How does the text relate to the theme of a journey?Undoubtedly, the whole story is about Alice’s journey – her interesting journey in her dream to the beautiful, lovely garden. Since she had come to a fantasy world, she met lots of peculiar yet anthropomorphic creatures. At the outset, she was attracted by a rabbit she saw - he was wearing a waistcoat with a watch in his hand. She followed him until she fell into a rabbit-hole, which directed her to a long hallway. By drinking the liquid in the bottle labelled “DRINK ME” and eating the cake with words “EAT ME”, she shrank and grew in size. Besides that, the special mushroom recommended by the Caterpillar also enabled her to control her height. Later in the story, she encountered several creatures: a Mouse, a Dodo, Bill the Lizard, a Caterpillar smoking a hookah, a grinning Cheshire Cat, A Fish-Footman and a Frog-Footman, the March Hare, the Dormouse…It seemed like Alice had no fear in front of them, but she was a little bit confused of herself. Due to her ability to change her body size, she kept asking herself some questions in order to make sure that she was still the same Alice. But on the bright side, the whole journey taught her to be more mature – she learnt how to apologise after offending someone accidentally, she knew what was right, what was wrong; what was rational, and what was ridiculous. In fact, she was also exposed to plenty of moral values from the Duchess. At the end, she was woken up by her sister – what a wonderful and curious dream as well as a fantastic journey for her.
What is the main issue in the text?
From my point of view, the novel is mainly about Alice’s growth into adulthood. Apparently, Alice struggled throughout the whole plot in order to adapt herself to the new world, as she was probably aware that adaptability is absolutely necessary for her to stay in the wonderland. She came across several creatures, which were baffling and arbitrary in their behaviour as well as their way of thinking. In other words, their bizarre style of living was totally different from that of Alice. However, she tried to cope with all these and she managed to have control over most of the situations. In fact, comparisons of Alice’s attitude in the beginning of the story and the ending are perfect examples to show that she had matured and grown up. Before this she could barely keep herself from crying, but at the trial she was brave enough to uphold the justice. She was surprised with all the strange creatures and curious about everything in the first part of the story, but towards the end she realised that all of them were “nothing but a pack of cards”. Moreover, after listening to the dream narrated by Alice, her sister also came to a point that Alice was growing up. With all these points in hand, Alice had become more mature, after a fashion.
What quality do you admire or dislike in a character?
The Queen of Hearts is undeniably the antagonist in this story – I dislike her very much. Instead of being loved and respected by the people, she was the public dangerous figure. She was so “popular”, as the people would tremble when they heard the word “Queen”. In fact, her evil image had rooted in everyone’s heart. She was not friendly at all. For instance, she scolded the Knave of Hearts “Idiot!” instantly just because he was not able to answer who the little girl (Alice) was. To make matter worse, she did not show any respect to others. A good example would be her attitude towards the King. Even the King (who should be the most powerful) needed to talk carefully and timidly to her. When he laid his hand upon her arm and advised her not to execute Alice, she simple did not bother his advice, but turned angrily away from him.
To me, cruelty dominated her, while irrationality overwhelmed her. It seems like it was tough for her to think more than 5 seconds before she said “Off with his / her head!” .She took offence at the slightest thing, and that is why she simply wants to execute the gardeners, players of croquets, Alice, and even the Cheshire Cat, which showed only his head, causing the executioner to be confused because he could not cut off a head unless there was a body to cut it off from.
How does the text develop your understanding of the world?
From this fascinating tale, I learn quite a number of things about the world. But here I would just focus on one topic - the autocracy system, in which the leader or the king has complete power over everyone. In this novel, the Queen was arguably the only despot. Her bad image had already imprinted on her people’s mind, while everyone would shake with fear in front of her. This can be well exemplified by the three gardeners, who threw themselves flat upon their faces when the Queen arrived. Besides that, the command “Off with his / her head!” had also shown how high or powerful she was. As we all know, autocracy system is still being practised in some countries. I dare say that there are millions of people who are still suffering from this cruel and intolerable system. Yet, the drawbacks of this particular system are reflected in this novel.
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