A highly esteemed childhood development philosopher, Erik Erikson believed that the personality of a child develops in a series of stages, and in each stage children experienced crucial events that affected ones development. These events either impacted that child’s development in a good or poor way. Relationships are pivotal in all of Erikson’s stages as it can start to form ones personality, which helps one grow in the future. In Erik Erikson’s fourth stage, competence, children develop self-confidence by interacting with peers and people. Likewise, Alice undergoes this stage in Through the Looking Glass. Alice develops these skills as she socializes with the many characters in the story, leading her and giving her lessons to help her on …show more content…
her way to the eight square to become a queen. In Lewis Carroll story, Through the Looking Glass, he explores the theme of growing up through Alice’s adventures, to show how many people, absurd or not can give important life lessons that are crucial for development to reach adulthood. Lewis Carroll uses life lessons to show that they are pivotal for development through Alice’s first interaction with the Red Queen.
This concept becomes apparent as the Red Queen tells an important message to Alice saying, “At the next peg the Queen turned again, and this time she said "Speak in French when you can't think of the English for a thing--turn out your toes as you walk--and remember who you are!" (176.) The Red Queen is helping Alice understand the game they are currently in and making sure she comprehends all the steps she has to go through to become a queen in the end. This multiple meaning quote that the Red Queen just stated means to keep hold of ones (Alice’s) identity and just helpful in the game of chess. As the Red Queen states “speak in French when you can’t think of the English for a thing” she is assisting Alice through the many steps of the game as well, especially through the forest which she forgets her name and everything of sorts. The Red Queen is the archetype of the Oracle, the all-knowing mentor who helps the innocent child on their way, exactly how she is helping Alice now. When she says “and remember who you are!” the Red Queen is making sure Alice continues to recognize herself and to stay firm to who she is what and what she believes. As she goes through the story, her identity is challenged, but stays true to herself. The Red Queen is also warning Alice metaphorically, against all these many influences that may cross her path. In addition …show more content…
to the Red Queen’s advice, a meeting with the Gnat on the train shows how a little experience with another can prepare one for adulthood as the Gnat says, "What's the use of their having names," the Gnat said, "if they won't answer to them." "No use to them," said Alice; "but it's useful to the people that name them, I suppose. If not, why do things have names at all?" The Gnat is expressing his understanding of names, but does not know what’s the use of them. The many characters in Through the Looking Glass seem to be a bit ridiculous but have many lessons to share with Alice in the book. A name the Grat is referring to is a method used by the mind to organize everything it takes in. It helps the mind understand things, because there is a concrete name to something. The Gnat does not see the usefulness of names as he thinks they are just random and not essential for mankind. Alice shows her age when talking to the Gnat. She thinks beyond when saying “I suppose, If not, why do things have names at all?” Alice in this situation showed her maturity and knowledge of why the world needs names, while the Gnat goes on to not understand. The Gnat and the Red Queen challenged Alice to think outside the box and truly think about why they are used by giving her advice but also letting her think on her own to help her grow and develop those needed skills. Lewis Carroll uses experiences from the White Queen and the White Knight to show how meeting new people helps shape one for adulthood.
Alice is dumbfounded by how old the White queen is and does not quite believe it as Alice says, "There's no use trying," she said: "one can't believe impossible things." "I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast” (207.) The White Queen is giving Alice another lesson on her journey to the eight square. The White Queen is know as the friendlier queen and truly helps Alice as she finds her way. As Alice states, “one can’t believe impossible things” she is expressing her grownup side. Many believe that once one reaches a certain age, imagination seems to be extinct in an adult brain. Though Alice is only seven and a half it seems she is also thinking like an adult. Then as the White Queen responds, “I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” The White Queen is trying to show that children should dream and do impossible things everyday. Believing the impossible is a right for all children since they do not have any obligations or rules to follow yet. They can be free with their minds and be as imaginative as they possibly can. The White Queen is attempting to explain to Alice that she should be thinking impossible things more, and should not be thinking so hard about
the many strange, impossible things that happen in the Looking Glass world. Also to the White Queens advice, Alice is helped by the White Knight on her way to eighth square or adulthood when Alice and the White Knight have a conversation and say, "Of course I'll wait," said Alice: "and thank you very much for coming so far--and for the song--I liked it very much." "I hope so," the Knight said doubtfully: "but you didn't cry as much as I thought you would " (250.) The White Knight is an amusing character in Through the Looking Glass as he does not know how to ride a horse which he rides everyday and has many useless inventions. Alice does not know what to think of him. She is perplexed as what he says and does. Alice is on her way to the eight square, which means adulthood. Alice has been growing since square one with different characters giving her advice. Alice states, “thank you very much for coming so far—and for the song—I liked it very much.” The song the White Knight sings to Alice is very unhappy, but seems to have no affect on Alice and the