Childhood Adventures
In Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan both Wendy and Alice show signs of maturity by Alice going through her adventure, and Wendy becoming a motherly figure and leaving Neverland to go home. Along Alice's adventure she realizes things are not normal, becomes queen, and stops crying like a child. Wendy cares for the lost boys, realizing she must leave, and forgets Neverland.
In Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, Alice shows signs of maturity by seeing the characters in wonderland as odd and being motherly, by becoming the queen in Looking Glass land, and forcing herself to stop crying over her childish actions.
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While in Wonderland, Alice goes around talking to each of the characters while being quite confused. For example, Alice sees the Cheshire cat and is confused as why it was smiling because Dinah, her own cat never does such things. "I didn't know that Cheshire cats always grinned; in fact, I didn't know that cats could grin." (Carroll 60) She is obviously thrown back by the odd cat.
A child would be intrigued by the fact the cat was smiling, but to Alice it was out of the ordinary and a mature adult would feel the same way. An example of Alice being a motherly figure is when she sees the baby struggling to breath and coughing from the pepper filled house. The cook was throwing pans at the small child and it's mother did not care. 'If I don't take this child away with me, they're sure to kill it in a day or two: wouldn't it be murder to leave it behind?' (Carroll 75) Alice took the child from the harsh environment and started to care for it in the way it's mother should have showing a mature side of Alice. In Looking Glass Land Alice is faced with the challenge of becoming Queen Alice. She must pass through different parts of the land to become the queen. Alice becoming the queen can symbolize her finally becoming an adult because a queen is seen as being a person of high standings. With Alice taking the journey to becoming queen, it symbolizes her maturing and taking the steps needed to become an adult or queen in this instance. A third example of Alice maturing is when she starts crying because
she can't seem to grow the right size and get the key to go into Wonderland. Alice forces herself to stop crying, gives her own self advice, and calms herself down because she knows crying won't help her. A child wouldn't stop crying in this situation and would not be able to calm down and realize crying does not make anything better. Alice shows the signs of being more mature by realizing what she must do in order to figure out her problem, and she knows crying won't solve it. Next, Wendy shows signs of maturity in Peter Pan by being a motherly figure to the lost boys, leaving Neverland, and growing up after she has left. Wendy is a mother to the lost boys when she goes to Neverland; she tells them stories just like her mother did to her and makes sure they are clean and cared for. She also feeds them and makes sure they have food, even though most of the time it's pretend. Wendy sees that the boys are in need of a mother to lead them in the right direction and helps them try to grow up like a mother would. One hard decision Wendy must make is leaving Neverland. She realizes that all of Neverland has the idea of never growing up and knows that it is her time to leave the childhood behavior behind and return home where she can grow up. Wendy had to be mature to make the design to leave because unlike the lost boys and Peter, she knows that everyone one must grow up and leave the childhood things behind. If she wasn't mature and had the mentality of the boys, she would never leave Neverland and become an adult. Wendy also wants to return home so her mother can stop worrying about her children. This is something her siblings have yet to realize. Lastly, Wendy eventually starts to forget Neverland and soon is unable to go back with Peter to do his spring cleaning. She also becomes unable to see Peter due to her age. This could symbolize the fact that Wendy has become a mature adult while Peter is still a young child. Wendy has left her childish ways behind her and has become an adult unlike Peter. Her daughter becomes the one to eventually return to Neverland to help Peter, and this shows that Wendy has fully matured and must send her daughter to become mature and be a mother to the lost boys like she once was. In conclusion, Alice in Alice's adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, and Wendy in Peter Pan both show maturity in their adventures. Alice sees Wonderland's people as odd and she also cares for the poor child that was sick because of the pepper. She scolds herself to stop crying, and eventually becomes a queen. Wendy shows her mature side by being a motherly figure to the lost boys, she realizes she must leave Neverland, and she grows up in the end. Maturity must be achieved through the challenges that children encounter in their younger years. In the adventures that children experience, like Alice and Wendy, they become mature adults.
