Escapism is a prevalent theme in children’s literature. Children in these novels suddenly find themselves in a magical new world that does not seem like it could ever exist in reality. For the children in these books, the act of escaping into one’s imagination is used as a coping mechanism for what is going on in their reality. There are a variety of problems that children feel the need to escape from and usually, the majority of these problems stem from the realization that they are growing up. Children use their imagination as a safe haven where they can address these issues and develop as an individual without the fear of being judged or harmed, since it is their own imagination producing these places and adventures. Often, their journey allegorizes some other personal journey that the child goes through and learns from.
Some children, like Alice in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, use an imaginary adventure in a made-up world as an explanation for the physical changes they are experiencing that accompany development into maturity. Throughout the book, Alice undergoes multiple changes in size; from becoming very small to growing so large her arms and legs stick out the windows of a house. Her constant changing of size throughout the novel represents the changes that many young girls are confronted with the onset of puberty. These changes can leave both boys and girls feeling awkward and feel a loss of self-recognition and identity. When Alice meets the Caterpillar, he asks, “Who are YOU?” Alice replies, “’I— I hardly know, sir, just at present— at least I know who I WAS when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then…I'm not myself, you see.'” (Carroll; Kindle Locations 353-356). It i...
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...these issues or not). Much of the self-discovery that children experience can be credited to their imagination. Using their imagination as a safe hideaway enables children to grow, mature, and develop into individuality. When children are robbed of their imagination, it can be detrimental to their development as they do not have one of the crucial coping mechanisms one can have for the many stresses of life; the power to create in their own mind.
Works Cited
Barrie, J. M. Peter Pan. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1950. Print.
Carroll, Lewis. Alice in Wonderland: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-glass. Chicago, IL: J.G. Ferguson Pub., 1992. Print.
Juster, Norton. The Phantom Tollbooth. New York: Epstein & Carroll ; Distributed by Random House, 1961. Print.
Paterson, Katherine. Jacob Have I Loved. New York: Crowell, 1980. Print.
Imagination and reality are often viewed as opposites. People are told to stop playing pretend and to face reality like an adult. However, in Alison Gopnik’s short story, “Possible Worlds: Why Do Children Pretend,” she discusses counterfactuals and how humans of all ages experience these counterfactuals. Gopnik’s definition of a counterfactual is the product of hope and imagination, also known as the woulda-coulda-shouldas of life. These counterfactuals include all the possible scenarios that could have happened in the past and all that could happen in the future. Scientists have proven that knowledge and imagination go hand in hand and without imagination, pretend, and fantasy there would be no science or opportunity for change. In the text, Gopnik explains how even babies are capable of
Certain elements in children’s literature make me feel nostalgic for the past when I lived a more carefree and perhaps careless lifestyle with my eyes and ears wide open. Now, a college student and adult struggling to juggle school, work, and future career planning, I often forget the simple things that brought me pleasure when I was a child. The stresses I have encountered while growing older—taking on added responsibilities and accumulating prejudices—have clouded my childlike, innocent, and fun view of life. This childishness, which was reawakened by reading Charlotte’s Web,“Goblin Market,” and The Secret Garden ,is something I’d like to bring to life again. I miss it, and I’m tired of repressing it just so I can appear to be a mature adult. There are some characteristics in me that were rooted in childhood and still survive to express themselves today, like my love for animals. But these are few. The majority of things I learned, believed, and valued as a child have escaped me and perhaps lie dormant somewhere in my subconscious. My sense of beauty and healing power in nature has diminished since I moved away from my rural childhood home, as well as my relationships with my sisters, who were more easy to get along with when I was young. I regret losing these parts of me with age, and after reading these books I wish more than ever to bring them back, because they did form who I was as a child—and everything stems from childhood. This is when I was my real self, naive at heart and innocent at play.
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.
Carroll, Lewis. Alice in Wonderland . 3rd. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. Print.
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 ”.
Alice is now faced with the responsibility of adulthood. Wonderland just is the initiation between childhood and upcoming maturity. Throughout the book, Alice constantly changes size to adjust to the warped spaces in Wonderland. She often gets frustrated when she is not the right size she wants. Alice seems to be going through puberty for "it was much pleasanter at home, when one wasn't always growing larger and smaller," she is not pleased with the size of her body (Carroll 49). This frustration often occurs through the process of 'growing up.'
Imagination is one of the most unique and fascinating elements of the human mind. It is essentially using one’s mental abilities and memories to create specific imagery. This imagery helps people to be innovative, conceptualize, and come up with clever solutions to solve difficult problems. Imagination allows people to go outside of reality in order to envision ideas that they could not visualize otherwise. Without imagination, there would be very little originality and ingenuity. Unfortunately, people are slowly becoming less imaginative because of mind-numbing activities, society’s lack of encouraging creativity, and an educational system that emphasizes
Imagination this term raises a concern about if we are we born with this ability or we gain this ability through learning. It is argued that children learn to imagine and pretend, Rogers and Evans (2008) stated that we are not born with this ability only we have the potential for it. According to Vygotsky (1978) at the preschool age there are many unrealizable tendencies and desires emerge. He believes that if these needs are not realized immediately and...
Carroll, Lewis. Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There. New York: The modern Library, 2002. Print
SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2005. Web. 30 Oct. 2013.
“’But I don't want to go among mad people,' said Alice. 'Oh, you can't help that,' said the cat. 'We're all mad here.'” quoted by a very creative and imaginative author, Lewis Carroll, author of the hit Alice novels. This short novel was written by an extremely upright, ultra conservative man in which his unique character and many experiences had a great influence in the creation of Through the Looking Glass. Of all of Carroll’s works, Alice’s Through the Looking Glass, has a unique way of expressing adventures and stating the events in which occur throughout the whole novel making the novel standout in the category of whimsical, nonsense literature. The novel includes 12 chapters in which every new chapter brings you into different exotic settings introducing you to many peculiar characters involving the only and only Alice, the Tweedledum twins, Red Queen, White King, Humpty Dumpty Walrus and Carpenter. Meeting these characters brought her to finally achieving what her destination had been since the start; she finally became her normal size, making it into the garden. The events and settings involved with Through the Looking Glass make it a very fictional, imaginative novel. Carroll's imagination takes readers with Alice into where she finds the Looking-Glass House. Using the game of chess as the setting of his novel, he fills the novel with situations and puzzles from the ordinary to the extraordinary; including silly characters and adventures in which may be nonsensical, using the game of chess as the setting.
In such a cherished children’s book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, written in 1865, has caused great commotion in political and social satire. It slowly but surely grew into one of the most adored publications in the Victorian era, expanding into today’s modern age. Lewis Carroll was the pen name utilized by Charles L. Dodgson and has forth created a sequel named Through the Looking Glass, And What Alice Found There composed first in 1871. In short, the text of the story presented with a feminist approach, a corrupt judicial system of Victorian England, the caucus race, and the absence of a childhood, the evolution of species, and Marxism.
Lewis, Carroll. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. New York: Oxford, 2009. Print.
The characters in Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass are more than whimsical ideas brought to life by Lewis Carroll. These characters, ranging from silly to rude, portray the adults in Alice Liddell’s life. The parental figures in Alice’s reality, portrayed in Alice in Wonderland, are viewed as unintellectual figures through their behaviors and their interactions with one another. 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.
Richard Morton, (December, 1960). "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass". Elementary English. 37 (8), pp.509-513