White Knight says, “you didn’t cry as much I thought you would.” This therefore means, that Alice did not know the meaning of the song he sang to her. It is about adulthood, and most children do not understand that they are growing up; it is just a thing that happens. The White Knight is always a friend to Alice as he shows love and support to her while she makes her way to be Queen. Though he did not teach Alice a life lesson, she still learned from her interaction with the White Knight, also showing her age because of how the White Knight acted. The White Knight tried to warn her through the song, but Alice will live in the moment until she is an adult and realizes that she is not a child any more, like most people. The author utilizes adventures and life lessons to demonstrate that they are crucial for growth through socializing with Humpty Dumpty. This notion becomes evident when Humpty Dumpty starts using words that do not work in the sentences and Alice is confused with what he is trying to say and he says, “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean-neither more nor less” (219.) Humpty Dumpty is an unusual character. He believes that he is constantly right, which gives Alice a good lesson and shows her that, though some people believe that they are the best, one has to decide for themselves because that person may be deceitful to themselves and one another. Humpty Dumpty has taken the liberty to create new meanings to words however he pleases; as he says “it means just what I choose it to mean-either more nor less.” He does what he wants, but an issue that comes up with changing meanings of words is that is everyone changes the meanings of the words; there would be no stable meanings to any words, though when doing this he give everyone their own opinion and mind to choose what they want each word to mean. He gives Alice the life lesson of being unique and being oneself, as one can make up a new meaning of a word and not caring what anyone else thinks and to choose any word with any meaning to suit ones fancy. Comparatively, the White Queen expresses a very important life lesson to Alice as they are conversing about being sad and lonely and says, “I wish I could manage to be glad!” “Only I never can remember the rule. You must live very happy, living in this wood, and being glad whenever you like!” (206.) The White Queen is a major influence on Alice throughout Through the Looking Glass. This life lesson she tells Alice applies to all aspects of her life and definitely will help her as she grows into adulthood, as many adults forget when to treat themselves and to be happy most of the time. As the White Queen says, “remember the rule,” she says it like a recipe, one needs to be happy and one needs to be glad and that one will have a wonderful life. Though in the Looking Glass world, everything is backwards so the White Queen can never remember the rule, but for Alice that rule will stay with her forever and help her on her journey. Being happy in life makes everything better including, people, activities and hobbies. The White Queen has given Alice many life lessons. These life lessons will help one in their adult years making one a more benevolent, hardworking, and a well-mannered adult. Growing up can give one ups and downs, but from meeting the right people, one can learn important life lessons, which can change the way one can develop into adulthood. From Lewis Carroll’s story, Through the Looking Glass, he showed many encounters involving Alice and other characters including: The Red Queen, The White Queen, The White Knight, Humpty Dumpty, and the Gnat which led to important adventure which helped Alice find her way through the story. Alice represents everyone in the world, and how everyone can learn something from people in all societies who are deemed less than or dumb. It grows ones character from what they tell one another, because one can always learn something. Alice taught everyone to be open about meeting new people and not judging him or her, because one can always acquire an interesting lesson from sometime which will help them in the long run.
In the Lilies of the Field by William E. Barrett, Homer and Mother Maria both display straightforward, hardworking, and stubborn character traits. Firstly, Homer and Mother Maria both display a straightforward personality by being brutally honest about their opinions. For example, when Mother Maria asks Homer to build a chapel, Homer speaks his mind by telling her he does not want to build it. Mother Maria shows her straightforward behavior during Homer’s stay at the convent. One morning, when Homer sleeps in late, Mother to becomes extremely upset and is not afraid to show how she feels about him. Secondly, both Homer and Mother Maria display a hardworking spirit. Homer is a hardworking man because after finally agreeing to build the chapel,
In The Big Field, author Mike Lupica explores the theme, "Success uses motivation as fuel." Lupica portrays this theme through the main character, Hutch. Throughout the entire book, Hutch, a young boy that has just recently joined a highly talented baseball team, displays moments that exemplify this main theme. Hutch and his team have a chance to play in the stadium of the Miami Marlins, a Major League Baseball team, as long as they can keep winning games and advancing through a challenging tournament; however, Hutch's favorite position on the field, shortstop, the position located between 2nd and 3rd base, has already been filled on the team. Unfortunately, Hutch gets a demotion from shortstop, to second base, the position located between 1st base and 2nd base. Although Hutch was disappointed and melancholy about the switch in position, he was even more upset about the downgrading of leadership, since the
Hope and joy can be hard to find especially when times are tough. This is a situation in Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse , the character Billy Jo and her family are living in the time of the Dust Bowl and are struggling financially . Her father is a farmer in a time where nothing grows and after an accident Billy Jo’s mother passes away. This is a big part of Billy Jo is effected emotionally and shows seems very sad. Billy Jo has to move and has to move on and find joy and hope even in tough times.
