Lewis Carroll: Alice's Highway to Puberty

The main points of this thesis include:

The book shows her not only as a child but as an adolescent. (When did this happen? Alice is seven years old in the story. Yes, she does get bigger physically but she doesn't get older physically so her body will still be in the same proportions it is when she is seven.)

The book had a 'really negative' reception among the Victorian society. ( From The Penguin Digest: 'Alice in Wonderland came out in 1865 and was an instant success.')

The writer says that the transition from childhood to adolescence is one of the most important themes of the novel. (Again, let me point out she was a seven-year-old girl. She does develop her thought processes and shows she is curious, smart and polite but she is still only seven years old.)

The first time Dodgson told the story of Alice to the Liddell was during a walk along the river. (Agin, wrong. The story was started while they were on a boat going up the river.) A few pages later in the thesis the writer says the correct thing, that it was started on the boat trip.

He wrote over 100,000 letters. (The Washington Post: We cannot tell exactly how many letters he wrote, nor was there any known register for the first 29 years of his life. Another reference uses a slightly lower figure but it includes both letters he wrote and letters he received.)

Lewis did not want any specific religious or didactic message in Alice.

Death and abuse is implicit what goes on in Wonderland.

During the book Alice undergoes changes in size. Absolutely correct. This is a symbol of the changes a person goes through during puberty. (Again, she's only seven. She's not a teenager. She doesn't develop the typical body of a teenage girl.)

There is no specific motive or aim in her journey through Wonderland.

The characters that had the most impact on her life in Wonderland are the White Rabbit, the Caterpillar and the Pigeon. (The pigeon? I would have put the Cheshire Cat in the top three.)

Main Index

Main Alice in Wonderland index page