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Maria Reyes
Professor Lewis
English 114B
April 1, 2014
Growing Up In Wonderland
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll is a mix of different themes and situations. While
Alice in Wonderland is intended as a children's book, it has a depth that goes beyond a childs
understanding. Alice is said to be a little girl who falls into a rabbit hole and is faced with absurd
situations and characters who make her question who she is. What Alice goes through throughout
the story, including through the looking glass, represent the act of growing up and losing sense of
who you are in the process.
In the English dictionary the word identity means the qualities, beliefs, behaviors,
names, or anything else that makes that person who they are. Before Alice falls down the rabbit
hole, she knows who she is even though she has never questioned her self being. She is aware of
her name and where she comes from. Because of the things that start appearing to her in
Wonderland, she starts to wonder if the girl who she was before is the same girl that she was at
that moment in Wonderland. Because she doesnt know what is happening around her, she starts
to think that she doesnt know who she is.
Wonderland is a place filled with things that are considered nonsense and that dont make
sense, which is how a childs imagination tends to be. Alice sees everything that is happening in
wonderland and even though it doesnt make any logical sense, she still tries to make sense of
everything. Because shes a child, Alice believes that there is an explanation for the things that
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are going on around her. The strange talking animals and mystery gardens, Alice doesnt yet fully
understand that somethings just cannot be. Even though Alice is said to be the age of 7,
throughout the book shes created out to be someone who is already in their adolescence. Alice is
at the point of her childhood where she strives to act like an adult. This shows how the way that
she she acts is the way that she identifies herself.
Time and Stress: Alice in Wonderland by Calvin R. Petersen talks about time and stress in
Wonderland and how Alice is finding herself after her fall. From the moment after Alice falls
through the rabbit hole, she begins to face physical changes in the way that she shrinks and
grows. These changes make her feel uncomfortable and confused, which is how any child feels
while they are going through physical changes in the early years of their lives. Alice is frustrated
by the way that she cant seem to understand what is happening to her body and what she can do
to get to how she way from the start. At one point in the story, Alice consumes something that
makes her neck grow uncontrollably. This represents how a child might feel while their body is
changing, like they have no control. It becomes frustrating and confusing to some because its
not what they're used to. When she first arrives to Wonderland, she is too large to fit through the
door to the beautiful garden, when she drinks the mysterious bottle she becomes to small. This
situation that Alice faces can represent how she feels about growing up. It could be that she feels
frustrated by the way that nothing feels right. Once Alice starts to feel like nothing makes sense,
she losing sight of who she is. She begins to question herself, just how any child questions their
identity when they start growing up.
Alice is shaped to be the person that she is because of the people and events that
are going on around her. When Alice first meets the Mouse, she realizes that by talking about her
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cat Dinah or dogs, the mouse gets frightened and runs away. At the age of 7 a childs mind is not
fully developed, especially not their hypothetical thinking. Alice lacks the understanding of why
the Mouse reacts the way he does when she mentions her cat or dogs, which is why its not her
intention to be mean, but she soon realizes that she has hurt his feelings which is why she
continues to apologize.
One of the most inevitable things in life is growing up. Every child goes through the
process of growing up, just like Alice. In Through the Looking Glass, after Alice says that one
cant help growing up, the character Humpty Dumpty mentions that maybe not one but two can,
with proper assistance, Alice could stay the age of seven. By saying this, Humpty Dumpty is
implying that the only way to stop growing up is to die. Lewis Carroll uses Humpty Dumpty to
show that as long as you are living, you will have no choice but to grow up.
Lewis Carroll shows show as a child, you go through changes and realizations that are
inevitable. Growing in size is something that happens whether you are ready for it or not. Alice
feels awkward about changing so suddenly and feels sandiness over it. She dont want to change
because she feels comfortable the way she was before. Alice also encounters situation where she
becomes so confused and cant seem to find the right answers. Carroll uses the riddles and
situations that seem absurd to Alice as a way of showing that as you are growing up, there are
some situations in life that you cant ever solve. Alice is constantly trying to solve riddles but
feels frustrated when she realizes that they cannot be solved. Often times, the things that she tries
to figure out lead to her questioning who she is. She goes through a list of friends and wonders if
she could be one of them. Alices identity search is what everybody and anybody goes through.
