacher her anything? When we’re little we are told ‘don’t talk to strangers’ and ‘don’t walk down dark alleys at night’ (in this case it would be a dark rabbit hole). Alice must have missed this little lesson on life because she has no inhibitions.  She’s out there talking to any old animal she meets on the street AND all with out adult supervision. Tsk, tsk, shame on Alice. She thinks more of the short-term and not the long-term consequences of her choices.

Just like a child who wants a cookie before dinner, they don’t think of what they’ve done until they are sitting there with a mouth full of chocolate chip and their hands caught in the cookie jar. Somewhere down the road in Wonderland between the creepy caterpillar doing drugs and the queen obsessed with execution, Alice must have regretted her decision. Even with all that regret, she didn’t have the slightest hesitation with going deeper into Wonderland. She may have worried a bit, but she never faltered on her decision to keep moving forward.

I’m surprised her curiosity outweighed her fear of this strange place she’s now stuck in, but at the same time I’m not. This has been a common theme for stories for so long. Children get carried away by their overwhelming curiosity and end up in some terribly scary situation that they somehow get out of by good luck and some secretly acquired knowledge. Like that little story Hansel and Gretel, where the kids get lost in the forest. They innocently make the mistake of going deeper into the dark woods until they’ve reached the point of no return. They get into a sticky little predicament where a witch is trying to secretly kill them and stick them in an oven, but with their child-like form of intuition-esque knowledge and know-how they escape the witch with their lives and they all lived happily ever after…

Do you see the similarities?

Movie Ticket: $7. Popcorn: $4. Freedom to Imagine: Priceless.

In Lewis Carroll’s story, doesn’t Alice just seem like an inquisitive, cute little girl?

Disney twists this base a bit when Alice is played by a woman seeming unwilling to fall into the rabbit hole. Just the fact that she is played by a woman instead of a little girl takes away the naiveté that Carroll’s Alice needed to even faintly understand Wonderland. Carroll’s Alice really does begin as an innocent little girl with wonders, she makes the decision of jumping down the rabbit hole to chase the white rabbit. Some might this a childish instinct, but maybe its just the key to life, the key to freedom.

Everyone has got to jump down that rabbit hole sometime in their lives.

The story somehow persuades taking risks, ‘live a little’. In the new movie, your creativity is pretty much lost when they put the pictures in your head. Of course that is the point of watching a movie, but we all know the book is always better. I think Carroll wrote the book to allow children to express themselves, to make Wonderland whatever they want it to be.  In the movie trailer, Wonderland seems to be a dark, creepy place; but in Carroll’s story the setting is never really described. It just is what you make it.

The new 2010 Alice movie isn’t out yet, but that gives us the freedom to theorize: How differently can the impact a story gives on people be with the same characters and situations, when you tell(or rather, show) them what to imagine?

There isn’t much freedom is there?

What is a Hookah?

I have noticed quite a few blogs mentioning drugs and other things in this childrens book. What people really mess up on is in chapter five of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland involves the Caterpillar smoking a long hookah. Students have thought that a hookah was a form of drugs that caused the Caterpillars dreamy state.

However, a hookah is a water pipe that was invented in India and found it’s way to the Middle East and Europe. In those countries, the hookah was viewed as a purer way to smoke because it went through the water before the tobacco or other products reached the lungs. The hookah is not as harsh on the lungs as direct smoking because it passes through water, which has lead to the opinion that hookahs are safer than cigarettes. However, studies have shown that smoking a hookah is the same or even less hazardous to a persons health then smoking a cigarette. The hookah at the time I believe was a foreign object that mystified Europeans. This may have been why Carroll use the hookah for his story. Africa, the Middle East and Asia were all, in a sense a dreamlands for the Europeans, so why not include a hookah? Not to mention children werent as protected back then in the 1800′s.

If you are getting curious and curiouser about where I found this information, it was on Wikipedia and other various sites on the internet.

The Caterpillar

In Chapter five Alice comes upon a blue caterpillar smoking a hookah, who has a habit of saying “Who are you?”. The Caterpillars purpose is trying to help Alice remember who she is, although the case is hopeless, as Alice continues to mess up on all the things that the Caterpillar asked of her. Alice failed at telling the Caterpillar who she was, because Alice did not know who she was though the events that had happened before her encounter with the Caterpillar. Alice then failed to give a reason for having the Caterpillar tell her to explain who he was.

When the Caterpillar told Alice to repeat “You are old, Father William”, Alice is unable to repeat the tale, but does give a different version of the tale, but of course the Caterpillar is displeased. Now I have heard that the Caterpillar is the symbol or voice of wisdom in “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, and the he does say some wise things to Alice, but in my opinion is simply annoying.

The Caterpillar telling Alice to keep her temper was pretty good, but how is a young child expected to keep their tempers in check?

Then the Caterpillar saying that he doesn’t know what it is like to change very often and asking if she was content, because she hadn’t changed. Then he told her that she would get used to the creatures in Wonderland getting so easily offended. This is in my opinion is wisdom, because Alice would get used to it despite that she is not used to it right now. The Caterpillar is the symbol of wisdom, but is also annoying in the way he presents his ideas.

The Mock Turtle

In chapter nine we meet the crying and sorrowful Mock Turtle. The Gryphon, like he had done when saying that the Queen was fun, said that the Mock Turtle was not actually sad. The turtle is just mocking in a cruel way those who are truly sad. Then there is the way that the Mock Turtle mocks Alice’s education and he makes fun of all the subjects that she has learned.

Why did Carroll make a character such as this?

