It was nice to read again Alice in Wonderland, (I always think of Alice in Wonderland as Kate's -from East of Eden- favorite book).
First of all I think This book's power to inspire is unique and seems never-ending in art, fashion, music (Melanie Martinez- mad hatter- nice song), and it is also a great provider of intertextuality.
I'm a big fan of onirism (delerium?) and this story has a lot of elements of it, well except of the frame that happens in the garden, it is all the delerium of a dream; Wonderland is the subconscious, the world of dreams. Alice fell down the rabbit hole in a well through cupboards with many books "she was falling for a time, she fell asleep and she dreamed she was hand in hand with her cat Dinah" I hope I'm not forcing things, but this seems to me a "metadream"
About the physical changes, I think it's not only physical (such stretch marks she must have!) and not only about puberty, I translate them also in the things which adults always say to children: "you are too little to go out by yourself" "you are too old to play with dolls" "you are too young to watch that movie" "you are too old to sleep with your light on", I think is confusing always to be told you don't have the right size or age to do some things.
"If i'd only been the right size to do it!"
About Alice, I think she is a very kind and smart young lady, and she is quite intelligent for her age. I saw the identity crisis or better the search of identity: "But if I'm not the same, the next question is, Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle!", and it seemed to me very interesting that she tried to prove her sanity by remembering mathematics and poems, as the only reliable things, but we know in dreams logic doesn't work as we want, and neither gravitation, or movement. So yes, for reality it is absurd, but for Wonderland it is just fine.
We could see "Alice in Wonderland" as a social allegory, the "off with his head" Queen, the law system, tradition (the mad tea party), easily-ofended people (the mouse), the spoiled brat typology (the pig).
What I like the most in Alice in Wonderland are the dialogues with the cat and the catterpillar, and I could perfectly feel Alice's confusion being trapped in a world were she is helpless, where things don't work as usual, questioning her own identity (I think this happens to all of us in dreams). Related to Alice, the criticism is going bananas, it was confusing for me how much sexual elements and symbols a psychoanalyst could find in this story
) and trying to psychoanalyze the author regarding his writing seems quite unfair (they should try that on Dostoievski). I can only say Lewis Carroll created successfully an analogical reality that is very close to a dream, and I enjoyed the fantasy in this book until I tried to read some critical opinions, they ruined all
)