Wonderland Through the Ages

Alice's tale of self-discovery in Wonderland and in the Looking Glass has resonated through pop-culture for decades, long after the book's publication.

However, as the satirical aspects of the book have become less relevant with time, the story has evolved along with the era.

The Quest

http://derrickbang.blogspot.com/2010/03/alice-in-wonderland-its-wonder.html

 The idea of the hero’s quest is one that fascinates me, and has fascinated many others, with the Alice books.  To inherit the culture that we are born into is to inherit the idea of a hero, and we seem to embellish the ideas ourselves before passing it on. Thus, the hero is an archetype, one that is almost universal, in world literature. Joseph Campbell points out a few characteristics that great heroes, especially in the Western literary tradition, share. They begin by showing signs of a vocation, then by refusing to carry it out until their conscience, or a divine being, has interfered and told them to do so. Then there is the inevitable journey that they embark upon, the trials they face and the sacrifices they make, before they are able to return to the fold of the community they left. Their actions have consequences that are far-reaching, and very significant to their own literary words. They are the heroes that are ever-present in the popular imagination, like David, who killed Goliath, or Odysseus, whose quicksilver mind turned the tide of war on foreign shores. However, sometimes, this archetype had been subverted in literature to create a new type of hero, in a different paradigm. Subversion such as this forces readers to step outside of the hero paradigm they are familiar with and examine these works in a new light. Most importantly, it leads to the questioning of the ‘hero’ archetype in itself, and why it is an important archetype for the human imagination.

The idea of a hero is present within the Alice book,s and becomes meta-textual in Through The Looking-Glass. Alice, like the hero in the poem Jabberowocky, is cast in the mould of  a subversive hero, almost an anti hero. In the poem, the hero kills the Jabberwock, but that in itself has no far reaching consequences. The first and the last stanzas of the poem are essentially the same, which means that his heroic act of killing the Jabberwock has done absolutely nothing to change the world that he lives in. Indeed, in order to be a hero, he had to leave his world and seek the world of the woods. Similarly, Alice, in escaping first to Wonderland and then the Looking Glass World, is trying to claim the identity of a heroine. Her social paradigm in the real world prevent her from being a hero. The thing that comes closest to being heroic in either of the books in the Real World is Alice untangling the yarn. In order to be a hero, Alice needs to enter a different, fantastical world. She needs the liminal space that the Carnivalesque offers to claim this identity. And why is that important? Because it is an initiation rite. The argument that I wish to make here, then, is that Alice, in order to grow up, needs to undergo a hero’s quest as an initiation rite, and can only access these rites in worlds that are not her own. Her wish to become a queen, or her assertiveness in the courtroom are all manifestations of the completion, of sorts, of her hero’s quest. Her own world is static, with no fluidity or movement. Thus, for any sort of growth to occur, she needs to leave this world and come back to it after having grown up. Moreover, these fantasy worlds becomes spaces for the fulfilment of wishes that cannot happen in Alice’s world. These fulfilled wishes don’t always come with desirable consequences, hence the nightmarish quality that pervades the fantasies, but they happen, which is more than can be said for the real world.

Alice as "the Most Interesting Man in the World" meme

'"But it's no use now," thought poor Alice, 'to pretend to be two people! Why, there's hardly enough of me left to make one respectable person!'"

In Alice in Wonderland, Alice often struggles internally trying to reconcile her childlike curiosity, naivety, and desire to fit in amongst an adult driven world. Crying when nervous or upset is a childlike reaction that is normal for a girl her age to express, and yet a part of her suppresses this tendency in order to appear and feel more mature. At many points in the novel, she seems to struggle between two entirely different 'selves.' 

In several scenes, she attempts to control her emotions and childish responses by forcing herself not to cry. (Follow link for meme!) During the scene in the linked image, her interactions with the moody animals in Wonderland are not entirely positive, which continues throughout the novel.

Not Always A Wonderland

Though I read the book and watched the movie as a young child, I never realized what a disconcerting and off-kilter world Alice inhabits in Caroll’s “Wonderland.” From her falling down the rabbit-hole to being attacked the court of cards, Alice never seems to be at one with her surroundings. Strange things happen in this unpredictable world and offer no explanation. And yet, as a child, I never found myself perplexed by any of it. Of course it was odd, but within my imagination, anything was possible. Today, I read the story and find myself analyzing every page, questioning and critiquing the underlying statements Carroll was making. Perhaps that’s the beauty of his work… while young children enthusiastically accept it for its playful imaginativeness; adults are struck by its deeper implications.

As many critics point out, Alice in Wonderland is not the purely innocent story we experience it as when we are children. There is always an element of danger lurking behind every scene or interaction Alice encounters in Wonderland. Drinking the bottle marked “Drink Me,” which might contain poison, nearly drowning in her own tears, becoming trapped in the White Rabbit’s home, meeting strange strangers, and the Queen of Hearts’ threats are all examples of times when Alice is at risk without ever really taking the threats seriously.