The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor was a book that took a different angle at the classic story of Alice in Wonderland. The book was not just a lighthearted, wacky story about an English girl that stumbles down a rabbit hole and ends up in a world with talking caterpillars known as Wonderland. She is Wonderland’s heir to the throne and her mother, Genevieve, is the queen. Genevieve’s sister, Redd, is bent on revenge after being kicked out of the castle. She storms the castle and forcefully takes the throne, and Alyss is sent into another world and tries to find her way back to Wonderland to take back the throne. In order to do this, she has to gain a lot of responsibility starting from her childhood in Wonderland, teenage years in England,
In the Looking Glass Wars and Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, both Alyss and Alice are innocent, immature little girls who are just trying to understand the world around them. Because of their age they are very curious and they satisfy this curiosity by exploring. While they are exploring new things, it requires them to adapt to different lifestyles, which help them to better understand themselves and grow wiser.
Alice’s failure to understand the “native” culture, and her insistence on imposing her own norms and values ultimately culminates in a life-threatening situation.” (Binova “Underground Alice:” the politics of wonderland). Alice is the colonised in the situation with the Queen of Hearts. When she is introduced to the Queen her evil nature is revealed as she orders “Off with her head!” (Carroll 96). However, she is contrasted to Alice’s good nature while she shouts “Nonsense!” ( Carrol 96). The theme of chaos and confusion is brought forward as they play croquet all at once with noises all around and even in the court where everyone is expected to be civil. Although the Queen, as a character reinforces adulthood, subversion emerges again by Alice standing up for herself at this time. Nearing the end of her dream, she stands up against the Queen at court but it dream ends without a resolution. Maria Lassen-Seger says in ( “Subversion of Authority”: In “Alice’s Adventures of Wonderland”), “the relationship between the child and the adult is an impossible power relation in which the child is marginalised and considered powerless, thus, the adults suggest in their books what a child ought to be, what values and images it should accept.” The Queen at this point in the dream would have been the
Although water is not the most prominent image used by Carroll in the “Alice” stories, water adds a lot of meaning. This image aptly reflects Alice’s growth in the stories. All the other images in the stories, such as the Mad-Hatter, the White Queen, and the steps in the “Journey of the Hero” are easily recognized and likely to be over-analyzed. However, few have the significance that water has in the “Alice” stories.
The Victorian Age was the time period named after England’s Queen Victoria, who ruled from 1837 to 1901. Her attitude was a severely dull and strict one, which rapidly spread over the rest of Britain. The British were afraid to talk about anything close to being unsuitable, and they treasured childhood as a time where there were no worries or responsibilities. Although the youthful period was valued, children were better left to be seen, and not heard. They were encouraged to grow up as fast as possible and taught to mind their manners with extremely strict discipline.Besides the obvious, the way and language Alice was written in, Victorian culture appears in almost every turn of the page. Alice is shaped because of the use of her manners in the book toward elder strangers. Despite the fact, as she gets deeper into wonderland, she seems to become frustrated and forgets to be polite. The ever so popular tea party appears when Alice, the M...
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.
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.
Alice still abides by the typical Victorian ideals she was taught and becomes a surrogate adult in Wonderland. At home, however, she is still considered just a child and behaves as such. This confusion in the role Alice will play within the social hierarchy i...
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).
The gender roles change from the original to the remake. The original Alice role is defined as a young girl who is able to explore her curiosity, but she is constrained by her feminine characteristics. Alice being a young girl is portrayed as helpless in many situations throughout her journey. The characters of Wonderland offer her assistance, but she remains most times crying by herself. Alice’s character clearly shows the innocence and virtue American society attached to girls roles in the
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 ...
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.
Nevertheless, when her name is called as a witness in chapter 12, Alice replies “HERE!” without any signs of hesitation (Carroll 103). A 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 of the outcome. With these qualities, Alice resolves her identity crisis by recognizing Wonderland is nothing but a dream created by her mind.
Carroll is unwilling to accept the fact that Alice is growing up and that their friendship is coming to an end. In Alice in Wonderland, Alice is portrayed as a child in need of help, much like how Alice needed Carroll. However, in Through the Looking Glass, Alice is portrayed as older and independent. This is because Carroll sees Alice as years older than when he first wrote about her, despite her only being six months older in the book. Carroll reminisces on the way Alice used to spend time with him and he misses that friendship.
...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.