Correct me if I'm wrong: You have a 10-year old girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit hole, always talks to herself, continuously shrinks and grows, cries all the time, converses to herself about her cat, meets strange talking animals who don't necessarily like her, and is stuck in this crazy parallel universe trying to find a garden.
Just when I thought the story couldn't get any more weird, it did.
Right when Chapter 5 opens, Alice converses with a caterpillar smoking a hookah on top of a mushroom. My initial reaction was, "Are you sure Alice isn't on drugs?!". Then, I payed closer attention to detail and realized that there may be more to the story than I thought; there was some 'beneath the surface' underlying meaning to Alice's encounter with the Caterpillar.
The Caterpillar's first question to Alice was, "Who are YOU?"; such a simple question that is easily over-looked. It took me a minute to realize that Alice had been struggling with her self-identity throughout the novel(for example, in Chapter 2, Alice believes she is Mabel); Alice doesn't know who she IS or why she's in Wonderland. She doesn't know where she wants to go or what size she wants to be. Alice says, "--I hardly know, sir, just at present-- at least I know who I WAS when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then...for I can't understand it myself to begin with; and being so many different sizes in a day is very confusing". What Alice may not realize, is that no matter what size or what physical change she goes through, Alice will Still be Alice. Giant or small, Alice still conversed with herself, still seeked the garden, still got distracted easily, still thought logically and was still 10-year old Alice. When Alice asks the Caterpillar, "but when you have to turn into a chrysalis--you will some day, you know--and then after that into a butterfly, I should think you'll feel it a little queer, won't you?". The Caterpillar simply replies, "Not a bit". This reveals a theme of self-identity; knowing who you are no matter what new environment or what physical change you go through.
I also found that at the end of Chapter 3, a mom Crab states, "...Let this be a lesson to you: never lose YOUR temper!". Once again this message is reiterated in Chapter 5 from the Caterpillar to Alice saying, "Keep your temper". This message of keeping your temper and holding composure must foreshadow a future event for Alice, where she would have to abide by the advice she hears.
We'll just have to wait and see what happens to this peculiar girl in this even more peculiar book :D
-Charlene Asuncion
Charlene,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the point that people often overlook the question "Who are you?" When someone is asked this question, they usually respond with just their name, like Alice does because they assume that they are just being asked their name. In many scenes of this book, Alice assumes a lot of things, like that it would feel odd after the Caterpillar turns into a butterfly. Like you said, the Caterpillar is 100% sure of who he is and what will become of him and therefore he would not feel odd after it happens.