Children go through a time in their adolescence when they try to figure out who they are by
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comparing themselves to others. Lewis Carroll shows that in alice when she begins to compare
herself to her friends. After experiencing so many physical changes, she begins to feel emotional
changes. Alice never comes to say that she is someone else but she does question who she is
when she is chasing the White Rabbit, I wonder if I've been changed in the night? Let me think:
was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little
different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is, Who in the world am I? (Carroll 14)
A person is always a little different than the day before, so even Alice was not the exact same
when she woke up that morning. For a child, the changes that they go through are more alerting
and confusing. Alice starts to feel that because she feels a little different, it might even change
her identity. Alice later on cant give the caterpillar a straight answer when he asked who she is,
Who are you?" said the Caterpillar. Alice replied, rather shyly, "I--I hardly know, sir, just at
present - at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have changed
several times since then. (Carroll 33)
Several times in her adventures, Alice begins to wonder who she is because of the bizarre
things that are happening around her. At the time that a child is growing up, they start to look at
the world differently than they did before. They may start figuring out things that they couldnt
before or the smallest movement outside can cause them to have a great enlightenment. This is
because a childs mind is something that keeps developing everyday through childhood and with
knew knowledge comes curiosity. They may start to ask why something is the way it is or why
someone is the way they are, even themselves. Alice goes through this the way any child would
in her age. She is a child who experiences many things in a short period of time. Characters
throughout the story ask her who she is, which makes question who she is.
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In Laurence Steinbergs book Adolescence he talks about what someone goes through
during the stages of adolescence. Self-consciousness is to think about what others think of you
(Steinberg 65). Going through childhood and then through adolescence, you begin to need
reassurance from others in order to know who you are. The way that other people look at you and
think about you is how you eventually begin to view yourself. Alice is no different. She begins to
need approval from the people around her. Children seek approval from the adults in her life just
like Alice. She doesnt want anyone to think less of her so she does her best to act and think like
an adult.
Even though Wonderland turns out to be a dream of Alices own imagination, it could
still be that she had a connection to it in her life. What alice goes through in her adventures in
Wonderland, could be what she feels that shes going to in reality. The way that she feels when
her body starts to dramatically change from big to small could be the discomfort she feels in her
own body because of the changes that she is going through from childhood to adolescence. The
way that she cant seem to figure anything out and how nothing makes any sense could relate to
the way that she feels about life in general. There is a point in a childs life where anything that
they see and anything that they feel doesnt make any sense. That is because they lack the
knowledge of why something is the way that it is.
While Lewis Carroll intended Alice in Wonderland to be something that children read
and enjoy, but further explanations have been made in regards to Alices character and what all
the nonsense behind wonderland all mean. When a child reads or is told the story of Alice in
Wonderland they dont question why certain things happen in the book. They are simply
transfixed in the mysterious place that is Wonderland. Just like Alice, a childs imagination runs
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wild and doesnt stop to ask questions, which is why Alice shows how she is starting to think
further beyond the mind of a child. She does ask questions and she does wonder why things are
happening the way that they are. Alice doesnt dismiss the fact that she doesnt know who she is,
she becomes determined to know. She lets the people around her and the questions that are going
around in her head, determine how she feels about herself.
Alices dreams in going to Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, are a
representation of her loss of innocence and childhood. She is growing up and doesnt know how
to deal with the changes that are happening to her and the things around her. Carroll uses Alice to
represent the way that a child may feel during the time that they realize that they cant stay the
way they are and that eventually have to change. Alices changes make her question who she is
showing how the way that you feel about who you are at that very moment can change the way
that you feel about who you have always been and who you will be in the future. Throughout
Wonderland, Alice learns that knowing who you are comes form knowing what you're habits and
behaviors are. It comes from knowing what you love and what you dont love.


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Works Cited
Carroll, Lewis. Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. California: Ancient
Wisdom, 2010. Print.
Petersen, Calvin R. "Time and Stress: Alice in Wonderland." Journal of the History of Ideas,
46.3 (1985): 427-433.
Steinberg, Laurence. Adolescence. 8th edition. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2008.
Print.