A Hero’s Journey: Alice in Wonderland The Hero’s Journey is a pattern of narrative that appears in novels, storytelling, myth, and religious ritual. It was first identified by the American scholar Joseph Campbell in his book A Hero with Thousand Faces. Campbell also discussed this pattern in his interview to Bill Moyers which was later published as a book The Power of Myths. This pattern describes the typical adventure of the archetype known as The Hero, the person who goes out and achieves great deeds. Campbell detailed many stages in the Hero’s Journey, but he also summarized the pattern in three fundamental phases: Separation, Ordeal, and Return that all heroes, in spite of their sex, age, culture, or religion, have to overcome in order to reach the goal. Alice in Wonderland, written by Lewis Carroll, provides a good example of the Hero's Journey. This story describes the adventures of Alice, a young English girl, in Wonderland. Although she lacks some of the stages identified by Campbell, she still possesses many of them that are necessary for a Hero to be considered a Hero. The first phase, Separation, usually begins with the introduction of the Hero to the audience in the Ordinary World. The Hero’s Journey begins at a starting point, home, a place to which he may eventually return. The main purpose of introducing the Hero in the Ordinary World is to create a vivid contrast with the strange new world that he is about to enter. Thus, Alice begins her quest sitting by her sister on the bank of a lake. The moment she gets bored with glancing over the book that has no pictures, and, therefore, it makes her sleepy, is the signal that something is about to happen. The Call to Adventure is an inc... ... middle of paper ... ...e at the end of the story, in which she herself dreams about the adventures Alice has just had. The adult Alice will have children of her own, and, perhaps, she will entertain them with the story of Wonderland. Indeed, the dream gains some reality when it is spread, as a story, to so many others. Thus, Alice in Wonderland is a good illustration of a Hero’s Journey. This story allows us to see how Alice overcomes the three main phases, and most of the stages identified by Campbell in her journey-transformation from an undisciplined child to a wise young adult. Throughout the story, Alice overcomes the nonsense of the young and the old before she truly understands what adulthood is all about. All through her adventures in Wonderland, she encounters numerous new situations and meets different archetypes that are necessary for her to be considered a Hero.
Joseph Campbell defines a hero as “someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself ” (Moyers 1). The Hero’s Journey consists of three major parts: the separation, the initiation and the return. Throughout a character’s journey, they must complete a physical or spiritual deed. A physical deed involves performing a daunting and courageous act that preserves the well-being of another person. A spiritual deed calls for action that improves another individual’s state of mind. While fulfilling their journey, a hero must undergo a psychological change that involves experiencing a transformation from immaturity into independence and sophistication.Campbell states that these events are what ultimately guides a hero into completing
When things are at their best prepare for the worst. That’s something I always told myself since I was young boy. Joseph Campbell was no stranger to this concept which he described as the hero’s journey. This journey had three stages: leaving the everyday world, overcoming trials and tribulations, and finally going back to the everyday world with newfound knowledge that you can share with people. I traveled through all three of these stages myself. This is my hero’s journey.
...mes in both cases; however, it is through these experiences that the characters are equipped for situations which are rooted in reality. Both protagonists approach their leap out of fantasy in differing ways. Don Quixote’s death reveals that once fantasies are let go, the person lets go. Alice on the other hand is prompted to cling to her fantasy for the rest of her life. Through this, both Carroll and Cervantes show that fantasy is a vital part of growth and living. Growth is presented as something which does not absolve an individual from their fantasies but rather, embraces them. Fantasy is a medium without which the human race would cease to be ‘human’ because it is true that every man and woman was once a boy and girl living out their fantasies; paradoxically, it is the surrealism of fantasy that allows man to understand himself and his role in the real world.
The first stage of a hero is the ordinary world. The hero is traditionally introduced living in his/her day by day life. From there he/she is unexpectedly summoned into an undisclosed environment
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.
Joseph Campbell was a well known mythology teacher who spent his whole life trying to understand the different types of stories that are told. To Campbell “all humans are involved in a struggle to accomplish the adventure of the hero in their own lives.” He made a list of stages that every hero goes through, and sums it up to three sections: separation (the departure), the initiation, and the return.
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).
Although the novel is notorious for its satire and parodies, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland main theme is the transition between childhood and adulthood. Moreover, Alice’s adventures illustrate the perplexing struggle between child and adult mentalities as she explores the curious world of development know as Wonderland. From the beginning in the hallway of doors, Alice stands at an awkward disposition. The hallway contains dozens of doors that are all locked. Alice’s pre-adolescent stage parallels with her position in the hallway. Alice’s position in the hallway represents that she is at a stage stuck between being a child and a young woman. She posses a small golden key to ...
SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2005. Web. 30 Oct. 2013.
Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland follows the story of young Alice trapped in the world of Wonderland after falling down through a rabbit-hole. The rabbit-hole which is filled with bookshelves, maps, and other objects foreshadows the set of rules, the ones Alice is normally accustomed to, will be defied in Wonderland. This conflict between her world and Wonderland becomes evident shortly after her arrival as evinced by chaos in “Pool of Tears” and Alice brings up the main theme of the book “was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I am not the same, the next question is who am I?” (Carroll 18). After Alice fails to resolve her identity crisis using her friends, Alice says “Who am I, then? Tell me that first, and then, if I like being that person, I’ll come up: if not, I’ll stay down here til I’m somebody else” (Carroll 19). Hence in the beginning, Alice is showing her dependency on others to define her identity. Nevertheless when her name is called as a witness in chapter 12, Alice replies “HERE!” without any signs of hesitation (Carroll 103). Close examination of the plot in Alice in Wonderland reveals that experiential learning involving sizes leads Alice to think logically and rationally. Alice then attempts to explore Wonderland analytically and becomes more independent as the outcome. With these qualities, Alice resolves her identity crisis by recognizing Wonderland is nothing but a dream created by her mind.
The inventive world of Wonderland and Alice’s journey in to her own imagination is more then merely a children s story. Looking deep at the symbols and structure of the story one can see that it becomes more complex and abstract as Alice gets deeper and deeper in her journey in Wonderland. Lewis Carol wrote the book in 1876 and Disney produced its own animated version of Alice in Wonderland no more then twenty years ago. The Disney production aimed at a younger audience, shows Wonderland as a very colorful and vibrant place, full of flowers, trees and a majestic garden of wonder and glory. Although Disney is successful at doing that, it fails in showing the hidden aspects of the story, the aspects of the novel that need to be dug into to comprehend. This is most likely because it was made a younger audience.
Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland tells the story of a child named Alice who is trying to find her place in this confusing world. Children have a hard time fitting into a world that revolves around adults. Throughout Alice’s adventure in wonderland she embarks on a journey of growing up. Wonderland is a very different place than young Alice is used to. However, she begins to understand the different characters she meets along the way. Towards the end of her journey Alice’s thinking has matured and she could no longer stay in that world because of her changed mentality. Alice wakes up back in the real world more grown up than before. Overall, Alice’s story is that of a young girl transitioning from childhood into adulthood.
Alice is forced to find out who she is in a place where everyone is a distinct individual, which for Alice, is worse than in a place like the real world where there is a heavy pressure to fit in. From the moment Alice first arrives in Wonderland, she is constantly experiencing dramatic physical changes that shock her, from shrinking down to a foot tall, to shooting up far above the trees. After such extensive differences in her appearances have taken place, Alice is frazzled when a Pigeon asks what her true identity is after mistaking her for a serpent. At first she struggles with this but then realizes that at her core, she is still a little girl, regardless of her appearance. She had completely lost herself when her appearance changed. The overblown physical contrasts symbolize the changes that everyone experiences during their lives, especially during adolescence. Though you are still essentially a child, so many things change in your life that your whole world is rocked. There is a greater responsibility placed on you because of your age, and you are expected to act more maturely. But sometimes, the changes are so significant that you feel like
Alice in Wonderland is Carroll’s most popular and successful writing by far. Alice is a girl who falls into a rabbit hole, and wonderland is where she ends up, in the simplest form. The story begins as Alice is reading with her sister, when Alice becomes bored, she begins to fall asleep. Alice sees a white rabbit wearing a waistcoat, talking to himself, and carrying a pocket watch, this strikes her curiosity and she follows him into a rabbit-hole. Alice fell down the
Alice in Wonderland belongs to the nonsense genre, and even if most of what happens to Alice is quite illogical, the main character is not. “The Alice books are, above all, about growing up” (Kincaid, page 93); indeed, Alice starts her journey as a scared little girl, however, at the end of what we discover to be just a dream, she has entered the adolescence phase with a new way to approach the mentally exhausting and queer Wonderland. It is important to consider the whole story when analyzing the growth of the character, because the meaning of an event or a sentence is more likely to mean what it truly looks like rather than an explanation regarding subconscious and Freudian interpretations. Morton states “that the books should possess any unity of purpose seems on the surface unlikely” (Morton, page 509), but it’s better to consider the disconnected narrative and the main character separately, since the girl doesn’t belong to Wonderland, which is, as Morton says, with no intrinsic unity. Whereas, there are a few key turning points where it is possible to see how Alice is changing, something that is visible throughout her journey. Carroll wants to tell the story of a girl who has to become braver in order to contend with challenges like the pool made by her own tears, or assertive characters, like the Queen.