Blog 13 : Essay Draft - Alice in Wonderland

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland By Lewis Carroll is about a young girl named Alice who's imagination goes through the roof. Her sister reads her a book which she doesn't see the point because it doesn't have "any pictures and conversation". Alice is as curious as a cat, so her curiosity makes her come face-to-face with some of the strangest adventures and the most fantastic characters. The Ugly Duchess, the Mad Hatter, Queen of Hearts, the Cheshire cat. All of this nonsense can only be created by the king of nonsense himself Lewis Carroll. Lewis Carroll's real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-1898) . He was an English author, Mathematician, and a photographer. He got the book inspiration "Alice in wonderland" from this young girl named Alice Pleasance Liddell (aged 10, born 1852).On 4 July 1862, in a rowing boat travelling on The Isis from Folly Bridge, Oxford to Godstow for a picnic outing, 10-year-old Liddell asked Charles Dodgson (who wrote under the pen name Lewis Carroll) to entertain her and her sisters, Edith (age 8) and Lorina (age 13), with a story. As the Reverend Robinson Duckworth rowed the boat, Dodgson regaled the girls with fantastic stories of a girl, named Alice, and her adventures after she fell into a rabbit-hole. The story was not unlike those Dodgson had spun for the sisters before, but this time Liddell asked Mr. Dodgson to write it down for her. He promised to do so but did not get around to the task for some months. He eventually presented her with the manuscript of Alice's Adventures Under Ground in November 1864.[1]


In Lewis Carroll's novel there are so many Symbolism such as The Bottle and cake saying "Drink me" and "Eat me", The Garden, The caterpillar's mushroom, the white rabbit.
The bottle and cake are like temptations ; to me I see it as Liquor and Drugs. The keyhole is like peer pressure telling alice to drink the liquid in the bottle in order to pass through the door, and since alice is so curious she did; She shrunk. When someone drinks liquor they feel low, they want to drop on the floor because they're body can't control it. When she eats the cake, She grows - I see this as a drug because when someone is on drugs they feel high - so when Alice ate the cake she grew REALLY high. The garden's symbol makes me think of the forbidden garden of eden. Alice is trying so hard to get into the garden but no matter what she did she couldn't enter it. The beauty of the garden attracted her curiousity. The caterpillar's mushroom is also a sybolism of temptation. This temptation is different that the bottle/cake because the temptation coming from the mushroom has to do with maturity. One side of the mushroom makes her feel like a child by shrinking her really tiny and making her feel vunerable. The other side makes her grown as talls as the trees letting her feel like she got power and makes her feel strong. The white rabbit is a symbolism of adulthood - growing up really fast. He is rushing and busy ; very impatient just like a parent. Rabbits also symbolize luck which is kinda opposite here because since Alice followed him down the rabbit hole and all she's been running into is craziness and the unexplainable.


There are a few foreshadowing in Alice in wonderland. The book her sister was reading, The white rabbit, his watch, the Hookah smoking caterpillar, and All the games and riddles she had to play. When her sister is reading her the book she started to become very sleepy, AND indeed she fell alseep but didnt realize it thats when she entered Wonderland and saw the rabbit in the corner of her eyes. The white rabbit is a foreshadow also because she always spots him during her adventure in wonderland and that re-sparks her curiousity to follow him. His watch is also foreshadow because hes going on the time that it says on his watch and he keeps saying he's late, but in wonderland time isn't necessary but he still insist that he is late - then throughout the story he finds out his clock is two days late. The caterpillar tells Alice after he turns into a butterfly to keep her temper. She doesn't understand why he said it but hes giving her advice for whats coming for her as she continues on in her journey. Every riddle, game and story she's been through is a major foreshadow because it prepared her for the queen and king of hearts and their non stop game of croquet. it kinda gave her the idea of what the queen would be like since she rules everyone in Wonderland.