And yet Carroll seems to be attempting to idealize youth – to make it into something beautiful and innocent that adults all wish to return to. Perhaps it is Alice’s naiveté that grown-ups miss… being able to enjoy new experiences without recognizing the harm that they also face. Whatever it is, they find themselves reminiscing of their own Wonderlands, of their “simple sorrows” and “simple joys,” and of “happy summer days” (Carroll, 99).

As I thought about my childhood – which I truly did enjoy, and which I feel has not yet fully come to end – I realized that even as a young adult I have idealized some of my memories and experiences. Most of it was of a true, dream-like quality, but there were elements that frightened me. Confusion and change occasionally crept into my happy dreamland and threatened me. One such creeping fear manifested itself in a recurring nightmare – my only recurring nightmare as a child – which I decided to make into a comic and share, since it 

affected me so deeply as a child.

For me, like Alice… dreams are not always full of wonder. 

Bringing Wonderland to Life

http://www.pxleyes.com/blog/2011/01/36-pictures-that-look-photoshopped-but-are-not/

     In the OED, wonder is described as “something that causes astonishment.” Alice’s adventures to other places are marked by craziness and chaos. It is a world where everyone is mad. However, if we look at the world around us, we can find that we ourselves are living in a wonderland.  Maybe Lewis Carroll wasn’t crazy…maybe Alice woke up from her dream because she realized that the world is already full of wonders. Just the idea that we can imagine and dream is wonder all by itself. Wonderland is great, but the world is full of wonders and we should enjoy those too. So let me point you to some of our own wonders, welcome to our wonderland.

1.      Stevie Wonder- Besides the fact that his last name is Wonder…It is amazing how this guy can play the piano, and wow us all with his songs and his talents. Stevie Wonder stands for the poetry and the songs in Alice and Wonderland. Sometimes the only way to relate to someone or something is to write it in a song (or poem).

http://livemusic.ejarvis.eu/feeditem/2012/09/stevie-wonder-voleva-un-duetto-con-amy-winehouse.html

2.      “Body is a Wonderland” by John Mayer- It is a great song, and since Alice’s body goes through a lot of changes, it points to the idea that the body itself is amazing. Alice’s body is accustomed to the craziness that is Wonderland.

3.      Sweets and Sugar- so, we also have delicious food, by the way, it’s close to valentine’s day, so you can be sure to find little hearts with writing on them. Let us not forget that there is food that is capable of making us…grow.

http://sliceofcake.deviantart.com/art/Alice-In-Wonderland-158310472

4.      And lastly…we have our own rabbit-hole! (101 N. Tejon St. Colorado Springs, CO 80903).

http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/the-rabbit-hole-colorado-springs?select=HIDyzP3kqP5vfwbc6uqaXA#HIDyzP3kqP5vfwbc6uqaXA

      In conclusion, Alice in Wonderland draws attention to the messiness of life, but it also brings out an important aspect of the life of its readers. Alice in Wonderland is a good framework for how the world we live in is full of wonders. Wonder is a good thing. It is easy to see, once we take a step back, that we are living in a world of wonders. We ourselves get to experience wonders every single day. In fact, I do believe, that we are luckier than Alice. The only thing is that we have to be willing to go down the metaphorical rabbit-hole, and chase whatever wonders we might find. 

-Porschae 

The Literal and Language in Wonderland

The word "literally" is often carelessly thrown around today ("I was literally seeing stars" or "This migrane is so bad, my head is literally going to explode"). The OED defines "literally" to mean "in a literal, exact, or actual sense; not figuratively, allegorically, etc." Confusingly enough, people usually use "literally" when they actually mean something figuratively. The fact that "literally" is constantly used to mean its opposite is something that reveals the flexibility and frailty of the English language. Lewis Carroll repeatedly mocks this aspect all throughout the Alice stories and therefore illustrates a theme of language manipulation.

In Alice in Wonderland, much of Alice's confusion is caused by the discrepancy between intended meaning and actual meaning in language. The majority of the characters that she meets often take what she says literally. In a similar way, the places, characters, and objects Alice interacts with sometimes are literal manifestations of their names.

All of this confusion shows that language can never be concrete. But as time goes on and our language develops, there seems to be no way to stop this trend unless we, as the March Hare says, "say what [we] mean" (55). However, the network of words that we use are themselves made of words, so it may not ever be possible to escape the signifer and only use the signified. Are we, then, trapped in our own version of Wonderland through language? (Figuratively speaking, of course.)

photo credit

"literally, adv.". OED Online. December 2012. Oxford University Press. 7 February 2013 <http://0-www.oed.com.tiger.coloradocollege.edu/view/Entry/109061?redirectedFrom=literally>.

Alice Comics