While written in different time periods, Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth seem to have an underlying commonality; using the power of literary nonsense, they react against and critique societal ideals and values, whilst subtly urging children to stray away from convention and conformity. At the beginning of each story, the child protagonists are shown to be oppressed by their societies in different ways. Alice’s Victorian society seems to be preventing her from coming into a true sense of self; While Milo’s 20th century society leaves him stuck as an uninterested, unthinking, and disconnected child. It is not until both Alice and Milo enter these nonsensical dream worlds that they embark …show more content…
Ironically, the education system fails to emphasize the importance of knowledge, leaving Milo to conclude “the process of seeking knowledge as the greatest waste of time of all” (9). This seems to be Juster’s greatest critique of society, and is the driving force of the story as Milo’s quest is to unite the ‘Kingdom of Wisdom’. In order to do so he must discover the inconsistencies within Dictionopolis and Digitopolis, make it through the “Land of Ignorance”, and bring Rhyme and Reason back to the Kingdom. The fact that a child is able to do this shows that Juster is challenging the notion that age comes with Wisdom. In this world, words are used to turn things around and silence. This is further demonstrated in Milo’s interactions with adults in this story. When Milo encounters Officer Shrift in Dictionopolis, Milo sees that he is making up the rules as he is going along (similar to what Alice experiences in Wonderland at the trial). And like the Queen of Hearts in Alice’s Adventures, he decides everyone is guilty right away. He turns everything Milo says upside down and in every way Milo attempts to outsmart him, Office Shrift changes the rules (quite humorously), thus using his words as a way exert his power enabling him to berate and silence those who go against him. For when Milo tries to outsmart the police officer by stating that “only a judge can sentence you” (62) Officer Shrift turns that around stating “Good point, … I am also the judge” (62) or when Milo says that “Only a jailer can put you in prison,” (63) to which Officer Shrift retorts “I am also the Jailer” (63). Perhaps this is Juster’s way of critiquing the Justice system. It is because of this lack of reasonableness that shows the need for Rhyme and Reason to come back to the Kingdom – to restore balance once again. King Azaz also works to show the ways in which the Adults try to exert power over children at the Royal Banquet.
In the book “The Phantom Tollbooth” by Norton Juster the story starts out as the main character as a boy named Milo. Milo first starts out in the phantom tollbooth as a very sad person. The very first sentence on page 1 states “There once was a boy named Milo who didn’t know what to do with himself not sometimes but always. When he was in school he longed to be at home, and when he was at home he longed to be at school. ” But Milo’s life dramatically changes when a magical tollbooth appears at his front door and takes him on a magical journey. Milo goes from someone who’s life is so miserable, he doesn’t like anything to someone who is hailed a hero for rescuing Dictionopolis and digitopolis, ( magical towns in the world Milo visits,) own hero's Rhyme and Reason.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a story about a little girl who comes into contact with unpredictable, illogical, basically mad world of Wonderland by following the White Rabbit into a huge rabbit – hole. Everything she experiences there challenges her perception and questions common sense. This extraordinary world is inhabited with peculiar, mystical and anthropomorphic creatures that constantly assault Alice which makes her to question her fundamental beliefs and suffer an identity crisis. Nevertheless, as she woke up from “such a curious dream” she could not help but think “as well she might, what a wonderful dream it had been ”.
Children are common group of people who are generally mislabeled by society. In the short story “Charles’’ by Shirley Jackson and ‘’The Open Window” by Saki showed examples of the labeling of children. In “Charles” the concept of parents labeling their children as being pure and sincere was shown. As in “The Open Window” by Saki “used the notion that girls were the most truthful sex and gives her a name that suggests truthfulness to make her tale less suspect.”(Wilson 178). According to Welsh “Because the fantasy is so bizarre and inventive and totally unexpected from a fifteen-year-old girl, the reader is momentarily duped.”(03). This showed that even we as the readers were a victim of misleading labels of society.
It is not simple to maintain an imaginative, colourful society. As stated in the story, society is often an uncommunicative wasteland. The adult world has little to offer its children. The story “The Fall of a City” by Alden Nowlan, is about a young little boy known as Teddy, being parented by two drab, unimaginative adults who corrupt his mind and lead him to destroy his ambition for the future. Without good role models for the children on earth, this world will have no future.
Alice in wonderland has compelled many artists and writings to adapt, Lewis Carroll 's book into movies. The original animated movie of Alice in Wonderland came out in 1951; which was produced by Disney. There have been many remakes, but for the purpose of this essay the 2010, live action remake by Tim Burton can reveal the most change. Keeping these two versions in mind, it is possible to get a snapshot of some ways American culture has shifted over the 59 year period. There are five main changes of importance from the original and the remake of Alice in Wonderland. Those changes are: the age of Alice, the dynamic of characters in Wonderland, the Gender roles, the violence, and the agency of Alice throughout the movie. These key changes can be linked to many subliminal messages being conveyed about American
In John Connolly’s novel, The Book of Lost Things, he writes, “for in every adult there dwells the child that was, and in every child there lies the adult that will be”. Does one’s childhood truly have an effect on the person one someday becomes? In Jeannette Walls’ memoir The Glass Castle and Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner, this question is tackled through the recounting of Jeannette and Amir’s childhoods from the perspectives of their older, more developed selves. In the novels, an emphasis is placed on the dynamics of the relationships Jeannette and Amir have with their fathers while growing up, and the effects that these relations have on the people they each become. The environment to which they are both exposed as children is also described, and proves to have an influence on the characteristics of Jeannette and Amir’s adult personalities. Finally, through the journeys of other people in Jeannette and Amir’s lives, it is demonstrated that the sustainment of traumatic experiences as a child also has a large influence on the development of one’s character while become an adult. Therefore, through the analysis of the effects of these factors on various characters’ development, it is proven that the experiences and realities that one endures as a child ultimately shape one’s identity in the future.
