The Power of words and Language in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web: Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web, both use a wide vocabulary and a play on words, that may not be familiar to the young readers whom they are intended for, but the use of these words aid in the themes of the novel and the overall plots of the works. This specific use of words and a focus on the language aids in the salvation of Wilbur in Charlotte’s Web, and the Knave in Alice in Wonderland, brings a since of togetherness to characters, shows the innocence and naivety of the characters, and add humor to the story. Both of these writers are known for their writing styles and the craft of using …show more content…
As the novel progresses, Charlotte the spider makes it her mission to insure that Wilbur will not meet the ax once again in the wintertime. She does this by writing words like “some pig” (White 77), “terrific” (White 94), and “radiant” (White 114) to make the Zuckerman’s realize that Wilbur is a special pig and should be saved. It is because of these words that Charlotte spins in her web that Mr. Zuckerman decides to take Wilbur, the now famous pig to the county fair, which in the end ends up being the final key to saving his life. While White uses his words and language as a way of having the other characters save Wilbur, Carroll uses his word choices to show that Alice often has to save herself from the trouble that she often causes for herself. Carroll uses his word choices and his plays on puns to create a story in which little Alice finds herself in troublesome situations from the time that she follows the white rabbit down the rabbit hole. In many ways, Alice needs to be saved from herself when she is in Wonderland, for she keeps insulting the creatures that she comes across by bringing up things that will eat them or saying that she herself has eaten them. One example of this is when Alice encounters the little mouse in the puddle of her tears. She starts talking to the mouse
Whether or not the adaptation of Tim Burton’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’ is more engaging than the original novel by Lewis Carroll, both still use similar structural elements that set the reader/viewers mind on the text at hand. The inclusion of a stronger plot provided by the visual text enhances the viewers understanding, especially for a young audience. A way that Tim Burton’s text is more engaging is that children, being younger and less mature are more likely to be drawn to view a visual text that’s much simpler set of characters and be able to understand them better. On the other hand, Lewis Carroll’s text is also going to engage a younger audience with the inclusion of descriptive language.
As Wilbur grows and matures he provides the reader a better look at the coming of age theme. One example of this theme is present in chapter one. This is where Fern realizes that Wilbur is to be killed and although her persistent arguing and uncontrollable sobbing, Mr. Arable is not cooperating. He states “I know more about raising a litter of pigs than you do. A
Carroll uses the food and drinks as a way of representing Alice’s curious appetite for growing up in her societal role. As she wanders around Wonderland, her curiosity often leads to her eating or drinking an object in order to satisfy her curiosity. When she drinks the “Drink Me” substance she says, “Curiouser and curiouser! Cried Alice she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English” (Carroll 6). Many times throughout the novel, Alice adventures revolve around food and drinks such as sweet baked snacks, potions and tea to appease her curiosity. Alice begins to lose control of her eating and drinking habits of Wonderland which demonstrates her maturity as she looks towards adulthood in the reality world. The more food and drinks Alice applies to herself, Carroll establishes the metaphor of growing up results in unpredictable events and changes that are irreversible. Alice stumbles across the Cheshire Cat who portrays the opposite of growing up as he believes taking short cuts are better than asking for advice. The Chesire cat exclaims to Alice, “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go” (Carroll 49). The metaphor from the Cheshire Cat resulted from Alice asking about visiting the Mad Hatter. In this case, The Cheshire Cat is a representation of taking the easy route and not visiting the mad hatter,
Lewis Carrol creates a world of whimsy and nonsense. Throughout his stories, he creates characters that live in a fairytale world and reality. Carroll’s characters have almost no trouble in accepting the madness of the world around them, and they repeatedly make choices and commit actions by themselves and for themselves. These characters show the way people act and express their feelings of human nature in the “real world.” Carrol stories Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Hunting of the Snark and Sylvie Bruno, have many sensitive issues where the narrative cannot confront it. In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carrol uses events
From dealing with outrageous adult behavior to literally growing up too quickly, Alice slowly ventures nearer and nearer to the adulthood and maturity that awaits here. However, she does not need to leave her imagination behind her, in reality that is one of the few things she can never outgrow. Proving both these points is the final few paragraphs of the book, in which Alice's older sister reminisces about her own childhood and, for a brief moment, ventures herself into the wonderful world of Wonderland. Yet it is possible that the original story, the one orally presented to Alice Liddell, was simply for amusement as Lewis Carroll actually added several tales to the transcribed version of his fanciful tale.
