Essay: Wisdom in Alice in Wonderland

"The Duchess with her Family" by, John Tenniel (1865)

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Despite so much nonchalance and illogical deviations in the story of Alice in Wonderland, there are a good deal of wise lessons and morals that Alice takes away from each of her experiences with the other characters.
   The first and most obvious is the white rabbit: if you follow your curiosity too far, you will inevitably find yourself in a situation you are not prepared for. This evidently becomes the case, because almost as soon as Alice falls down the rabbit hole, she notices that her way of acting, talking, and thinking have become vastly divorced from the logical reality she left behind with her sister and Dinah the cat.
   The next big lesson is from the Caterpillar, which he says quite literally: "Keep your temper." This lesson not only speaks literally, but intranarratively as well (almost breaking the forth wall). The reason I say this is because it is apparent that Alice is somewhat in control of the overarching rules of Wonderland, but has no conscious control over it. This would lead the reader to conclude that Wonderland originated from Alice's psyche. So, the cautionary advice given by the Caterpillar also serves to keep Wonderland, at least in Alice's mind, stable and unruined.
   The story of the Pig and the Pepper arrives next, with the display of a couple of morals to the chapter. The first comes in the form of Alice visiting and inquiring about the activity within Duchess' house: the Duchess is basically a butcher who exclusively uses baby pigs to make her food. This lesson could be interpreted as: if you look deep enough, you may find the truth, but there's no guarantee that you'll like it. The next character to give Alice a lesson is that of the Cheshire Cat, who confounds Alice about where exactly she would like to go. Here, the Cheshire Cat teaches the lesson of decisiveness: in order to find your destination, you must decide which path to take.


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Storytelling Week 11: Advice from a Caterpillar

Advice from a Caterpillar, by Arthur Rackham (1907)

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   Rabbit heads past me in such a hurry. Oh, why must he must always be so late? Doesn't he know that catch-up is just exhausting? No matter, I have no plans. The queen has hardly sought my council as she does Rabbit's, as useful as she's found it in the past.
   All of a sudden, a strange girl comes sauntering through the brush, her eyes wild with amazelment. What is to be amazeled about? I am simply myself: a caterpillar enjoying his vapors. But judging by the girl's look of bewilderence, she hardly knows a dodo from a dove. Sensibly I ask "Who are you?"
   "I- 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" she replies. So indecent to use such absurd reasoning. If she wasn't who she was this morning, how can she know she's different now? Nonetheless I... play along with the poor child, "What do you mean by that? Explain yourself!"
   The unfortunate girl then proceeds to rattle on and on about nonsense. But that is all well and good, since we're all mad here. However, it's very rude to be nonsensical and to simply go nowhere with it! She insists so unreasonably for me to tell her who I am. What an awkward question for someone who has not simply introduced themselves, so I ask again "Who are you?"
   Turning herself about in a huff and marching into the dangerous wilderness, and obviously not knowing where in Wonderland she was heading, I felt it only cautionary to give her a little advice. So I call her back, and I say "Keep your temper." Everyone knows that no one gets truly mad, well I mean angry mad, in Wonderland save for the Queen. And should this little soul come across the Queen, a temper would be the last thing she needs.
   And just to make sure she is of sound mind, I ask her to recite some simple literature, something that any ordinary toddler could memorize. But oh mercy! She continues to spout nonsense and an incorrecticle recitation of "You are old, Father William..." Completely wrong!
   After I have said so, she suddenly expresses a sensible thought: to be her original size! But she does NOT stop there: apparently, according to this ruffian, "Three inches is such a wretched height." The nerve! Nonetheless, I, for the last time, offer my charitable sense to this poor, lost girl. "One side will make you grow taller, and one side will make you grow shorter," I say. She looked bewildered, and I had just about reached the end of my nerve. "THE MUSHROOM OF COURSE!" I announce, and head away. What a nonsensical girl: I hope Wonderland is merciful to her.