The literature theory in Alice in Wonderland has to be the Psychoanalytic Criticism because its a dream. Alice is dreaming this WHOLE time about Wonderland, The white rabbit, the cheshire cat , etc. Carroll is using the criticism for the characters "the characters: the theory is used to analyze one or more of the characters; the psychological theory becomes a tool that to explain the characters’ behavior and motivations. The more closely the theory seems to apply to the characters, the more realistic the work appears"[5] In the story there is ALOT of characters with alot of different behaviors. Alice, is curious about almost everything she runs into in the story. The white rabbit is always rushing and nervous in the story, The caterpillar is calm which is weird because Wonderland is really hectic and crazy, but there he is relaxing on his mushroom smoking on a hookah. The Mad hatter and the March hare are really crazy - Kind of a sign of ADD[4]. Always changing subjects and talking about total NONSENSE which is what Carroll is famous for. The Cheshire cat is very mysterious- He never stays in the same place for a long period of time. The Queen of Hearts is really angry, She always wants to exsecute somebody just because. So the characters he chose to put in the story have VERY different personalities. Another literary theory is Jung's interpretation of dream. He believes there's four parts "In first phase, which can be regarded as the exposition, the initial situation (setting) is represented - already pointing at central conflict expressed in dream. The second phase is the plot and contains something new (essential change), which leads the dream in the third phase: the culmination. In this phase the most critical things happen, which bring the dream to a closure: the fourth phase or denouement. Jung attributed extraordinary significance to the end of dream. The end of dream is so important, Jung held, because we cannot consciously influence on the outcome (i.e. change the end), and dreams so reflect the real situation."[7] Jung's theory goes better with Alice because The first phrase "Initial setting" is Wonderland, The room with the BIG table but the little doorway. - its already pointing out the central conflict; How is she going to get through the door. Which leads to Phase two "Essential change" This is when she has to drink/eat the bottle/cake which is the main part of the dream because Alice believes this alters who she is because it changed her size. She thinks the transformation altered her mind because she doesn't think the same. The characters she runs into throughout her journey make her repeat riddles and she doesn't remember them or she says them the wrong way; so she blames it on her changing so much. Which leads to the third phase "the culmination" in this phase this is when she meets the Cheshire cat, who tells her about the queens and her croquet game - which sparks Alice's curiosity once again. Then when she meets the queen she finds out she's on trial for stealing her tarts. That leading into the final phase ,the "denouement" - She's on trial for stealing the queens tarts. At this point the queen is being really rude to Alice so she tells the queen how it is- She tells them that they're ALL just a pack of playing cards. They all start to attack her which causes her to wake up from her dream; what was really falling on her were leaves from the tree her and her sister were sitting under.



1.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Liddell

2.http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/alice/themes.html

3.http://www.shmoop.com/alice-in-wonderland-looking-glass/genre.html

4.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoanalytic_literary_criticism

5.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention-deficit_hyperactivity_disorder

6.http://www2.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/psychcrit.html

7.http://library.thinkquest.org/C005545/english/dream/jung.htm

Images

^^ This picture is kinda cool because they make wonderland seem so DARK and scary. BIG oxymoron because wonder means to be filled with admiration, amazement or awe! and "wonder"land is FAR from that !

Cool Cakes !!

This is actually kinda funny. Alice comes back to Wonderland for revenge after her house burnt down and her family dies. She got all Gothic - Chester got crazy looking. Lol it was a good game. Creepy but good. A different approach for alice.

Blog # 12

Okay so for the book i've chosen Alice in Wonderland & Through the looking-glass By Lewis Carroll there's not much of a heroes quest going on (maybe to early to find out) but there is ALOT of symbolism and foreshadowing.

Alice at this point of the book she seems like she has Schizophrenia. She has conversations with herself, believing while she fell through the rabbit-hole that her persona changed. She believes she "Alice" has changed to her friend "Mabel" because she couldn't remember her times table and she doesn't remember Geometry; so she believes she changed into Mabel because her friend is dumb. (LOL a little funny). I believe Alice is about 7 or 8 years old. She is very pensive ; she always has something on her mind. Somethings that 7 or 8 year olds shouldn't be thinking of.


* One thing to keep in mind which I think is foreshadowing is Alice is always talking about her cat Dinah. Dinah this Dinah that. This is something i have to keep a look out for. Also I think her tears and/or her crying all the time is a foreshadowing because that is being brought up alot too.

Blog 11: chosen story

The story I'm going to read is the original Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll - I'm kinda obsessed by Alice in wonderland - well the cartoon and movie. Never read the book so this is going to be fun. They're probably going to be extremely different so Lets see ! I'm not sure which symbolisms i am going to use because since disney had to clean up the story im not sure what to expect.

