Natalie McAllister Ms. Listro English IV Level 1- MOD G 15 April 2016 The Maturation in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Herman Heese once said, “I began to understand that suffering and disappointments and melancholy are there not to vex us or cheapen us or deprive us of our dignity but to mature and transfigure us” (Goodreads). Hermann Hesse was a German, who wrote about mind and body, spirit and nature, and spiritual search within oneself. Hesse explains that through one’s life, an individual will learn through their experience. In order to for a person to become mature and transform from childhood to adulthood, that individual has to understand that through suffering, disappointments, and melancholy they learn to accept who they are and will transform from their personal experience. Throughout the novel, Carroll emphasizes the maturation and the growth within an individual externally and internally, with the protagonist Alice. Alice’s adventure begins when she follows the White Rabbit down into his rabbit hole. Alice quickly learns that the rules and the people in Wonderland are different and unique. The audience witnesses Alice grow and develop as she encounters many different types of characters and confusing situations. As Alice goes through changes, external and internal, she discovers who she is and reacts to situations differently. In his novel, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll exposes the nature of maturing and adapting through Alice’s encounters
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",
Still Alice (Genova, 2009) is a captivating debut novel about a 50-year-old woman’s sudden decline into early onset Alzheimer’s disease. The book is written by first time author Lisa Genova, who holds a PH.D in neuroscience from Harvard University. She’s also an online columnist for the national Alzheimer’s association. Her other books include Left Neglected and Love Anthony. She lives with her husband and two children in Cape Cod.
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.
In the novel, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the main character, Alice, undergoes quite a change. During the time the novel was published, parts of the world were in the victorian era. The Queen at the time was Queen Victoria, in which the era was named after. During this era, knowledge, class and reason were greatly valued, and stressed. This time period ended in the year of Queen Victoria’s death. Throughout the novel, there are many ways that show how Alice begins to understand the world in adult terms, matures, and grows.
Many themes are explored when reading Lewis Carrol’s, Alice in Wonderland. Themes of childhood innocence, child abuse, dream, and others. Reading the story, it was quite clear to see one particular theme portrayed through out the book: child to adult progression. Alice in Wonderland is full of experiences that lead Alice to becoming more of herself and that help her grow up. It’s a story of trial, confusion, understanding, and success. And more confusion. Though others might argue that the story was distinctly made for children just to get joy out of funny words, and odd circumstances, the tale has obvious dynamics that confirm the fact of it being a coming of age story.
That very statement intrigued Alice. Were all the doctors correct? She shrugged and took the thought to the back of her mind. Alice was well aware that not doing anything about that thought will eat her up, but she didn’t care. All she cared about was obtaining some answers from The Rabbit. She looked back at the rabbit, expecting him to be there, but she saw he was no longer there. Alice started shouting for The Rabbit, but no one responded.
Princess Alice is a great granddaughter of Victoria and mother of prince Phillip. She was helping hide the children of the Greek royal family from the Nazis. Rachel was her mother. The children needed help because it was too dangerous to escape to Egypt. Rachel was the wife of Haimaki Cohen. Rachel and her daughters stayed at Princess Alice’s house. The Gestapo left Princess Alice alone because she was deaf and she could not understand what they were saying. Princess Alice had a sister that was married to the Crown Prince. Princess Alice was a good person and had deep religious faith.
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.
It is near impossible for the ego to mature without the influence of the unconscious and its interjection within an individual’s experiences. Alice is a young girl who escapes reality and her inevitable adulthood in the real world into her own subconscious wonderland where she encounters many creatures that help her mature. In Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, Alice comes to learn how to interact with the characters within her unconscious represents how Alice matures to escape regression, signifying that Alice cannot mature without unconsciously using her defenses.
When one's identity is lost, the happiest place is one of which is the most familiar to us. In Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, Alice is having a history lesson before she decides to follow a rabbit down a rabbit hole. Inside the rabbit hole, Alice is unable to sustain a sense of herself (insecurity) which contributes to the reader seeing her lost of object of desire (objet petit a) in the form of images standing in for the womb (female imagery). As a result, Alice goes through regression, which is a return to previous psychological state. Carroll uses the rabbit hole scene to show Alice regressing as she searches for her identity within society, ultimately suggesting, one desires to escape rather than face their unstable sense of self.
The Victorian Era was a time where not many ethical ideals and moral standards were sustained. Yet, it is also an Era in which modern society uses to make advancements in both humanity, and philosophy. Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland, was a novelist who wrote pass his time. He wrote further in the future of the "common" Victorian Era. The ideology he presents in Alice in Wonderland is conducive to an individual attempting to bring attention to the deteriorating mental health and humane conditions in Victorian-Era England. Alice is representative of a normal child in everyday-Victorian England. This child, Alice, has not been exposed to the likes of diversity, but instead solidarity. The type of solidarity that is all too prevalent throughout the Victorian Era, primarily in the upbringing of children during this time. Children in Victorian Era England were taught to be followers of the norms already established by adults, and to ask no questions. These types of parameters placed restraints on children growing-up during this time; not only physical restraints, but also mental restraints, such as their imaginations'. Carroll was no stranger to this ideal or the likes of this concept; In fact, he constructed Alice in The Wonderland with this in mind, to defy the imaginative 'norm' of Victorian-Era England. He created a character that dreamt of falling down a rabbit hole into another universe. This dream or imagination becomes so vivid in his novel that the
Lewis Carroll's Wonderland is a queer little universe where a not so ordinary girl is faced with the contradicting nature of the fantastic creatures who live there. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a child's struggle to survive in the condescending world of adults. The conflict between child and adult gives direction to Alice's adventures and controls all the outstanding features of the work- Alice's character, her relationship with other characters, and the dialogue. " Alice in Wonderland is on one hand so nonsensical that children sometimes feel ashamed to have been interested in anything so silly (Masslich 107)."
Lewis Carroll?s novel, Alice?s Adventures in Wonderland, has captivated readers for decades. From England?s Victorian Age to the present-day, Carroll?s work remains a priceless treasure for all who have fallen in love with Alice and become immersed in the world of Wonderland. Although Lewis Carroll?s Alice?s Adventures in Wonderland is classified as children?s fantasy, the novel also explores the difficulties adolescents face as they mature, including the emotional struggles of self-identity and physical maturity, loss of innocence, and an enduring conflict between childhood and adulthood.
'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
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.