Themes In The Looking Glass Wars

In Frank Beddor’s The Looking Glass Wars, There is a new take on the story of alice and wonderland. In the story alyss, the princess of wonderland has to flee her queendom after her evil aunt redd attacks and is split up with her guard. After that she falls in a portal and ends up surprisingly in England, though it would take almost 13 years, alyss would return to wonderland to fight for her throne as rightful queen. The authors change in the story makes the book have significance as well there are many themes developed throughout the book such as don’t give up which is shown by characters such as Dodge, Hatter, and Alyss.

One characters that doesn’t give up is Dodge Anders. Throughout the book dodge is faced with many troubling tasks and

he shows that he doesn’t give up, such as when dodge is in a battle going through the looking glass. During this redd’s card soldiers are after him he has to out maneuver them or he will be caught if he gives up. “ Spinning to avoid the glass eyes’ gunfire, dodge drew his sword”159. Another time dodge showed not to give up was when dodge was fighting the cat in redd’s palace and had been receiving quite a severe butt whooping from the cat one part but he kept on fighting to pursue his revenge quest instead of give up. “the swipe of a claw across dodge’s thigh, inflicting the deepest wound yet.” 336

Hatter Madigan is also another character you show the will to not give up.

At the beginning of the book after redd’s attack hatter and alyss jump into the pool of tears. In the pool of tears the two get separated and hatter comes out in paris while alyss comes out in England. Hatter Madigan decides to vow his life to finding alyss “He was closer to finding alyss that he had ever come before” Once hatter has finally tracked alyss down to england he gets shot trying to save her and is forced to return to wonderland through a mystic puddle. He emerges through the pool of tears,m finds the alyssians, and get patched up. Once he is tended to by the nurses he announces the Alyss Heart is “old enough to return and claim her rightful place as queen… and I’m going back to get her’” (188). This action shows that even though he is wounded exhausted and weak he will still look for alyss and not give up.

My final character that shows the will to not give up would be Alyss Heart. When Alyss is in the looking glass she faces off and did the wrong thing as she grabbed “Redd’s scepter and cutting of Redd’s head with a single swipe, just as she had killed Genevieve. “309 This action made her fail the maze. The blue caterpillar appears and tells her that she she failed. “ but she couldn’t leave yet. Not as a failure.”310 “Unacceptable,” she said, “ I don’t accept it.” And before blue could blow smoke into her face, she ran deep into the maze.”310 This allowed alyss to face
Redd once more

where alyss sacrifices herself for the alyssians. By running back into the maze and not giving up she gained full power and saved the war for white imagination.

Many characters show that they have the will to not give up. Dodge didn’t give up when the cat badly injured him, by doing this dodge was able to keep fighting and keep his life. Hatter didn’t give up when he lost alyss on earth, and by not giving up he was able to find alyss and return her to the alyssians, saving wonderland. Alyss didn’t give up either when she failed the maze and this resulted in her saving the alyssians and becoming a warrior queen to save wonderland. This theme is important because it teaches people to not to let hard challenges get in there way and to find a way not navigate through them.