Alice in Wonderland Literary Analysis Essay

Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland gives a unique twist on Lewis Carroll’s classic novel. In the film an almost adult Alice is having trouble fitting into normal society. After being proposed to she falls down the rabbit hole and ends up in Wonderland. The majority of the film is Alice running through wonderland trying to figure out if she is the right Alice to slay the Jabberwocky. Along the way she learns a lot about herself though her friend’s advice and actions.

Many have compared life to a journey over the course of which, one experiences many tumultuous changes and transitions. On this journey, the human body continually undergoes a developmental pattern of physical, mental, and social modifications. Even in the realm of literature, fictional characters inevitably follow this fate. In literature, the stage between childhood innocence and adulthood transforms characters, this is frequently referred to as "coming of age". Because all humans experience this transition, it establishes "coming of age" as a timeless universal literary theme. Among such "coming of age" novels is Lewis Carroll’s tale about a seven-year-old Victorian girl named Alice. In the novel, "Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland",

Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a story of a young girl’s journey down the rabbit hole into a fantasy world where there seems to be no logic. Throughout Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice experiences a variety of bizarre physical changes, causing her to realize she is not only trying to figure out Wonderland but also trying to determine her own identity. After Alice arrives in Wonderland the narrator states, “For this curious child was very fond of pretending to be two people” (Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland 12). This quotation is the first instance that shows Alice is unsure of her identity. The changes in size that take place when she eats or drinks are the physical signs of her loss of identity.

I am Alice when I read; Alice goes seeking adventure in wonderland, just as I do when reading, to escape reality. Alice was finding out herself that people could be little pieces of something, something that could be exchanged by a senseless force. Lost in Wonderland, the little girl was confused and scared and nevertheless shows true bravery in the face of her insecurities. She exchanges sense for non-sense, in an all-encompassing attempt to be able to take hold of even the most intimate core of her, so that she is forced to discover who she really is and find her identity. Like a child who is sleeping, ideology in fictional stories, quietly seeps through the narrative cracks of novels. It is embodied as an unconscious knowledge, a knowledge that doesn't know itself, and that needs to be understood and pondered by the readers. ‘Alice in Wonderland’, seen to most as simply a children’s story, has so much more depth and deals with classis themes such as coming of

Alice the protagonist must find her way through this strange place called "Wonderland". When she falls down the rabbit hole she encounters various talking animals and an unusual Queen. The first character she meets is The White Rabbit, he reappears throughout the book and acts as Alice's guide, which is amusing because he doesn't seem to know even what time it is. Then she meets the Caterpillar who is like a very wise man who provides Alice with a way to control her growth. He's not very friendly, but at the same time he tries to teach Alice how to cope with the difficult situations she encounters in Wonderland. He is smoking a hookah on top of a mushroom. This character many felt was representing drug use with the hookah and the magic mushrooms

The theme of the book, in my opinion, would be growing up, particularly going through puberty and experiencing an identity crisis. In chapter one, Alice’s first obstacle is to fit through a door into a beautiful garden. A bottle that shrinks and a cake that grows where the means to diminish her problem. Throughout the book, her variety of sizes gives Alice a lot of grief. She cannot seem to control it; it confuses her and makes her feel sad, frustrated and uncomfortable. Her height problems can allude to puberty, where one often feel strange in one’s own body and the unexpected growth can be awkward and difficult. In chapter five, Alice is mistaken for a serpent by a pigeon; her body is down on the ground, but her neck is stretched out over the treeline. Given knowledge over puberty, unsymmetrical growth of body parts are normal. In the encounter with the caterpillar, Alice

Eventually Alice does seem to grow up and show her maturity. She also has a new found confidence in herself and is now content with not going back to before she entered Wonderland, likely recognising that it has changed her for the better. By learning all of these lesions in Wonderland, Alice discovers the “real

Lewis Carroll Lewis Carroll, a man who is most remembered for his ability to explain the simple mind of a child in wondrous ways. Lewis Carroll, pen name of Charles L. Dodgson, was born January 27, 1832, and died of illness January 14, 1898 (Biography 1). Within his sixty-six years on this Earth, he had managed to sway the hearts of both the young and old, leaving a legacy behind. Thus being, he has become one of the most appreciated writers in history thanks to his literary masterpiece, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alice’s story, still a work in progress 150 years later, is a shapeshifting tale about how we see childhood (Bethune 1).

