Week 11 Essay

This week I read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland for my unit. I have always loved the Disney movie and have always wanted to read the actual book, so when I saw this story in the units I knew which story I was going to do instantly! It did not disappoint either! This is one of the strangest units I have read so far, which is saying a lot because some of the units are REALLY weird. It was hard to find something to go through and analyze because of how strange everything is but I think I managed it! Mostly, I felt that there was a deeper meaning to the whole story. I also wondered if the Pigeon yelling "serpent!" was symbolic to anything other than an actual snake.

I know that this story is really just Alice in a dream, which explains why a lot of it is so weird. The reason I think there is a deeper meaning behind what is going on is because of how Alice interacts with the other characters and how the other characters interact with her. Alice in constantly trying to use the things she has learned in her short life and apply them in the difficult situation. She goes around and tries to make everyone be proper when, in actuality, the other characters are teaching her a thing or two about being proper. I can understand the influences from her life making their way into her dream, but I just want to know for sure if I am on the right track! I also want to know why. That is the main question we asked in my high school english and lit class - why? Why is she so focused on trying to have everyone be proper? How can the characters teach her how to be polite when they themselves are mad and only in a dream? Why are all of her dream characters mad?

Though I might not ever really figure out those answers, there is one specific oddity that caught my attention. In the part of the story where Alice eats one side of the mushroom and grows very tall, she bumps into a pigeon who is sitting on her nest guarding her eggs. The Pigeon starts screaming “serpent!” repeatedly at Alice. I can understand if pigeons are just afraid of snakes and Alice is recognizing that in the story, but I find it interesting how the pigeon is screaming “serpent”, not “snake”. Why does she chose that word? I feel like she could be alluding to the “serpents” of the real world. People who trick other people out of their homes or money or anything else like that. I think this because of how often the pigeon says she has moved because of the serpents that are constantly in her life.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland