In the beginning, Alice is continuing her journey through wonderland and meets the Caterpillar, while she is still convinced that she doesn't know who she is anymore. As the Caterpillar asks her to tell a story, it tells her that she's wrong, from when she began all the way to the end. Its almost as if he's testing her or pushing her buttons purposely for his own amusement or some specific reason. Alice got more and more flustered by him and later pleaded for the Caterpillar to make her taller, but he seemed to think she was fine and began smoking again and starts to leave, but tells her to eat the mushrooms, which backfired. Her neck had grown so long that a Pigeon that flew by her thought, and is convinced, she is a serpent. They get in a dispute over her being a serpent or a little girl, and Alice being the innocent child she cannot lie, and tells the Pigeon she's a little girl who has eaten eggs before, which alarms the Pigeon who makes her leave. As she is on her way, she gets back to normal size, but needs to enter a house, so she shrinks to nine inches to continue on to the garden.
When she entered the house the Fish-Footman answered and gave her an invitation saying the Queen has invited her to a game of croquet. She laughed at the request, but then realized she shouldn't and knocked on the door timidly. The footman plays a sort of mind game with her as she tries to get inside of the house, until finally she is allowed entry. When she walks in she sees the Duchess eating peppered soup and the Cheshire cat. She simply asks why the cat grins like that and the Duchess snaps at her with a response ending with "Pig!", so violently that makes Alice jump. The Duchess seems to be a little strange, almost like she can't focus, and starts to sing to her child while aggressively moving him up and down, who she barely caught after the Duchess tossed him. She later has a conversation with Cheshire cat asking him how to leave, and once again another person seems to play mind games with her, saying that she is mad to have come here and wishes she had gone to see the Hatter instead.
My more improved one..
ReplyDeleteIn this book, there's this ongoing curiosity about Alice and how she's trying to "find" herself in Wonderland. Last class session, someone said that we are in Wonderland and we're all trying to find ourselves in one way or another.
In chapter 5, Alice meets the Caterpillar and when questioned to say who she is, she replies I don't know. He keeps pestering her about it, but she still doesn't know. Every time Alice gets questioned or angry she always starts to ask herself who she really is. This sometimes happens in real life situations. When something bad happens or you do something bad that you believe you could ever do, does the question "Who am I?" cross your mind. In tough or confusing situations, people tend to question themselves because they think they've changed so much. In some time in our life, we ask ourselves this question, because we see how we’re different, we see the changes within ourselves and other people, so then we stop and think about whom we really are. Some of us might know, others might not know and just wonder and keep wondering all their life, like how Alice is in Wonderland.
This is what I believe is happening to Alice. She is in a time of crisis, missing home and her cat, confused where she is, and frustrated on why she can't get down to her normal size or complete her mission to the garden. She is so lost in Wonderland that she is beginning to think that she is losing herself, her identity. This makes her believe she doesn’t know who she is anymore. I think, Wonderland is a place in her self-conscious where she can ask the question, who am I, and search for the answer herself, without help or judgment.