Since Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a book meant for children and that has been popular among children, there seems to be some evidence that children can relate to Alice's character since they are facing the same challenges and issues regarding developing a rational view of the macrocosm and establishing their own identity.

In the year 1865, Lewis. C. Carroll published a Novel titled, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. This novel tells the story of a girl named Alice who enters a bizarre world called Wonderland, which she initially cannot comprehend because she lacks knowledge of this world and her place in it, Thus, Alice takes a journey through this world to understand both it and herself. Some people read this novel and call it a children 's story. However,the novel does more than just tell a mere children’s story. Lewis Carroll 's whimsical story, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,acts as a surreal allegory for the arduous process of coming of age and finding one 's identity. By illustrating the change in character that the protagonist of the story,Alice, undergoes in her journey.

The Loss of Childhood Innocence: Puberty and Becoming a Woman in Alice in Wonderland Throughout the course of the infamous book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice finds herself in a very strange place after she falls through a rabbit’s hole, a place called Wonderland. During her time in the mysterious Wonderland, Alice goes through a variety of ridiculous physical as well as mental transformations. Whether she is constantly growing bigger or smaller, Alice is faced with discomfort for most of her time in this new adventure land. The distress that she feels at never being the right size acts as a symbol for the changes that occur during adolescent puberty (Lough 306). Those who have experienced puberty understand the constant fluctuations

Despite her unfamiliar surroundings, Alice attempts to interpret everything around her from a logical point of view due to how mature she is for her age. However, she is still a girl who is only seven years old and this allows the maturity that she tries so hard to show to fade away. She is in a state of disarray about who she is because of “her developing sense of the difference between childhood and adulthood” (“Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” 28). At the beginning of the text, Alice tries to read her older sister's book, only to become bored because of its lack of childish appeals: “‘What is the use of a book’, thought Alice, ‘without pictures or conversations?’” (Carroll 1). She wants to be more like her older sister, but she does have the mind of a child which is why she grows bored and begins her adventure to wonderland in the first place. Also, Alice eats or drinks something that she finds many times throughout her adventure, and this shows her lack of maturity: only a child would pick something up that says “Drink me” on it and not think of the consequences at all before drinking it. Throughout Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll emphasizes the conflict between Alice's desire to be an adult and grow up and her subconscious wanting to remain the child

Throughout Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice discovers a new way of life through experience, is influenced by the nonsense around her, and is brought significantly closer to truly finding herself. As she wanders through Wonderland, her eyes are opened to an entirely new world with a plethora of interesting creatures. From living decks of cards to clock-wearing rabbits, Alice is quickly introduced to the imagination she never knew she had. It doesn’t take long before the world of Wonderland begins to seep into the mind of young Alice and have her questioning her own identity. Whether Wonderland is a real place or just a figment of Alice’s imagination, it takes her mind for a spin and leaves her with more of an understanding about life than she ever would have learned on her own.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a nonsense novel created by Lewis Carroll in 1865. The story begins with Alice follows a clothed rabbit to a rabbit hole. She goes to a couple bazaar places and meets talking animals. In chapter eight, Alice encounters three playing cards painting the white roses into red because The Queen of Hearts hates white roses. She is a character who always angry and yells “Off with their heads!” She invites Alice to play croquet with live flamingos as mallets and the hedgehogs as balls. In chapter eleven, Alice attends a trial because the Knave of Hearts is accused of stealing the Queen’s tarts. Meanwhile, Alice is growing larger steadily. She refuses to leave and tells the Queen and King they are just a pack of cards. The story end in Alice’s sister woke her up from the dream.

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll endures as one of the most iconic children 's books of all time. It remains one of the most ambiguous texts to decipher as Alice 's adventures in Wonderland have created endless critical debate as to whether we can deduce any true literary meaning, or moral implication from her journey down the rabbit hole. Alice 's station as a seven year old Victorian child creates an interesting construct within the novel as she attempts to navigate this magical parallel plain, yet retain her Victorian sensibilities and learn from experience as she encounters new creatures and life lessons. Therefore, this essay will focus on the debate as to whether Alice is the imaginatively playful child envisaged by the Romantics, or a Victorian child whose imagination has been stunted by her education and upbringing.