Are adults overprotective of their children? To what point do we protect children? Where should the line be drawn? Along with those questions is how easily children can be influenced by these same adults. Two poets, Richard Wilbur and Billy Collins, express the ideas of how easily children can be manipulated and how sometimes adults think they are protecting their innocent children, when in reality they are not. Wilbur and Collins express these ideas in their poems through numerous literary devices. The literary devices used by Wilbur and Collins expose different meanings and two extremely different end results. Among the various literary devices used, Wilbur uses imagery, a simple rhyme scheme and meter, juxtaposition of the rational and irrational, and a humorous tone to represent the narrator’s attempt to “domesticate” irrational fears. Conversely Collins uses symbols, historical interpretations, imagery, diction and other literary devices to depict the history teacher’s effort to shield his students from reality. In the poems, “A Barred Owl,” by Richard Wilbur, and “The History Teacher,” by Billy Collins, both poets convey how adults protect and calm children from their biggest, darkest fears and curiosities.
In the end there are many situations where Alice feels that she is different from everyone else around her. Alice realized that she was always different but more so when she was with these three characters who are the Mad Hatter, the caterpillar and the pigeon, and lastly being the Queen of Hearts. When she met the Mad Hatter is more so when she started to realize that she was different from everyone else in Wonderland. Throughout the book Alice just kept finding out how different she really was. Then she met the caterpillar and the pigeon who both made her question who and what she is. Then lastly she met the Queen of Hearts and really found out how different she was from everyone that was surrounding her in Wonderland. To conclude these were just a few examples where Alice felt like she was different from everyone else.
People grown up and are taught real life events to what to believe and false imagination. The realistic events that occur in the world is known by people as sense, once people are presented with gibberish language or events we believe and think nonsense. In the book Alice In Wonderland, a young lady name Alice is raised in a realistic world that she knows as sense. As she travels into another world she experiences events that do not connect with her knowledge that is based off of sense, she’s being to make connections and attempts to connects with this new world and try’s to adapt while she is present. Alice begins to questions the orders and the events that occur while she is in this world of nonsense. She beings to use her ontological reasoning
Upon entering Wonderland, Alice lost sight of who she was and started second guessing herself. This can be observed after she fell through the rabbit hole and landed in the dark room. Alice states, “Dear, dear! How queer everything is to-day! And yesterday things went on just as usual. I wonder if I’ve changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different” (Carroll 19). This is just one of many instances in Alice’s journey that demonstrates an identity crisis. It is almost as if she did not want to believe what she was seeing and was incapable of separating her reality from fantasy. Another example that shows Alice being unsure of her identity is when the Caterpillar
The title character, Alice, is a young girl around pre-teen age. In the real world, the adult characters always look down on her because of her complete nonsense. She is considered the average everyday immature child, but when she is placed in the world of "Wonderland," the roles seem to switch. The adult characters within Wonderland are full of the nonsense and Alice is now the mature person. Thus creating the theme of growing up'. "...Alice, along with every other little girl is on an inevitable progress toward adulthood herself"(Heydt 62).
While adults try to figure out use of complex m codes in the text, or debate his possible use of opium, viewers may be simply dive with Alice through the rabbit hole, chasing after "The dream-child moving through a land / Of wonders wild and new." There they meet the White Rabbit, the Queen of Hearts, the Fake Turtle, and the Mad Hatter, among a large number of other characters gone forever, fantasy-like, and ordinary creatures. Alice travels through this Wonderland, trying to understand the meaning of her strange experiences. But they turn out to be "curiouser and curiouser," (appearing to be) without moral or
Growing up is a concept feared by many people, especially children. The future is scare because no one knows what will happen. Children are the most afraid of growing up because they are uncertain if they will make the right choices. The decisions one makes in life effects their future. This leads to children having mixed emotions about whether or not they want to become an adult. In the novel, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll uses symbols to show the themes of growing up and uncertainty of the future.
Alice’s interactions with the characters of Wonderland reflect her struggles with adults in real life. Naturally curious as she is, Alice asks questions to learn from the adults. Since they understand the subject at hand well, they do not need to express their thoughts in order for them to understand themselves. However, Alice does not see this internal
...inal realization that she is growing up and that is normal, therefore, she accepts it. In brief, Alice in Wonderland is a book about growing up, and Alice definitely has grown up since the beginning of her journey and she has entered the adolescence phase when she rebels against everyone. Although she is not able to control herself when she gets angry, in other words she is behaving like a normal adolescent, she has gained a new “power” from this confusing experience: being a person with a voice to say something that matters.