The girl that he wrote this book for might have seen this passage as funny for the Mock Turtle to turn every subject into something that sea creatures do. This is actually quite humorous to most children for the Mock Turtle to pick at such details. The fact that the Mock Turtle would pick at the washing at the end of the bill made tha school a good one could mention towards were the real Alice Linndel’s school.

In a way the Mock Turtle resimbales a parent who expects that their child should know everything.

The Mock Turtles name is actually quite acturate because of his nature to mock Alice, either in a simple way or a complicated way that left poor Alice quite puzzled. As it says in the margins of chapter nine, mock turtle soup was made of veal, not turtle. This is the reason why the Mock Turtle sings his song about how beautiful soup is. “Turtle Soup” was the name of the song, and since the turtle is the Mock Turtle, he therefore made fun of turtle soup. The Mock Turtle would also be an example of Carroll pointing towards dreams, because dreams have a habit of mocking real life experiences.

The Caucus-Race

In chapter three, “A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale”, that there was a Caucus-Race that the Dodo suggested.

Could the Caucus-Race be a simple image of how repetitive children are?

First, the animals ruin the mouse’s story about the Normans coming to England, and thus they decide to play a game. This is common for children to lose interest in a lesson or when working and want to go off and play a game. The need to run around around in a circle at random is a common action for kids to play. The animals are now all tired, and so want to know who won.

How is a child expected to know who won?

So therefore, all the animals win, but like all children, they want prizes. One of them says that Alice should give out the prizes, and so they all put pressure on Alice until she gives all of them prizes. This is how all children think, that they should receive prizes from others, but that they should not be the ones to hand out the prizes from there own pockets. Another why of how children think is the need for everyone should have prizes, while if there was a true winner, they would think that only they should get a prize, because they worked for it. While this is fair for all the children, the child will then typically think that is how the world works, giving them a real shock when they get into a high level competition.  Then Afterwards, the animals all gather up and listen to the mouse’s story. This is the children all relaxing and listening to another’s story. Then everything breaks apart and the children go to where ever they want to go, although the creatures go away because Alice talked about how Dinah is so good at killing animals and birds.

The Trial

In chapter eleven the Knave of Hearts has been accused of stealing the Queens tarts, and the King is quite willing to execute the Knave without a fair trial. The White Rabbit has to remind the King the rules and protocol of the trial. In chapter three the mouse tells the tale about how Fury will be judge and jury and condemn the mouse to death. Could this trial by Fury be the same trial that the King is having with the Knave? The King is the judge, and in a way the jury because the creatures that make up the jury will do anything that the King asks them to do. The King does have a temper, but is not furious, and is not all that clever as Fury from the mouse’s tale.

But all the same, the King is eager to condemn the Knave to death. The White Rabbit is the only one who makes sure that the King stays within the bounds of the court. The first two witness’s against the Knave don’t even talk about the Knave himself. But in truth, there is not that much evidence against the Knave, though he does make a statement in chapter twelve that points out he had some knowledge of the letter of the thief by saying that the letter wasn’t signed, which could mean that he had written the letter. In chapter twelve tries to get Alice out of the court by inventing a new rule, and then gets crushed by the fact that if the rule was the oldest, it would have been number one. The King also tries to make some out of the letter which didn’t make any sense at all. The King said that because there was no meaning in the letter would make it easier to understand, and then tried to relate some of the verses with the Knave that could connect the Knave to the Letter. Then the King tells the Queen that she never has fits, on which she throws an inkstand at Bill the lizard. After this event the trial goes out of the Kings hands and the Queen is calling for sentences before verdicts and for Alice to be beheaded.

So then, the tale that the mouse gave in chapter three does relate to the trial that was done in chapters 11 and 12 and that Fury( the King) was going to condemn the mouse( the Knave) to death while being both judge and jury.

The Cheshire Cat

What is the purpose of the Cheshire Cat in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland?

The smiling, disappearing cat was the first one to describe Wonderland as “mad” and tells Alice why he is mad by his dog/cat comparisons. At other times the Cheshire cat simply gives advise to Alice or asks questions about Alice’s experiences as she journeys through Wonderland. The Cheshire cat always wants specifics from Alice, as we can see from the Cheshire Cat asking were she wanted to go to and saying that she can get anywhere if she walked long enough and asking her if she said ‘pig’ or ‘fig’. But overall the Cheshire Cat gives out logical advise to Alice. The Cheshire cat does what Alice asks, since he did disappear slower when she asked and did tell her were the March Hare lived and the Mad Hatter when she asked who lived around the wood.

The Cheshire Cat also made an appearance before Alice in the croquet game. The Cheshire Cat does not talk much talk, but he does say that he would rather not kiss the Kings hand and stayed but did not talk during the conversation between the King and the executioner. Then there is a part in which Alice say’s “A cat may look at a King”, which may show how insecure the King may be about disobedience to him, though he allows the Queen to go off in her rages. The Cheshire Cat may have stayed long enough to hear the argument between the King and the executioner because the argument did fit in my opinion the Cheshire Cats personality. Although the true point of the Cheshire’s Cat’s appearance does not seem to have any importance to me, it may have some other meaning that I have not found yet.

Could the Cheshire cat be in some abstract way be the ‘voice’ of reason and logic in the sea of madness that is Wonderland?

Maybe, but the Cheshire Cat is simply pointing out to Alice that she is being way to vague and unreasonable. The cat also does the same with the King of Hearts, when the King asked for the Cheshire cat to look away and kiss his hand, both of which are pointless.