Conclusion

Well, this is the end of my blog regarding Alice in Wonderland and the Victorian Literature. I hope you all like and i get a good grade =P. Ms Lima, you should definitely ask us to do this assignment more. Its way more fun than just writing an essay and i think you can test our skill in a better and more complete way. I enjoyed very much writing this blog. 

People say you always got to please your readers when writing something public so by request of a friend of mine, who will also read this blog, i'll add the following picture. (this friend of mine also enjoys a lot Alice in Wonderland and Carroll's writing)

Well here it is, Gi. ^^ 

Ms Lima, you should probably just ignore this part. 

Links

Original Alice in Wonderland (1951) trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLIqErnQCuw

Tim Burton's sequel to Alice in Wonderland trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9POCgSRVvf0

Disney's web page regarding Alice in Wonderland
http://adisney.go.com/disneypictures/aliceinwonderland/

Wikipedia's page about Alice in Wonderland 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice's_Adventures_in_Wonderland

Remarkable Passage

Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, “and what is the use of a book,” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversations?”

     This is the very first paragraph of the novel and in my opinion is one of the most important since this is the first impression you have of the story and the author's writing style. I know you can't judge a whole book by its first few lines, but a catchy first paragraph can make your reading more pleasant or not. 

     Well this is where our story begins. You can see theres some imagery in this passage, enhancing its impact. We also can tell that the character in the passage, Alice, is a child and she feels bored about the world around her. We can also infer that Alice has a creative mind and likes to discover new things and feed her imagination. Through this passage we can start to know our protagonist traces and her reality 

Important Quotes

The following quotes and analysis are related to the previous post.

“Who in the world am I?” Ah, that’s the great puzzle. - Alice

Once again Alice is a victim of the Wonderland madness. She giving all of her to understand the creatures she just met and the rituals of the place. This lack of security makes Alice to start questioning her own identity and reality. This adds to the unique and fantastical mood of the Wonderland, bringing the feeling to the reader that this is the real deal and the Wonderland is not fooling around. We can relate back to this quote at the end of the book, when Alice wakes up. Neither Alice nor the reader is sure about the existence of the Wonderland.

"Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!" - The White Rabbit

The White Rabbit is the one responsible for bringing Alice all the way into the Wonderland. We can all thank him because if didn't run near Alice by the riverbank, she would never discover the existence of the Wonderland. And this quote refers exactly to this moment. Where the White Rabbit grabs his clock inside his waistcoat and Alice sees it. She realizes that's not something you would see everyday and decide to follow him. We can understand this quote as a foreshadow of what is coming for Alice. First, the rabbit talks: this means he is a mystical being who probably live in a mystical place. Second, he keeps saying to himself he is late and looks at his watch: we can infer that something big is happening and that the rabbit can't be late. Taking this two facts we can guess that this place where the rabbit is going is definitely not normal.

"We are all mad here." - The Cheshire Cat

Another evidence of the madness of the Wonderland. When someone that lives in a place and admits everyone there, including himself, is crazy it's time for you to start selecting better people to talk to. Alice probably felt more insecure at that time. The constant fear of something coming out of nowhere and attacking here was always present. Alice would have to be more cautious onwards.

"What is the use of a book, without pictures or conversations?" - Alice

Here we can observe Alice's natural child behavior towards a boring book. I used the same criteria for selecting my books to rear when I was younger. This shows how innocent she is and how hungry for fantasy she also is. This is the same theme discussed previously.

Themes related to the novel

Contrasts between the reality and the fantasy world: This is perhaps the theme that Lewis discourses with greater mastery. He really catches the essence of a kid who really wants something different to happen in his life and his reaction when it finally happen. When you are a kid, you always daydream about visiting fantastical places or meeting extraordinary beings but, no matter how bad you imagine it, it never turns real. Who never thought of meeting a real sorcerer who can make you fly through a enchanted forest and summon tiny chocolate bears who are alive? I did. Does it became reality, you ask? No... Well, in Alice in Wonderland, Lewis breaks this paradigm. Through Alice, Carroll takes everyone who dreamed about the fantasy and drops in the magic world of Wonderland. Together with Alice, a girl who was used to the ordinary laws of life but also dreamed about the extraordinary, the reader becomes a child again, identifying himself with Alice.

Loss of innocence and growth towards adulthood: In the beginning of the novel, Alice can barely keep herself from crying if something bad happens. However, by the end of the book, this has changed and she is pretty much secure and certain of herself. This loss of innocence happens when Alice is put to the test by inumerous factors around her such as the constant possibility of death or enigmatic characters or even the abnormal realty of the Wonderland. Alice walks toward adulthood every step her take in the novel.

Children's vulnerability: Carroll points out throughout his book how Alice is small compared to the rest of the world and how she mostly likely to get hurt anytime. This is more frequent in the sequel to Alice in Wonderland, however Alice is constantly referring to his death without even noticing.

Wonderland's Logic: Wonderland is a very peculiar place which runs on their own laws and rules contrasting to everything previously seen in the real world. This bunch of puzzles trick Alice, twisting her innocent mind. This absence of reason is maybe given by Carroll's past as a logician. He kinds of makes fun of logic and reason. Creating the charm in the novel with the constant riddles. This charm gives a feeling that everything is a game in Wonderland even though things are pretty serious there.

Size matters: This theme is related to the second one, however, taking a more physical approach. The different sizes Alice turns to is an comparison to what happens to everyone on adolescence, since everything is changing. The key word here is, just as in the second theme, adaptation. The outer part of Alice reflects directly on her inner judgement.

I didn't know what picture to add in this post and since I want to have at least a picture per post to make things a little more colorful, here is a picture of a cupcake.

Cupcake ;D

SparkNotes. "Alice in Wonderland" 2011. n. pag. Web. 28/02/2011