Alice's Journey to Find Her Identity

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.

Out of the whimsical growth changes of Alice, a ninth grader learns to present themselves as their true self. In the novel, Alice grows and shrinks frequently; she finds this very confusing, especially when a talking Pigeon mistakes her for a serpent when she drinks potion that makes her neck longer. (Carroll, 34-35) When Alice eats, she grows and as she drinks, she shrinks. Alice feels uncomfortable in her skin and it frustrates her that she cannot achieve the right size. As Alice struggles to maintain a comfortable physical size, she does not realize that

In particular, Alice’s fluctuating size and “opening out like” (Carroll 11) a telescope parallel with a child’s seemingly spontaneous growth spurts, which occur frequently and most noticeably during pre-adolescent and adolescent years. In fact, Alice Liddell, the inspiration for the original tale, was ten when Lewis Carroll (the pen name of Charles Dodgson) first told the tale (Vallone 245). In addition, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland began as tale about the adventures of seven year-old Alice Liddell (Vallone 245). In reality, most children like Alice Liddell grow, but in Wonderland, Alice changed drastically and symbolically. Physically Alice’s growth correlates in many instances with her behavior. For instance, prior to drinking the mysterious liquid, Alice ponders on the substance’s toxicity, however, she fails to consider possible outcomes while forgetting the golden key. Consequently, Alice grew smaller as her behavior was incongruous to a practical and experienced adult. In contrast prior to consuming the cookie, Alice muses “‘if it makes me grow larger, I can reach the key; and if it makes me grow smaller, I can creep under the door so either way I’ll get into the garden’” (Carroll 9). Hence, Alice exemplifies problem

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.

Alice’s problems with her identity within Wonderland compares to the same problems that children have when they reach young adulthood. This theme is important because children that reach this age, they do not only start to realize who they actually are, but they are also mistaken to be someone else by society and often fail to show who they truly are to others. This is exactly what Alice experiences in her journey throughout Wonderland. “I wonder if I've been changed in the night. Let me think.

In Wonderland the creatures and characters show Alice how the real world is but in hidden ways that she will not understand until she gets a little older. When Alice first encounters the Duchess, the Duchess is caring for a baby. Franticly the Duchess basically throws the baby into Alice’s arms, and Alice unsure of what to do, goes on a walk with the baby through the woods. Slowly Alice begins to realize that the baby she was carrying, was slowly beginning to transform into a pig (47-48). This symbolism that Carroll illustrates shows Alice how babies are going to change. By turning the baby into a loud messy animal, it demonstrates how babies will drastically change, and are handful. Since Alice is only a child, she has never had to deal with a baby from an adult perspective, until doing it unknowingly in Wonderland.

Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland creates a warped reality, causing each character’s identity to become confused. An exception to this confusion of identity is the Cheshire Cat, who shows an uncanny awareness of his own madness, giving him considerable control over his presence and allowing him to occasionally leave only a grin behind. Alice, contrarily, is strewn all over as she loses herself in Wonderland. In Wonderland, all are “mad,” but to Alice this is preposterous, even as she fails to explain who she is – both to herself and to others. Carroll’s juxtaposition of the Cheshire Cat and Alice in their first meeting scene exaggerates Alice’s insecure identity and its development throughout her adventures in Wonderland.

The transition for someone like Alice, who is still very hyper and immature, will be strange. It will cause her confusion about her identity. However, the Caterpillar who is calm and collected views this change as a normal part of life which is no doubt true. This leads to the concept of knowing who you are. This idea is important to everyone. For someone of Alice’s age, seven, having no idea who you are can be overwhelming.

My sister, Alice, born in September of 1996. A miscarriage in 1997. My sister, Janice, born in September of 1998. A miscarriage in 1999. My mother was 2 months pregnant in February of 2000. My parents had a choice.

One of the central questions that Alice deals with in the novel is the question of identity, as is obvious from the following excerpt:

Worriedly retrieving my phone, I called home. The phone rang. Then, it rang again. Finally, I was met with the crackly sound of audio on the other side.

This scene portrays the nonsense of wonderland and remarks on the absurdity of society, especially the justice system. We find Alice in the middle of a frivolous trial involving someone stealing the Queens tarts. Alice is going through another growth spurt and accidentally knocks over the jury box, filled with various animals, who are the jurors. The King demands that the court cannot go on unless she puts them all back in upright, to which she states that it’s irrelevant. This excerpt, along with many others throughout the novel, highlights the fact that wonderland on the surface is very nonsensical, but when we take a closer look, it has multitudes of meaning and it can even mimic certain aspects of society.

Carroll uses this setup to the setting as an introduction to the world where animals and inanimate objects are anthropomorphized and time and space are relative. The thematic structure of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland makes way for this exciting and creative world building as it is seen through the eyes of a growing child full of wonder. Although the story is whimsical, underlying the story is an atmosphere of anxiety or even fear that resolves at the end with the meeting with the Queen of Hearts and Alice’s return to the

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland shows us how a child's innocence can create an imaginative world that would be considered abnormal and insane through the eyes of an adult. Alice dreams of creatures and animals that have the ability to talk, and she constantly shifts in shape and size, perverting the proportions of Wonderland around her. She also has conversations with other characters that the are full of nonsense and odd remarks. Perhaps Alice's irrational personality is best displayed during the scene "A Mad Tea-Party" when Alice encounters a Hatter, March Hare and Dormouse sitting down for teatime. She walks up to the crew nonchalantly and sits down to join them. Immediately, the Hatter begins to make remarks about Alice's appearance and her manners. He is rude and snappy, having a criticism for everything that Alice

'Alice in Wonderland' by Lewis Carroll seems a first a simple fairy tale, but in fact its meaning is a lot more profound. This novel criticizes the way children were brought up during the Victorian era. Carroll presents the readers with the complications these offspring must endure in order to develop their own personalities/egos, as they become adults. For Alice, Wonderland appears to be the perfect place to start this learning adventure. A way to understand her story is by compering it to the world as if being upside-down. Nothing in Wonderland seems to be they way it’s supposed to. The first lesson, Alice must learn in this peculiar journey through Wonderland is to achieve separation from the world around her and to stop identifying herself through others, in order to discover who she