Natalie Van Alstyne 711 3-9-15

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

In the book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, written by Lewis Carroll, the main character Alice dreams about her adventures throughout this magical place, Wonderland. She meets characters such as the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, the White Rabbit, Caterpillar, the King and Queen of Hearts, the Dutchess, and many more. Throughout the book, readers learn that this “Wonderland” has power over most of the characters, especially Alice. Wonderland is able to control the characters and it influences everything they do in crazy ways.

In the beginning of the book, Alice falls down a rabbit hole while chasing a rabbit she saw while dozing off when lying down on a riverbank next to her sister, who was reading a book.  The rabbit seems to be the one who starts Alice’s adventure, but the Wonderland is the one who invented this character, and put it in the beginning of Alice’s journey. On page 1, Alice follows the rabbit down the hole because she has never seen a rabbit that speaks and uses a pocket watch. “Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!” Page 1. This shows early on that the Wonderland has control over Alice by having the rabbit lead her into the Wonderland. When Alice finally gets to the bottom of the rabbit hole, it turns out she is too big to go through the door leading to Wonderland. Alice finds a bottle that is labeled “DRINK ME” and after making sure it isn't poison she drinks it and finds out she shrinks very small. “And so it was indeed: she was now only ten inches high, and her face brightened up at the thought she was now the right size for going through the little door into the lovely garden.”  Page 3. This also shows the Wonderland has power over Alice because it caused her to drastically change size by making her “Drink Me”.

This theme of the Wonderland having control over Alice continues throughout the book. For example in contrast to how the Wonderland made Alice small, later in the book, it makes her too large.  She eats a piece of cake labeled “EAT ME”. “Just at this moment her head struck against the roof of the hall: in fact she was now rather more than nine feet high...”  Page 23. This shows Alice couldn’t control her size and was too big to fit comfortably in the Wonderland which is shown by her hitting her head against the “roof of the hall”. Another example of the Wonderland’s control over Alice is when she gets upset because she is too tall, she cries not like a normal girl, but instead “shedding gallons of tears, until there was a large pool all round her, about four inches deep and reaching half down the hall.” Page 24. This shows that Wonderland wanted Alice “to cry a large pool,” not just shed tears, because if it didn’t it wouldn’t have made her cry so much.   

In the end the Wonderland doesn’t only have power over just Alice but most of the characters as well. “There was a table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the March Hare and the Hatter were having tea at it: a Dormouse was sitting between them, fast asleep, and the other two were using it as a cushion, resting their elbows on it, and talking over its head.” Page 61. This shows that the Dormouse couldn’t stay awake while sitting between two other characters, who were talking and using him as a cushion, even though he was at a tea party.  This is not normal behavior for any of the characters, and clearly the Wonderland is making the Dormouse incredibly sleepy. Another example is, “ ‘They were learning to draw,’ the Dormouse went on, yawning and rubbing his eyes, for it was getting very sleepy; ‘and they drew all manner of things-everything that begins with an M-’ ” This shows the Wonderland is again trying to get the Dormouse to go to sleep.   

Overall, the Wonderland has power over Alice and over most of the other characters in the book who act in crazy ways. Even though in the end readers learn that it turns out to be just a dream when Alice gets woken up by her older sister, we went through an exotic journey with Alice where she had little control over what was happening.  One thing readers can learn from “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” is that you don’t always have control in what will happen in your life, but you can usually get through it.