KidLit Forum

Over this book there it is very well illustrated the loss of childhood innocence. I think that all the changes that Alice suffers are clear evidences of the maturation’s process. In the book Alice goes through a variety of absurd physical changes. She feels a huge discomfort at never being the right size, fact that can be associated for the changes that occur during puberty. Moreover, Alice finds all these changes traumatic and feels sadness when finding herself too small or too big to enter the garden. I believe all these fluctuations represent the way a child may feel as her body grows and changes during puberty.

What I also find interesting is the concept of life as a puzzle. In the book, Alice encounters a series of puzzles that seem to have no clear solutions. She expects the situations she encounters to have a certain kind of sense, but they frustrate her ability to understand. She tries to understand the Caucus race, solve the Mad Hatter’s Riddle, but to no benefits. In every instance, the riddles have no purpose or answer. During the book, Alice learns that she cannot expect to find logic or meaning even in situations that would normally have solutions that she would be able to figure out. Through these incidents I believe that the narrator wants to show us about the ways that life frustrates expectations and resists interpretation, even when problems seem familiar or solvable.

The mixture of fantastic and real often creates the absurd. In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll uses the third narrative person; everything in the story is being seen, heard or thought by a single character, Alice.This kind of point of view is called selective omniscience; the author knows everything but only through the character's consciousness.Alice has all kinds of strange adventures, one of them being the trial she has to go through because of the stolen plates of tarts.Carroll's taste for logical nonsense could be seen here. All that happens during the trial is upside down.The whole development of the trial and the way the king and the queen treat their subjects are satirized in a mild way.
The story can also be read as an allegory: a hidden, symbolic representation of certain ideas and realities.In this respect we can find several hints regarding the society in Carroll's time, especially its political and legal system.

Alice's Adventures take place in a dream. I think that through Alice, Lewis Caroll wanted to show how weak and helpless are the girls because Alice receives instructions every time she is about to do something, as if she is not capable to do something without a little help.

In Lewiss Caroll `Alice`s adventures in Wonderland` victorian elements are strongly underlined. The interest in Logic, Mathematics,Latin prooves it.Not only that geometrical figures are reunited everywhere but the girl is aked to solve difficult exercises and give logical explanations to difficult issues. From a child perspective this is something difficult to do. Alice tries to enter a fantasy world where she can act as an adult. She mimics adults behaviour but in lack of sufficient experience some of the plots seems to be illogical.Alice tries to understand the Caucus race, solve the Mad Hatter`s riddle, and understand the Queens ridiculous croquet game.The logic is very sophisticated and hardly to understand considering that the target public should be children.

The nonsense is used by Lewis Carroll in the strory. For example when the Frog-Footman said that he could open the door when he is inside, he could open the door from outside too, through Alice.
There are a lot of "rules" which determine us to realize that the laws of Wonderland can be a parody of real justice.

Yes, Alexandra, you're right!
At the "Mad Tea Party", Carroll is satirizing the victorian tradition of afternoon( five o'clock) tea - highly formalised occasion. He depicts the Hatter, Hare, Dormouse and Alice eating and drinking from dirty plates, spilling things and making rude remarks right at the table.
Another interesting fact about this book is the role of women in society. Victorians expected women to be the “angels of the home”, docile, discreet, and domestic. Alice is none of those things, though she is polite, well raised and interested in others. She sometimes makes the wrong remarks and upsets the creatures in Wonderland( let's not forget that she is seven years old ). She is easily put off by abruptness and rudeness of others.

Who in the world am I? Ah, that’s the great puzzle.
In Wonderland, Alice suffers an identity crisis. She loses control over her body (she is either too tall or too short to fit somewhere), her memory fails her (she can’t recite poems correctly), and logic is of no use here. To make matters worse, the White Rabbit mistakes her for his housekeeper, and orders her to fetch his gloves. So, poor Alice while trying to figure out Wonderland, she first has to solve the identity puzzle and find out who she really is. Because if she is Mabel, the one who lives in a poky little house and has no toys to play with, Alice will refuse to leave Wonderland. And she is determined: she will stay here until she is somebody she likes being.

We should keep in mind that we are dealing with fantasy and in this case, the portal which makes Alice's transition between the realistic world and the fantastic possible, is first, the 'rabbit hole' and the second transition is made through a small hole in the wall.

Another important aspect that should be mentioned is the fact that Lewis Carroll introduces us in a world full of anthropomorphic animals ( animals that speak and act like humans) and human playing cards. Even though, these characters follow the rules of a real world. For instance, the queen card is, indeed , the queen of Wonderland, and the king and jack play their roles as well.

As Nadia says , Alice suffers an identity crisis during her adventure in Wonderland because the real-life experiences no longer correspond to that place, and moreover her desire to establish order or to create some logical connections fails. But, despite these aspects she succeeds in achieving a great experience that has a major impact on her personality and the way of perceiving some social and moral aspects.( Maria Bondea)

In Alice in Wonderland, the law seems not only arbitrary but also ineffective. Every time the Queen commands an execution, nothing happens. In fact, soon after the episode with the Hatter, Alice starts growing, signaling her frustration with the event.