Have They Ever Told You Too Much Pepper Isn’t Good for You?

The Duchess is a very unique character. When Alice meets her in Chapter 8, Alice becomes face-to-face with a lady with a pepper filled kitchen and a nasty little temper. As the Duchess reappears at the beginning of Chapter 9, she makes Alice rethink about the her pepper filled kitchen.

“I wo’n’t have any pepper in my kitchen at all. Soup does very well without-Maybe it’s always pepper that makes people hot-tempered and vinegar that makes then bitter-and barley-sugar and such things that make children sweet-tempered. I only wish people knew that.”

I believe this is yet another real life reference by Carroll. Think about it. Pepper and temper, they seem to relate so well to each other don’t you think?

What I like about this quote is that in my mind it seems to be very true. Imagine the soup being the world, with all it’s different kind of people and problems, problems being the pepper. All the pepper in the soup makes the people hot tempered aka all the problems the people go through make they, themselves, hot-tempered. Also, the beginning of the quote is a nice finish to what Carroll is trying to say through Alice, “Soup does very well without.” If the world simply had less pepper to make so many problems everybody would be so much happier. However the problems are inevitable along with the vinegar making people bitter and the barley-sugar making the children sweet-tempered. Make sense? I sure hope so.

What are your thoughts on this quote?Or did anything else mentioned in this blog entry catch your eye?