Blog 10: Reflection

I think Joseph Campbell is right about the heroes journey. They start off not knowing the purpose of the journey then in time they meet people and find hints about their fate and the reason they were put on this journey. Just like the show supernatural, the main characters followed the path of their father not knowing WHY he left. Throughout their adventure they find out the truth about their father and the demons, Their mother and the hunting, their fate when it comes to Michael the archangel and Lucifer. Actually looking at the monomyth and how Joseph Campbell explains it makes perfect sense when it comes to any movie. That was a really cool thing to learn I've never thought about it that way UNTIL i was taught this in class

Blog 9: Heroes Quest and film pt2

Supernatural is being above or beyond what is natural, unexplainable by natural law or phenomena. In the Show Supernatural that's what the main characters have to face with.When Sam and Dean Winchester were just kids, their mother was horribly murdered in front of their father by something "supernatural". Their lives were never the same again. After their mother's murder, their father took an interest in the supernatural and the unexplained and raised the boys as warriors with skills to fight back against the unknown and protect the innocent. 22 years later, with Sam and Dean grown up, their father suddenly disappears on a suppose routine supernatural hunt. Sam and Dean search for their father and along the way help anyone with a supernatural problem with the help from their dad's journal that contains most of his knowledge about the supernatural that he had accumulated over his 22 years of none-stop obsessive hunting.

There is a lot of archetypes in supernatural the main ones being the three main characters. Dean Winchester- The rebel of the family that loves girls and beer. Sam Winchester- the Nerd that dropped out of college to follow the "family business". Then theirs the father, John Winchester- The Dead beat dad. Then theirs the typical archetypes such as; the supernatural hunters, the Angels, The demons, the psychotic victim, the damsil in distress, the prophet, the manipulator, The trickster. Sam and Dean Winchester are also Warriors, Saviors and the Heroes.


The MAIN symbols of this series are the titles. Nightmares(S.1;Ep.14), clowns (S.2;Ep.2), Bloody Mary(S.1;Ep.5), Faith(S.1;Ep.12), Hunted (S.2;Ep.10), Heart(S.2;Ep.17), The Magnificent Seven (S.3;Ep.1), Bedtime stories(S.3;Ep.5), Hell and Heaven(S.4;Ep.10), Death Takes a Holiday(S.4;Ep.15), Dark side of the moon(S.5;Ep.16).
Nightmares are bad dreams that you can wake up from. Clowns are loves by children all the time because they are funny and always smiley. Bloody Mary was the tale we all told that one kid that was annoying so we can freak them out. Faith is something everyone has when it comes to their meaning in life. Hunted- What's usually hunted is Deers, "rabbits"as elmer fud would say and birds. Heart I think of a girl who has a crush on someone and is always drawing hearts around his name and stuff. The Magnificent seven - The seven dwarfs come into my mind. Bedtime Stories I never got them read to me as a child but it's the three little pigs, Little red riding hood Etc. Hell And Heaven - Angels and Demons just pop in my head. Death takes a holiday- This to me sounds like someone dying on a holiday or a tragic accident happening on a holiday. Dark side of the moon - isn't that when we have a solar eclipse? because the moon is always bright even in the light.

Knowing everything about Supernatual the TV show makes it meaningful because it's interesting to me. No matter who the person is I believe everyone is interested in supernatural things. Even if they deny it they really can't because fairytales are supernatural, horror movies are supernatural (unless it actually happened). This film gives us a "myth to live by" because even though its just a show they have episodes based on true events OR episodes based on the bible and how the world is going to end. It makes people sit back and actually think about things in a different perspective. Also the lesson learned is to never take things for granted because the main characters Sam & Dean Winchester were never close to their father and when he passed they took it harder than when their mother passed just because they're father was around but he was too busy trying to find the demon who killed his wife. They didn't really have a childhood neither which is also something people should allow their children to have because they grow up so quick.


Word Cited:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Characters_of_Supernatural
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernatural_(TV_series)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernatural
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460681/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460681/episodes

Blog 7: Heros Quest & Film

Supernatural the TV show is not a film but it has the theme of Heroes Quest. These two characters Sam & Dean (in the beginning of season 1) were on a mission to find their missing father; to find out his real job is hunting supernatural beings. Throughout the search for their father they have to also save people in the towns their in.

They run into demons, ghosts, Old tales such as Bloody Mary, Scare crow etc. saving the lives of people everyday. Time goes by and they find out that their fate is destined by God & the Devil themselves. The apocalypse is upon them and they're the only ones that can save the world