Berger, K. S. (2012). The developing person: through childhood and adolescence. (9th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.
Lewis Carroll demonstrates paradoxes within Alice and Wonderland as Alice is tossed within an entirely different world. Yet one of the greatest paradoxes is the transformation of Alice over the course of the novel as well as the transformation of the duchess. Alice begins as an ignorant child; she has difficulties in morphing to the logic and needs of Wonder...
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
When Alice enters Wonderland, everything she knows (or rather she thinks she knows) is completely turned upside down. As a result, when Alice is first confronted with the nonsensical ways of this dream world, she loses her sense of identity as she continually asks herself, “Who in the world am I?” (18). However, in confronting and challenging the adults in Wonderland she is
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.
As the child matures during the first two years of life, he or she creates a specific internal working model (BOOK). The working model of self is founded on the expectations the child develops based on experiences with the mother (BOOK). According to Bowlby (1979, p. 117), "the conce...
St. Augustine once said, “Wrong is wrong, even if everyone is doing it. Right is right, even if no one is doing it,” summarizing morality and integrity at its core. Ruta Sepetys, the author of the novel, Between Shades of Gray, coveys the importance of morality and integrity through one character in particular. Sepetys effectively edifies Elena Vilkas as a moral compass who’s integrity influences everyone she encounters for the greater good and with hope for survival. Elena’s unbreakable morality is evident amongst her ever-changing community. Her virtues are also deeply displayed within her family as they journey through their fate.
“The most logical thing a solider escapes from is danger, death, the enemy.” Everyone goes through a point in their life where they go to war with themselves. When you are the solider and the enemy you cannot escape from yourself, but you can go for the wrong enemy; such as Gene does. Gene admires and resents his best friend, Phineas, but his resentment takes over and causes him to commit terrible actions towards Phineas.
“Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise” (Carroll 105). This and advice of this kind are often dispensed by the Duchess in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to Alice, and like the transition from child to adult, the advice is generally rarely fully understood if not confusingly difficult to wrap logic around. Many illustrators have undertaken the task of conveying a clear picture of the struggle that Alice goes through in order to triumph over childhood and nonsense into the realm of adults and logic. Angel Dominguez shows Alice’s struggle to grow up and out of childhood, a major theme of the text, in such a way that the audience can almost feel her anxiety. The use of the body language of Alice, the Duchess and the supporting animals, in addition to compositional elements such as proximity and framing, is a principal mechanism of Dominguez in evoking Alice’s anxiety and emphasizing the uncomfortable passage into maturity on one’s own while dealing with the pressures and advances of an adult world.
Exile is both an enriching experience and unmendable gap in life. Although exile is one word, there are many different ways to interpret it. In the novel, State of Wonder, Ann Patchett illustrates this arduous experience through Marina. Through her exile, Marina confronts the treacherous Amazon however, it ultimately led to an unexpected enlightenment in her life. Marina contemplated the right from wrong as well as the importance of the real truth. All of these experiences and emotions that were pulsing through her body ultimately revealed the contrasting worlds of morals and temptations that could lead to abandonment.
The child has a hard time realizing that though there are many other people and things in their world, none of them are more important than the child himself. The child believes that his point of view is the only point of view of the world. This is caused by his inability to put himself in someone’s else’s shoes (Smith). The concrete operational period, spanning between the ages of 7 and 11, is marked by the onset of logic in the young mind. The child is able to mentally manipulate objects and events.
In the opening scene, Alice desires something beyond orthodox. This is showed by her lack of interest in her studies and longing for a world in which everything would be “nonsense.” She is a curious child. Deborah Ross argues that Alice expresses the usual idealistic desires: “to escape boredom (with lessons), to satisfy curiosity (about the white rabbit), and above all, to exert power” (Ross 57). However Alice does not know exerting power is difficult when the world is consumed of “nonsense”. Thus she has different qualities that contributes to her vague identity. She believes life would be different in her world. Also Disney strives to reveal Alice’s incentive of Wonderland by introducing pictorial wonders such as singing flowers and surrealistic insect, making it seem as a dream. The movie progresses in the same route as Lewis Carroll’s book by focusing on her immature thinking of Wonderland.