Painting the Roses Red, Analysis
Personally. “Alice in Wonderland” has never been my favorite. I think it is incredibly bizarre. I was first introduced to the story in the Disney adaptation of the book. I found that it was very strange to see a caterpillar smoking hookah, singing flowers, and the queen of hearts terrified me with all her screaming. Even as a story I thought, “Wow this is one of the weirdest things I have ever seen!” It was so strange because in all honesty none of it fully came together for me. I felt that someone was missing and I found myself asking, “What was the point of all that?”
“Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland can be interpreted as a story about being playfully in a world and about exploring the self. ‘Who are you?’ is a central question throughout the story. Our sense of self is related highly to others through confirming and mirroring responses,” (Halle-Valle.)
Watching the movie being a young child was quite a bit to handle. Reading the book as an adult is another story entirely. I found that the message of finding who you are was very evident throughout the book. The characters in the story are so strange especially the Mad Hatter. He is absolutely mad and completely all over the place. His dialogue just baffled me to no end and was very hard to follow. I felt as if I was on a roller coaster ride of emotion; it was entirely up and down and my mind was running in circles.
“From the looks of it, the story about Alice falling through a rabbit-hole and finding herself in a silly and nonsense world, is fairly guileless as a tale. The underlying story, the one about a girl maturing away from home in what seems to be a world ruled by chaos and nonsense, is quite a frightening one. All the time, Alice finds herself confronted in different situations involving various different and curious animals being all alone,” (Lenny.)
The entire story is nonsense because of the characters that are in the story. Nothing seems to make any sense at all. It is scattered.
The drug use is a question that comes up a lot when discussing the story. It is obvious that it is shown throughout the story and many question if Carroll himself was on drugs.
“Today, the Alice books are popularly believed to be an allusion to (or the result of) substance abuse, particularly hallucinogenic drugs. This theory emerged in the 1960s with the birth of the hippie subculture, and is applied almost exclusively to Wonderland and not Looking Glass. It is easy to see how the story could be construed in this way and to recognise the alleged "drug references"; Alice's experience is a dream (sometimes defined as a kind of hallucination), and the image of a tabacco-smoking caterpillar sitting atop a mushroom of all things is highly connotative of drug use,” (Evanderweb.co).
The examples it uses to demonstrate society and people makes the story that much more interesting and easier to analyze as an adult. I have a newfound appreciation for the story and enjoyed it more while looking at it in a different way.
Resources
Helle-Valle, Anna. "Contents 2008." Nordic Psychology 60.4 (2008): 332. Web.
"An Analysis of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." - Lenny's Alice in Wonderland Site. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2014.
"Analysis, Views and Opinions (What a Wonderful Dream - an Alice in Wonderland Site)." Analysis, Views and Opinions (What a Wonderful Dream - an Alice in Wonderland Site). N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2014.
“Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland can be interpreted as a story about being playfully in a world and about exploring the self. ‘Who are you?’ is a central question throughout the story. Our sense of self is related highly to others through confirming and mirroring responses,” (Halle-Valle.)
Watching the movie being a young child was quite a bit to handle. Reading the book as an adult is another story entirely. I found that the message of finding who you are was very evident throughout the book. The characters in the story are so strange especially the Mad Hatter. He is absolutely mad and completely all over the place. His dialogue just baffled me to no end and was very hard to follow. I felt as if I was on a roller coaster ride of emotion; it was entirely up and down and my mind was running in circles.
“From the looks of it, the story about Alice falling through a rabbit-hole and finding herself in a silly and nonsense world, is fairly guileless as a tale. The underlying story, the one about a girl maturing away from home in what seems to be a world ruled by chaos and nonsense, is quite a frightening one. All the time, Alice finds herself confronted in different situations involving various different and curious animals being all alone,” (Lenny.)
The entire story is nonsense because of the characters that are in the story. Nothing seems to make any sense at all. It is scattered.
The drug use is a question that comes up a lot when discussing the story. It is obvious that it is shown throughout the story and many question if Carroll himself was on drugs.
“Today, the Alice books are popularly believed to be an allusion to (or the result of) substance abuse, particularly hallucinogenic drugs. This theory emerged in the 1960s with the birth of the hippie subculture, and is applied almost exclusively to Wonderland and not Looking Glass. It is easy to see how the story could be construed in this way and to recognise the alleged "drug references"; Alice's experience is a dream (sometimes defined as a kind of hallucination), and the image of a tabacco-smoking caterpillar sitting atop a mushroom of all things is highly connotative of drug use,” (Evanderweb.co).
The examples it uses to demonstrate society and people makes the story that much more interesting and easier to analyze as an adult. I have a newfound appreciation for the story and enjoyed it more while looking at it in a different way.
Resources
Helle-Valle, Anna. "Contents 2008." Nordic Psychology 60.4 (2008): 332. Web.
"An Analysis of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." - Lenny's Alice in Wonderland Site. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2014.
"Analysis, Views and Opinions (What a Wonderful Dream - an Alice in Wonderland Site)." Analysis, Views and Opinions (What a Wonderful Dream - an Alice in Wonderland Site). N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2014.