The natural hatred between mice and cats is reflected in the mouse's expressed anguish against Alice's amazed narrative of cats in her world: "Let us get to the shore, and then I'll tell you my history, and you'll understand why it is I hate cats and dogs." This simple line carries with the weight of the history of social inequality: Carroll endeavors his readers to look into history how inequality has become a long tradition encouraged and perpetuated in human society by people with self-interests. In this example, grown-ups become symbols for the wealthy people who continually oppress the poor in order to gain control over society. In the same respect, Carroll's expression of disdain for grown-ups as shown in "Alice's" also illustrates his disagreement over his protagonist's 'growing up.' Alice's transformation...
Wonderland's disdain for Alice as a giant is the author's way of expressing the detrimental effects that being in control and power can do to the society. The blatant illustration of inequality in Wonderland (Alice being a giant and the small creatures) is a reflection of the wide gap between the rich and the poor, between the comfortable and dissatisfied people. Thus, growing up in "Alice's" means being one in control and power, marginalizing other sectors of the society in the process, in the same way Alice had hurt the creatures in Wonderland.
Carroll / Burnett Within the English canon of literary fairy-tales -- what German literary critics would refer to as a "marchen," or a conscious attempt to write imaginative literature, with some level of artistry, for children -- both The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll seem to have withstood the test of time, and attained a level of canonicity. Yet to call these
Of course, the studious scholar might point out that nearly every document produced since the time of Shakespeare must have been influenced by the writer because of the sheer number of vocabulary words he created, but the focus of this essay is literary references and influences (the Language). In Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, evidence of Shakespeare's influence is most noteworthy in Carroll's use of the themes of foolery, communication problems,
It is interesting to note how, in both Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and in Alice in Wonderland, there always is a strong connection with the real world. In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, beyond the fantasy and supernatural events that abound throughout the book, the reader cannot help to see the usual social relations that are born in a secondary school or a high school, between the
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