Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: A Fantastical Tale

I've recently become fascinated by this story. Its nonsensical plot is both brilliant and slightly crazy. What I love most is that the story is so true to the unpredictibly wild mind of a child. Lewis Carrol does a brilliant job of creating the vast, complicated and utterly mad world of Wonderland.

     A Brief Synopsis

Alice is lazily sitting beneath a tree on a hot summer morning when she sees a white rabbit in a waistcoat running by. What captures her attention is not the waistcoat as you would imagine, but the pocket watch her pulls out of it. Curiosity sufficiently peaked, Alice races after the rabbit, following it down a rabbit hole. To her surprise, she begins to fall for a very, very long time. She eventually reaches the bottom to find a long hall and a glass table. After attempting to get through a very small door to a beautiful garden (an attempt that involves quite a bit of growing and shrinking), Alice finds herself struggling to stay afloat in a sea of her own tears. That is when her adventures begin.

I won't describe in detail everything Alice goes through, for that would take an awfully long time. Let’s just say that in her adventure, Alice participates in a Caucus-race, plays fetch with an enormous puppy, talks with a hookah-smoking caterpillar, meets a rude duchess, her pepper-crazed cook, her baby (that turns into a pig), and their grinning Cheshire cat (who has a habit of disappearing). She also attends a tea party hosted by the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, and the Doormouse (who are all quite off their rockers), plays a curious game of croquet with the Queen of Hearts, and hears the history of the Mock Turtle, as well as going through a great deal of growing and shrinking.

In the end, she is called to witness a very strange trial in which nearly everyone she has met are called as witnesses. Unfortunately, she begins to grow, and is attacked by a pack of card-soldiers. It is then that Alice wakes up.

     My Thoughts

I love this story. It's just so...different. There seems to be no particular plot or theme, it is just a very peculiar adventure. The nonsense of the story is ingenious. I know that the development of this story was not a huge thought-out process (you'll learn about that in my next post!), but the way it perfectly interprets the mind of a child astounds me.

Now, this is a very, very well-known story. I thought I knew the full story, but it turns out I had been relying on an abridged copy, so I was excited to read the full text for the first time. I really enjoyed the story (as you might be able to tell). It really captivates you, for new and completely un-related things happen one after the other. It is an ideal story for the wandering mind of a child.

I loved Alice. She is the absolute perfect main character for this story. She is not just a girl on an adventure. Alice is the strangest, most peculiar girl you will ever meet. The way she approaches all these happenings, and even just her thought process is just...odd. For example, at one point when she grows very large and cannot see her feet, she worries about who will look after them and put socks on an such. She then decides that she'll send them a new pair of boots each Christmas to the address:
     ALICE'S RIGHT FOOT, ESQ.
     HEARTHRUG,
     NEAR THE FENDER,
     (WITH ALICE'S LOVE).
 Isn't she just hilarious? I laughed so much reading this book.

I read once that Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is the second most-quoted book next to the bible, and I wasn't too surprised. The writing style is scattered and absurd, but there is just so many interesting happenings and little tidbits hidden in the crazy "plot". I don't believe Wonderland to be the dark, frightening place that Tim Burton made it out to be. The way I interpret the land is a fantastical, nonsensical place with people who live in quite a different way than we do. I really enjoyed visiting, but I don't think I'd like to live there:)

Illustrations are from the original book and are done by Sir John Tennial