Alice's Alice: A Narrative Fiction

In her short story “Alice,” the author Paulette White shares the narrator’s views on her early childhood neighbor named Alice. However, the narrator's memory could have become foggy after many years passed. In the story the narrator makes encounters with Alice after her childhood as a grown adult. This creates the narrator's reliability to come off, or even be, completely unreliable. Using this narration of a character in the story illuminates in the end that idealism and arrogance blind the child, but acceptance and humiliation is the key to make the adult see.

Anna is Alice’s oldest daughter; she’s a successful lawyer and is married to Charles, also a lawyer. Anna is strong and fiercely independent just like her mother. Anna deals with her mother’s disease by suggesting that if her mom “thinks for a second” then maybe she’ll be able to remember things (p. 173). Anna, however still makes time to care for her mom when her dad is away.

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.

Alice can be very childish, but throughout the story, she encounters many animals with human qualities that make her change her perspective of the world she lives in. The main obstacle in Alice's life is growing up. As she grows up, she looks at situations in a very distinctive way, such as the moment when alice meets the March Hare, The Mad Hatter, and the Dormouse. By the time the story is over, Alice is already a grown up because of all the experiences she confronted such as, the mad tea party, the encounter with the caterpillar smoking a hookah pipe, also Alice's encounter with the Red Queen during the croquet game and the trial.

Her lips formed strange and unusual sounds, her eyes closed softly and her cheeks paled. From her side belt she withdrew a small knife, a dagger. With a quick movement she cut her left hand with the dagger. As the drops of blood hit the cold marble floor the knife also clattered to the ground. The girl remained speaking her foreign tongue and let her life's blood run down her outstretched arm.

“Alice came to the door again but I said go away I dont want to see you. She cryed and I cryed to but I woudnt let her in because I didnt want her to laff at me.” (pg.306)

She whipped her eyes towards him, but suddenly lurched and fell to the ground. The world slowed, she felt something warm and sticky pool around her. She had managed to turn her head in his direction, only then seeing the enemy army that had caught up with them. One knight savaged her son with his sword and then discarded his body. She tried to reach him, but a spear protruding from her back weighed her down. Then she saw us again, watched as the way the enemy avoided us . She felt cold, knowing her time had come , she looked right in my eyes as her life thread was cut. The end frayed as her body slumped to the ground, but it didn’t matter. She was one insignificant life that we had

She had taken care of him, suffered through his fits of rage, accepted his blind addiction to loving himself, and his inability to sympathize with there needs. She was alone, isolated, and her pain was denied by his constant need for the world to revolve around his compulsions. This contradictory life weighed heavily on her, until one day she cold not live with it any longer. He came home on one of his low days. He was upset by his business, rattling on about how his business associates had wronged him. As he was ranting, something in her snapped, she grabbed the kitchen knife to her left and stabbed

Alice faced severe challenges throughout the movie. However, she was a college professor, who was well-known and very intelligent. Alice had a wonderful husband with 3 beautiful children, 2 girls and one son. Alice family was the most important thing to her as a wife and mother. Alice was always on the go as a professor and wife. Alice loss her mother and sister in a car wreck a year ago on January 19th and her father passed away due to being an alcoholic. In the beginning of the movie Alice well aware of her surrounds and competent to her priorities. Alice was a peaceful, sweet, and humble young lady, who had a lot of respect for individuals. As time went by, Alice became fearful of the episodes she were experiencing. However, she felt it had to do with menopause. With that being said, she never took it seriously of the traumatic episodes that she came in contact with on a daily basis. Thoroughly, Alice begin to realize as time went by that her episodes begin to get worse and she start experiencing hallucinations. Alice experienced many different events of losing memory. Alice enjoyed exercising every morning. One particular morning, Alice went out to do her daily exercise, while do so Alice breath got heavier and heavier to obtain. Alice stop to caught her breath, in the process of trying to caught her breath, everything around her was spinning. Alice forgot where she was at that moment and had to give herself time to come back to reality. She became fearful and realized

Lucy suddenly felt a sharp pain in her stomach. She looked down to see the hand carved handle of a knife being thrust into her stomach. Lucy, looked up, dazed.

It has been at least an hour and a half since the attack. She does not remember anything that happened. She slowly get up and reaches for the doorknob. A sudden shot of pain went up her arm. Blood then started dripping from her hand. She had been cut. A knife stabbed her in her hand. “Ow.”, She then blacks out.

A trickle of fear had her lying motionless with her eyes closed, straining to hear the slightest noise. A deep sigh of regret and the pressure of a body by her side made her acutely aware that she wasn’t alone.

A loud piercing scream, hit my ears. It was me. I screamed and screamed. I punched in the walls and let my body shake until there was nothing left to do. My throat was raw and my eyes were wild, inhumane. Soon I turned upon Heath and Clarice, who were standing there, gripping each other in fear. The terror of the creature that they thought they knew so well was suffocating them, closing around their lungs.

Smooth, thin, and cold, the sharp object lying in her hands trembled due to her petite quivering fingers. The unforgiving sharp blade effortlessly sliced through her skin, pain and then numbness overshadowed her thoughts. With the world weighing down on her shoulders and with the sense of oppression, the girl carved into her arm without a feeling of regret. Daring, she placed the knife parallel to her veins located under her thin pasty skin. Finally, with resolution, digging the knife into her small arm, the young tortured girl could feel the deadly weapon tearing and mutilating her long tender veins. Gasping for breath, the pain surged throughout her body. However, with agony coursing through her body, the victim would not stop her leisurely stroll to the grave.

I saw Still Alice this week. I wanted to see the Glen Campbell movie (which I will watch later) but opted for this one first. What a stirring movie! Watching the progression of her decline, and realizing that she KNEW that she was affected, was very sad. It was heartening to see the support that her family gave her, even while dealing with their own issues. The fact that she was proactive on the front end, in obtaining the diagnostic testing helped her family be better able to understand what was happening and to support her. I love the fact that she and her daughter were able to have a better relationship, and that her daughter was truly able to see her mom, even when her mom had trouble seeing her earlier.