R&R: Classics-- Lewis Carrol

Whether you think of her as the blond-haired princess from the Disney Movie or the female fighter from “The Looking Glass Wars,” “Alice in Wonderland” is a name known to almost all children and even more adults.

(BTW, did you know there are actually two books, both containing Alice? The second is called “Through the Looking Glass.”)


Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass
Written May 29, 2010

Read May 17, 2010 (roughly)

The story is familiar. A girl, bored by her reading sister, spots a white rabbit and follows it down a hol and into a magical new land. The story doesn’t seem original, so why is this book a classic?

Well, “Alice in Wonderland” tugs at the imagination, and yet holds a sense of total unreality that makes everything light-hearted, despite the seriousness of the situations.

We never think that she’s really in danger of getting her head cut off, nor are we worried that she’ll never get back home. There might be a brief feeling of urgency, or a flash of anxiety, but overall, the scene remains slightly surreal.

I guess that’s why I wasn’t all surprised that it was a dream.

Alice herself is the classic little girl. She acts “grown-up,” but is, in reality, just a kid. Her self-important declarations and efforts to be smart are funny, and Carrol’s use of wordplay is fascinating. (You’ll have to read it to understand. It’s very, very clever.)

He also says the simplest, and yet most profound things. For example, when Alice asks the Chesire Cat which way she should go, the Chesire Cat asks her where she wants to go.

Alice replies that she doesn’t really care, and the Cat returns, “Then it doesn’t really matter where you go, does it?” Simple, and yet powerful.

Also, in Wonderland, everything is taken at face value, and there are no complex, hidden, or secret motives. There’s none of the “grey” that make the real world so harsh—just black and white.

In Wonderland, when the queen declares that she wants people’s heads chopped off, she isn’t suffering from an inferiority complex or a psychological meltdown—she just wants heads to be chopped up.

I suppose that’s part of the charm in Wonderland. There’s no need to try to “figure out” the characters or their motives.

Like I said before, Wonderland is innocence, fun, and dreams. It’s fairy tales and lazy summer days all rolled into two books. Alice’s journeys are fascinating and fun to read, and I really enjoyed them.