Alice is running forward, or so she thinks; however, Alice is doing the exact opposite of that. Alice has a main objective in this novel; she must move eight squares in order to become a queen. In Lewis Carroll’s, Through the Looking-Glass, Carroll adds a certain pizazz that most people wonder where it comes from. How does he come up with certain characters? How does he think of something so different like the Jabberwocky poem? Many things contribute to Carroll’s writing: struggling with sleep deprivation, dealing with dual personalities, having an education, growing up with several siblings, and handling abnormal eating habits.
The nonsensical poem, “Jabberwocky,” was written by Lewis Carrol in 1871 for Alice’s second adventure: Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There. In this poem, Carrol creates a whimsical, alternate reality filled with heroes, villains and magical creatures, undergoing a constant battle between good and evil. Carrol uses vivid imagery, neologisms and themes in “Jabberwocky” to exemplify and play with the oddities of Wonderland and display a fanciful heroism within the character. Jabberwocky is brought to life with Carrol’s entrancing use of fantasy and onomatopoeias to exemplify and arouse vivid imagery.
In analyzing Lewis Carroll’s works Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, studying the the illustrations is of as great importance as examining the text that they depict. From the first sentence of Wonderland, Carroll exhibits a concern for illustrations and their role regarding storytelling in writing, “‘what is the use of a book’, thought Alice, ‘without pictures,’” (Carroll 7). As Carroll seems to have intended, the words which comprise Wonderland and Looking-Glass are only a one facet in the reader’s interpretation of the two works. Equally important as the written text to the experience of Wonderland and Looking-Glass House is illustration, and by extension different artists’ interpretations of these fantastical worlds. Interpreting the Alice stories through illustration first was Carroll himself, further increasing the interest of the relation between image and text as well as the question of the importance of pictures to their stories. Evidently Carroll intended the text of Alice’s adventures to be accompanied with images for readers, even initially putting in the time and effort himself to ensure their illustration, demonstrating the great concern he had for the relationship between the text of a story and its visual depiction. However, for the first official publication of Wonderland, Carroll enlisted artist John Tenniel to create entirely new illustrations for the story. These new illustrations by Tenniel have become iconic
Outside of Charlotte’s Web, many see a children’s book, however inside the larger picture, this mere book covers the cycle of life, dependency, imagination, magnificence, youth, friendship, and in due course, death. The brilliance of Charlotte’s Web is
In the 1800s a great author created a great book and inspired a different way of writing. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is known as one of best children’s story book. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is one of the most famous and enduring children's classics. The novel is full of whimsical charm, and a feeling for the absurd that is unsurpassed. The book begins with a young girl Alice, bored under a tree in the meadow by a river, reading a book with her sister. Everything seems perfectly normal and peaceful; there could be nothing more in keeping with the middle class Victorian world in which Carroll lived. The tale plays with logic giving the story lasting image with adults as well as with children. Its narrative course and structure, characters and imagery have been hugely influenced in both popular culture and literature, especially in the fantasy part. It is considered to be one of the best examples of the literary nonsense genre.
To move on, I would like to discuss about the Victorian period and the characteristics of the Victorian Literature to analyze Carolls’ intentions for writing the “Alice in Wonderland” during the Victorian era. One of the major characteristics of the Victorian Period is urbanization and industrialization due to the Industrial Revolution that initiated around 1760. Because of this atmosphere of industrialization, urbanization and also colonization, the gap between wealth and poverty widened a lot. Therefore, in Great Britain during the Victorian period the class structure became rigid and women and children from the weaker laboring class suffered a big deal from the severe labor while the upper class acted arrogantly and enjoyed a luxurious life. On the other hand, in the Victorian period, because of the upsurge of the religious movement called evangelism and permeation of people’s thinking about revising the society, there was an atmosphere to demand for strict morals
Lewis Carroll's use of puns and riddles in Alice in Wonderland help set the theme and tone. He uses word play in the book to show a world of warped reality and massive confusion. He uses such play on words to reveal the underlying theme of growing up', but with such an unusual setting and ridiculous characters, there is need for some deep analyzing to show this theme. The book contains many examples of assonance and alliteration to add humor. Carroll also adds strange diction and extraordinary syntax to support the theme.
In the novella “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland the themes “Exploration,” “Madness,” and “Identity” are evident throughout. Throughout this essay, I will be telling you about the themes and how they link to Alice.
What defines a person? Is it his actions, his intention, or his reputation? No matter what the answer is, people associate who they are with the words used to describe them. The novel Charlotte’s Web is no exception, for within it, words are used as the basis for transforming perspectives. In the novel, the individual words weaved into Charlotte’s web transform the other characters’ perspectives of Wilbur. After realizing the impact and influence of words by witnessing the change in perspective of the other characters, Wilbur begins to change his perception of himself. Charlotte, on the other hand, uses words as a way to form a moral for Wilbur. This awareness of words reveals Wilbur’s and Charlotte’s relationship with words as a mechanism
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.