Why are animal characters so popular in children’s literature? Why do they tend to be either fierce or friendly? How do animal characters impact children’s literature? In Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland, the animal characters are very weird. They were supposed to guide Alice through the traditional fairytale world she has created, but instead they were negative influences on this child. I believe the audience expected that animal characters are supposed to because they are the ones who should be a role model for kids to look up or when they read it. Do the animal characters in Lew Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland disobey the animal characters in traditional fairytales? The animals in Alice argue with her, confuse her, and tell her upsetting stories instead of guiding her through the fairytale world she has created. “Whenever there is authority, there is a natural inclination to disobedience.” by Thomas C. Haliburton. It is related to my thesis because the animal characters in Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland felt that they had authority to disobey the animal characters in other traditional fairytales. This is similar to Del Toro’s Pan Labyrinth because there are main animal characters like fairytales, faun, and paleman. They have the weird physical features. It was really gross to see them. This applied to Lewis Carroll’s book because he used the animals in a weird way. For example, The Cheshire-Cat’s body disappeared but the face was still there. Other example is a mouse walking by Alice. In real life, mouse rarely does that. When she looked at the rabbit, she never had seen any rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it. She began to wonder and decided to go after him. When Alice tried to lo... ... middle of paper ... ...ms with the children because the population is increasing rapidly. Lewis Carroll is sending an urgent message to all the audience to be prepared for their children to see a lot of adulthood problems. Citations: Ashbourne, M.S.,The Cheshire-Cat: Sign of Signs; The Cheshire-Cat: Signifying character as a character (2007) Burn, A. Potterliteracy: Cross-Media Narratives, Cultures and Grammars; Aragog the spider—cross-media narrative transformations (2006) Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth Tannen, D. In Lunsford et al. p. 830 Lunsford et al. 2009 Chapter 2 Lunsford et al. 2009 Chapter 3 Lunsford et al. 2009 Chapter 1 p. 24 Carroll 1865, p. 8 in Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland Carroll 1865, p. 11 in Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland Carroll 1865, p. 27 in Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland Carroll 1865, p. 28 in Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland
Margaret Wise Brown was truly fascinated by animals, and she understood children’s attraction to animals. Tellingly, when Brown reflects on her childhood she mentions her “thirty-six rabbits, two squirrels…a collie dog, and two Peruvian hens, a Belgian hare, seven fish, and a wild robin who came back every spring” (Days Before Now). From this information about Brown, one understands where her love of animals originated--her childhood. Additionally, animals were kind to her and did not restrict or belittle Brown the way some individuals did regularly. Brown was allowed to have constant interaction with animals, which proved to be influential in her writing career. Overall, Margaret Wise Brown used numerous animals, especially rabbits because of her love for creatures and the understanding she possessed of children’s love of and interest with animals.
In the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, the use of animal and nature imagery develops the theme that nature is always present and needed for the survival of humans, just as knowledge is a necessity to thrive as a society. Without knowledge, society cannot learn and develop.
Alice died all he could do was provide his kids with orthopedic shoes and the
It is amazing that nearly all critics of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland focused solely on the character and adventures of the female protagonist/hero. A somewhat right-wing and didactic critique at Decent Films writes, “Alice embodies the gender feminist narrative of vibrant young girls losing their mojo as they come of age in patriarchal society.” The woman’s magazine, Jezebel, while praising the movie as “refreshingly feminist” seemed to notice only that the hero who fights against the forces of evil is a woman. Jezebel mentions other characters, but does not take the time to catalogue their relationship to feminism. In an Associated Content piece by Adriana Tanese-Nogueria which does, commendably, explore the feminist theme much more richly than many other reviews, still, the main focus is on Alice’s journey of feminist liberation. But Lewis Carroll also takes a look at the men in this story. Men during the Victorian era were known to have the control over the household and have a job. Their lives were around getting the perfect wife and making a lot of money. So when one reads some of the characters in Alice in Wonderland, one can see some difference in how he portrays some of the characters.
Rabbit shows us that we have to live with our mistakes, that we can't just act like they never happened. Rabbit tries to run, but he can't. He reminds us that people don't just forget and move on.
While the character of CR is used to demonstrate the relationship between children and adults by the use of many parallels, speech and actions, it is the animals that represent the author's construction of different types of childhood. In addition to this the animals are also the providers of amusement and entertainment which draw children's love and interests.
At the time of his death, Charles L. Dodgson (1832-1898)(Fig. 1), known better to the public by his famous nom de plume Lewis Carroll, was by all measures an interesting if famous, eccentric personality. Most of his contemporaries saw in him a deeply religious man who was generally reticent and shy among the adult public but could be wonderfully silly, almost child-like and creative among his favored audience, little pre-pubescent girls. It was for these very special children that Carroll wrote his two famous nonsense
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a story that has been loved and read by different age groups. Lewis Carroll wrote the book in such a way that the reader, young or old, could be trapped into Alice’s world of adventure. The illustrations by John Tenniel help portray the story beautifully. Tenniel put pictures to Carroll’s thoughts exactly. When a student reads Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland for the first time, it is always great if he or she could be introduced to his illustrations. However, it is a good idea for teachers to bring in different portals of Alice to help show how other people may view this little girl’s world. In addition, it will show that even though Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has been written many years ago, people are still relating to Alice’s character. Overall, it is amazing to see how many different illustrators have portrayed Alice in a totally new and modern way, such Greg Hildebrandt. I decided to use Greg Hildebrandt’s illustrations to assist me in teaching about Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland because he portrays Alice as a much older looking girl. I believe this will help students understand how Alice’s character seemed older than seven years of age. He also depicts some of the characters as more humanlike than cartoon. I believe this will help students picture themselves into Alice’s world. In addition, Hildebrandt helps portray the bizarre story line that many people have come to love.
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 ”.
One of the main purposes for writing Alice in Wonderland was not only to show the difficulties of communication between children and adults. In this story, almost every adult Alice talked to did not understand her. At times she messed up what they were saying completely as well, which many times stick true to real life circumstances. This book shows that kids and adults are on completely separate pages on an everlasting story. Carroll points out that sometimes children, like Alice, have a hard time dealing with the transition from childhood to adulthood, 'growing up.' Alice in Wonderland is just a complicated way of showing this fact. Lewis Carroll's ways with words is confusing, entertaining, serious, and highly unique all at the same time. And it's safe to say that it would be difficult to replicate such and imaginative technique ever again (Long 72).
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 ...
The underlying message of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a rejection of adult authority. The character of Alice is not at all like what you would find in a typical children's book. "The character of Alice herself is a bit puzzling, even to the modern child, because it does not fit a stereotype. How much more unusual she must have seemed to Victorian children, used to girl angels fated for death (in Dickens, Stowe, and others), or to impossibly virtuous little ladies, or to naughty girls who eventually reform in response to heavy adult pressure... But Alice is neither naughty nor overly nice. Her curiosity leads her into her initial adventure and most of the latter ones in the book... (Leach 119)."
When the story of Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland began Alice seemed very childlike as she was distracted easily and acted very curiously as most children tend to. These characteristics led her
In Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, Alice is put in a variety of situations that expose her to different point of views. She meets the other characters of Wonderland as she takes on the role of a chess piece and moves through the “squares” of the chess board designed realm. By the end Alice has gained a new understanding and appreciation of her world, as well as her place in it. Carroll created a series of works that have inspired and entertained multiple generations. The story of Alice and her adventures in Wonderland, however, begins not with the writings of Lewis Carroll, but with the life of Charles Dodgson.
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.