Tolog Review: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll
reviewed by Emilie Nunn

In Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Carroll illustrates the whimsical, Children’s story of a young girl named Alice who “falls down the rabbit hole” into a magical world of painting white roses red and meeting talking animals along the way. Alice is a curious, independent, little girl who sees the unseen and who happens to find herself in a queer and strange land where she can taste a mushroom and grow or shrink and even go to a tea party along the way to the Queen of Heart’s castle. In the beginning of the book, Alice sits by her sister “when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her” (Carroll 7). From there, her adventures take off. Throughout the novel, Alice befriends rather intriguing characters such as the Mad Hatter and the Duchess’ cat, the Cheshire Cat. The Mad Hatter is an odd and quirky character who is constantly stuck at tea time. The Cheshire Cat has a huge grin and frequently disappears and appears during Alice’s adventure, and as a result Alice is often searching for him. The antagonist of the story is the Queen of Hearts, who commands the king to chop off citizens’ heads. Alice encounters her towards the end of the book and rather than cowering in terror when the queen talks to her, she stands up for herself. Since Alice is just a little girl, Carroll plays with the idea of innocence and authenticity in a child through her. Although she is young, she is the most responsible and truthful character in the book. She says what is on her mind without a second thought and constantly questions things. That is the authenticity that adults miss. Carroll uses a variety of tactics to make the reader believe that they are in the story and take them back to the innocence and authenticity of childhood.

In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Carroll uses references to children’s songs and a multitude of descriptions in order to bring readers to Wonderland, a whimsical world filled with childhood. From the very beginning, Carroll kept the book at a light and youthful tone, especially with all of the talking animals Alice meets. This truly got emphasized when the Mad Hatter started to sing ‘Twinkle Twinkle’ with a bit of a twist by singing, “Up above the world you fly, like a tea tray in the sky” (60), rather than the original version. Carroll took a widely familiar song and fit it into the story in order to incorporate it in the novel and remind readers of their childhood. Moreover, Carroll happens to be a truly descriptive writer and author. He constantly paints pictures of the surrounding settings in the novel which tend to give intimations of the characters in the following scenes. A prime example is when Carroll describes the Queen’s croquet ground having “a large rose-tree stood near the entrance of the garden: the roses growing on it were white, but there were three gardeners at it, busily painting them red” (65). Carroll later explains how they were hastily painting them in order to please the queen and not get killed by her. This gives an intimation of the Queen’s character because she ends up being brutal, rude, stubborn, and controlling. Furthermore, Carroll also shows character’s emotions without plainly and bluntly saying that they are sad or angry or happy, but he does it in a more descriptive way. He once described her voice as her shouting “in a voice of thunder” (69). When he describes the characters’ voices it really gives depth to their emotion.