What Do You Think?

Alice’s Adventure through Wonderland is a book full of potential. Its entertains people of all age groups. But was there a specific age group Carroll intended to entertain when he published his work?

Most people who read the book know that Carroll wrote this book for Alice a little girl. But why put so much symbolism in a book for a little child when the child won’t even understand the symbolism? Maybe the book was written both for Alice’s entertainment and Carroll’s diary to express his feelings about the world around him through Wonderland. Do you believe that when Carroll published this book he thought it would become so huge? Carroll’s primary objective to make Alice smile, but did he have other intention in mind?

This book is loaded with so much symbolism, hidden meanings, and other content that no child would be able to comprehend. Was this Carroll’s way of giving a news flash to all those around who read the book? What is your belief about Carroll’s intentions for publishing the story? Do you think that it was for adults or for children? I personally believe it was for adults because of its content. I believe kids love it because of what Disney did to it and its something bizarre and different than all the other children stories out there.

What made this story so special to the point it sold millions? I believe it was such a successful story because it was both historical and the kids loved it. Do you believe that Carroll’s views of his society were effectively spread throughout his readers mind’s? I believe so because even though it takes a while to decipher the meanings it sticks to the readers mind once he or she reveals what the scene represented in real life.

What is your take on this blog? Do you agree or disagree with my theories?

The whole package

Overview:

A little over 6 weeks ago we were told that a HUGE project is coming up. My number one emotion toward this was WOOOW.

I knew this project was so much more than a classroom project. We were told many people from the outside world would be tracking our progress. I was definitely scared and still a little bit scared but very excited. This is my first project like this which makes it very unique.

Progress review:

As week by week passed I was having a hard time thinking up blogs. I had no problems with comments but I knew I need a minimum of 12 blogs. I decided to get all my comments out of the way. Then I started on Blogs.

Like many other people my first blog was talking about Lewis and his background. It was an easy blog despite the research. As I continued doing my blogs I was running out of historical blogs therefore I was being forced to do analytical blogs. I started off with a rough patch but once I got the hang of it, it was smooth sailing. Thanksgiving break started and I had either one or two blogs in. I was at a panic but then I developed a system. I told myself I would to at least two blogs a day.

As Thanksgiving break progressed I kinda kept my promise. Anyways by the end of Thanksgiving break I wrote about 10 blogs. When Thanksgiving break was over there were only 3 days left before the project was due. I was at a stable position and I didn’t have to panic which was a good thing. The second and third last days I spent commenting on each team’s blogs to make sure I had at least comments per team.

And on the last day I pulled an all nighter to think up as many possible ideas I could turn into Blogs. In 8 and half hours I was able to complete 7 blogs that I have a lot of confidence in.

And now I wait till later today to unite with my team to fine tune our voice thread and cover it live blogs. By 5 pm central time I should have at least 19 blogs and will have written over 25 comments.

Evaluation:

I really liked this project.

Like I said earlier this project is not like any other project I have ever done.

One thing that really stands out about this project is that we the students have to think for ourselves. This project gave me a taste of the real world in the sense of deadlines, quality, and what one’s customers look for. In this case the deadline was very reasonable. I didn’t feel like I was pressured by time because I spaced all my work out. The only reason I’m still up at 5:00 am is because I want to make as many beneficial modification as I can before the due time is up.

Another good thing about this project is the grade’s communication. We as a class discover things. We alter each other’s perspectives in a friendly environment. I really like the idea of switching editors every week because it gave everyone a chance to step up and take control of their team. In a way I liked the fact that people from around the world will be seeing this but that also means that we have to push ourselves to a limit we have never been to. The fact that people around the world are going to be reading, watching, and hearing about our work really puts pressure on us as student but it also puts in a very high level of motivation. Especially since one third of are grade is decided by y’all.

The grading system for this project is also kinda intimidating to me because it challenges our group to work together, which will give us our group grade, our individual grade, and what the outside world thinks of our work, which will be our third grade. A huge thing that scares me is the amount this project’s grade is worth. Of course we have vocabulary quizzes, one essay and a LOTF project but this is 3 major grades. Therefore this project is at least half of our quarter grade.

1862 Alice’s adventures in Wonderland vs. 2010 Alice’s adventures in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland was written in 1864 by Lewis Carroll. In 1682 the story was first told to 3 young girls, one of which was Alice herself, on a on a rowing trip on July 4^th. Alice loved the story so much that she asked Carroll write it down. Therefore two years later Carroll presented the first written form of the story to Alice. Back then it was called Alice’s adventures underground. The title was revised, along with much of its content, and published 1865.