Author's note: This story is a retelling of the chapter in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland where Alice meets the Caterpillar. I wanted to retell this story in the Caterpillar's perspective because the Caterpillar actually proves to be the most logical and forward thinking characters in Wonderland. Also, Alice's encounter with the Caterpillar is the first one she has with any creature in Wonderland. Not only that, but it is the first interaction she has while under the influence of Wonderland itself: in the original text, Alice admits that she is thinking nonsensically and with much contradiction during her conversation with the Caterpillar. So I thought it would be interesting to see what things would sound like from the Caterpillar's perspective. He does, afterall, give Alice the most straightforward advice out of all characters from Wonderland: "Keep your temper."

Bibliography: "Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll (1865)
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Reading Diary B: Alice in Wonderland

The Mad Tea Party, by Charles Robinson

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   After her ordeal with the hooka-loving Caterpillar, Alice resumes her chase of the rabbit. Along her way, she confronts a Frog footman who is carrying a note to a fellow resident frog in a woodland house. The letter calls the residing frog to a croquet match with the Red Queen. Upon the delivery, the frog footman leaves and the resident frog sits on the porch of the house solemnly, as ruckus presides inside the place. Knowing she needs to get through the house to follow the white rabbit, Alice engages the frog in conversation. However, he's totally irate and inaccessible, so Alice bypasses his permission to enter the house and meets the Duchess and the Cheshire cat. Alice begins to notice how badly the order in the duchess' home is kept, especially when the pig baby she's caring for has its nose cut off. However, after the Duchess concludes that she must attend her appointment with the Queen for croquet, she flings the "baby" to Alice's arms as she heads out. Alice then engages the Cheshire cat in conversation about where she should go to catch the white rabbit, and Cheshire points her in the direction of the Mad Tea Party. 

   The initial impression of the tea party was one of jovial laughter and antics, however, her entrance warrants a general quarrel of riddles and logical confoundery. They then discussing the Hatter's watch and time, as if time were a real person. Then the Hatter's famous riddle comes to play:"how is a raven like a writing desk?" The Hatter admits that there is no answer to this riddle, and turns Alice's attention to the dormouse and his stories, starting with the three sisters that lived down a well. After being constantly verbally barrated by the three characters, Alice opts to leave the tea party and travel onward. 

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Reading Diary A: Alice in Wonderland

Alice and the Characters of Wonderland, by Jesse Wilcox Smith (1923)

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I know that I am making a frame tale based around the character of Alice, but I figured it might be nice to explore her world in depth as written in the literature.
   Alice starts out her adventure following the white rabbit down the rabbit hole, commenting on how peculiar the whole experience is especially when she starts her long fall. She starts wondering what she'd do if she fell to the other side of the world. Then her mind moves onto more nonsensical topics, like "Do cats eat bats?" Alice finishes her fall and finds herself once again on the tail of the white rabbit, but finds herself stuck when she comes to a door that's far too small for her to get through. She manages to find a bottle labeled "drink me", which Alice does, and becomes just small enough to fit through the door. But realizing she could no longer reach the key for the small door, she begins to cry, and can't seem to stop herself from flooding the entire chamber. After eating a cake labelled "eat me", Alice then grows tall enough to reach the key.
   Next Alice follows the rabbit into a thick forest, where she loses sight of him but encounters the company of a hooka-smoking caterpillar. As she begins to converse with the rhetorically confounding caterpillar, Alice realizes that she has become more nonsensical and dreamy since entering this strange new world. The caterpillar, however tests Alice's patience with more learning lessons, similar but more nonsensical compared to the ones her sister read to her. As Alice becomes infuriated with the Caterpillar's attitude, she stomps off, but not before the Caterpillar calls her back over again. He tells her not to "lose her temper," and then to recite more literature from her lessons. Just as Alice was about to lose her temper from this endless quarrel with the Caterpillar, he suggests to Alice to eat either side of the mushroom to grow taller or shorter for the particular height that she would like to be.

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