Unfortunately I did not get the chance to see a replica of the original copy but it would be so cool if I could compare the original with the revised one. I wonder what Carroll added and took out.  There have been many websites, books, and other sources that comment on the context of the book. There are many assumptions on what certain scenes represent, certain characters represent and certain objects represent but the truth is only Carroll himself truly knew what everything really represented if they even represented something. This information was restructured from http://wiki.answers.com/Q/When_was_Alice_in_Wonderland_written&alreadyAsked=1&rtitle=When_was_alice_in_wonderland_witten

As most people know there is a new movie of this story coming out. The crew consist of Tim Burton as director, Jonny Depp as the Hatter,  Mia Wasikowska as Alice, and so on. In this new movie that will come out in 2010 Alice is a 19 year old girl who goes back to Wonderland to rediscover the magical place. Just by knowing there is an age difference between the Alices what do you think might be different in the plot? What age group do you think will go see this movie the most? Why? To find out more about the crew visit this website. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1014759/synopsis

Sleep… What a wonderful feeling!

As I sit in this comfortable seat starring at a computer for 6 and a half hours straight with a pile of empty coffee cups lying in the trashcan, all I can think about is sleep. The great sensation of the soft pillow against your head, absolutely nothing going through your mind, and the ability to know your subconscious is about to take over.

To think this whole story wouldn’t have happened if Alice did not fall asleep.

How much would you be missing out on if you couldn’t dream? Have you ever had a dream about something and then wake up and ask yourself what just happened in that dream? Or have u ever had a dream and then wake up the next day to ask yourself was that real? Say if it was a realistic dream that had a moral or some type of lesson that would help you grow in life and you woke up and you thought it was real, would use that experience you gained from you subconscious to prosper in life or would you put it in the “that happened in a dream, there’s now way it can happen in real life” category and ignore the life lesson?

Knowing what you know about Alice, if this really happened, do you think that Alice would take lessons that she learned while traveling through Wonderland and use them to prosper in her life? What life lessons do you think she gained from exploring Wonderland? How would these lessons help her thrive better in real world?

The Dog Who Can’t Talk In Wonderland :O

This blog is inspired by Connor S. blog titled Out of place.

Throughout the book the closest thing to a family member that she talks about is her cat Dinah. When saved by the mouse from drowning in her own tears in chapter two she tries to tell the mouse about the cat but the mouse despises cats and threatens to leave if she continues talking about Dinah. In Chapter 3 Alice scares away all her company because she continues to talk about her cat. Her cat is her only reference back to the real world. I believe that is why she continuously talks about Dinah throughout the book. What Alice does not realize is why all the animals don’t like it when she talks about her cat. She does not realize the animals are the prey because she is use to being the bystander or the predator. But this is all about to change. 

Near the end of chapter 4 Alice runs away from the rabbit’s house in fear of her life. When Alice has escaped the crowed of animals around the house, her size is small again from eating the cupcakes that were originally pebbles. Once she escaped into the woods she encountered a puppy that was big compared to her. In the real world Alice would have been completely not afraid of the puppy but this time she wanted to play with the puppy due to what she is use to in the real world but she still is very cautious because she is afraid that the puppy will attack her. This was her first time playing the role of the prey instead of the predator or the bystander.

One of the question I asked myself when I read this scene was why did Carroll not give the dog all the characteristics he gave all the other characters in Wonderland? Perhaps he was a dog person. After all there are two cats in the story that come up pretty often throughout the book and only one dog that shows up for a short scene. What are your theories on why Carroll choose the dog to have real world qualities instead of any of the other animals in the book?

The Enlightenment

The Enlightenment was a time period when philosophers questioned what they were taught. This idea was born in the 18^th century. Philosophes went was far as questioning what the church and Socrates taught for years. The result of the Enlightenment academically was the birth to new concepts to approach the world of studies. Many discoveries were found my English philosophers.

Lewis Carroll was born in January 1832. This was only a century after the Enlightenment began. New ideas and concepts were coming out rapidly. It took me a little while to realize that the book had so many references toward the Enlightenment but one I saw this I was bombarded by clues that lead me to believe certain scenes represented discoveries found by philosophes during the Enlightenment.

One of the discovers I found was in chapter one. When Alice was falling down the rabbit whole she expresses the law of inertia proposed Newton. His law states that the marmalade that Alice took out of the self would stay right in front of her if she let go. This law was not completely experimented in the book because Alice put the marmalade back on the self due to her fear that the marmalade would someone.

One of the methods of thinking during this time period was process of elimination. This was used in chapter two when Alice was trying to figure out who she was. Alice separates herself from anyone she knows but seeing what characteristics she does not share with the people around her. The process of elimination was not a new concept but it was widely popularized during this time period.

Such scenes in this story support my theory that Carroll made quite a few references toward the general academic revolution. This blog was majorly influenced by Brendon L. when he informed me of there being references to the enlightenment. If you believe that there are other scenes that you believe are referencing the Enlightenment please comment below.

Running in Circles

The chapter starts off when they get out of Alice’s pool of tears that she cried in chapter two. As the group of animals sit around they try to figure an effective way to get dry. The mouse proposes to tell the story of William the conquer. They all listen to the mouse. Once the story is completed everyone still found themselves wet. Thus the Dodo suggests having a Caucus race. All the animals agree to have the race and so they race. Though this race is not similar to a 200 meter dash. Instead all the animals run around. The animals kept running around aimlessly until The Dodo declared the race to be over. But the participants believe every race should have a winner so therefore they declare all the participants are winners. Once they reached this point they believed all the winners should receive prizes. The animals choose Alice to give out prizes. Alice searches her pockets for something she can give away as a prize. She finds candy and gives all of it to all the animals and leaves nothing for herself. But the other animals believe she should get something so therefore she gives the dodo a thumbtack and the dodo returns it to Alice as her gift. Alice finds this action weird. After the animals eat there snack the mouse suggests telling another tale. Alice and the mouse have a debate over the puzzlement of tale and tail. The mouse becomes mad at Alice and leaves. Once the mouse is gone Alice talks about her cat Dinah. She talks about her hunting habit this forces the crowd of animals to be scared and flee.

This whole chapter describes how the animals are not effective with their action. It makes no sense that a story would make them dry. Then they have the race. The race was a step up from telling a story to get them dry but still not even close to being one of the most effective ways to make the animals dry the fastest. The race itself is very chaotic. There is no set goal and all the animals run around as if their heads are cut off. I agree with Alice’s feelings toward receiving her prize. The action was simply pointless in my opinion. I believe the debate over tale and tail was also unnecessary. Basically the whole chapter is showing how ineffective and pointless the animals are. But the real question here is what do these animals represent? My beliefs are that they represent the English government during Carroll’s time. I think that Carroll believed that his government was being very ill managed and was very ineffective. If my theory is correct then it supports my other theory that states that Carroll was very attached to the politics of his time. I got to this conclusion because he found this topic to be important enough to mention in a book designed to be told to a little girl. This whole chapter describes the politicians running in circles instead of toward a useful objective.

What are you beliefs of what the animals in this chapter represented? Do you support my theory of the animals representing the English government of Carroll’s time or do you have a different theory?

What Now?

The story end with Alice telling her sister about her adventures through Wonderland and her sister also experiencing the adventure for herself. The reaction of these two girls after experiencing the dream is very different. Why do you suppose this is? My theory is because they are of different age and maturity level. Alice obviously remembers the dream because she told it to her sister but what she does with the dream is the important part. Will she take the experience, courage, and maturity level she gained from this and use it to thrive in life?

There have been certain dreams that I had in which I remember pretty clearly. Certain scenes of my dreams make me question what my mind is thinking unconsciously. After that dream I spend a while thinking about it. Wouldn’t Alice do the same with her radical dream? Was this dream just going to be forgotten by her or did it stick with her for the rest of her life? What was Carroll point in telling her this story? In real life Alice really liked the story or else she wouldn’t have asked Carroll to write all down. This probably meant she pondered about the story. How did this story affect Alice’s real life?

What about her sister? This is the last question that lingered in front of me when I finished this book. If this experience was so massive for Alice why was it not so important for her sister? I wonder why Carroll leaves us in the dark about Alice’s sister’s adventures and encounters of the creatures of Wonderland. One of my theories is to not distract from the main focus of Alice’s adventure through Wonderland. Maybe this dream didn’t seem so important to her sister because it was so unrealistic to her to the point where she believed it was not prominent enough to spend time pondering over it.

What are your views of what Alice did with this dream? If this dream happened to you what would you do with this dream? What are your views of Alice’s sister’s reaction to the dream?

Alice

If the Alice in the story is anything like the Alice that really existed, then Alice was a child of a wealthy English family. Alice is a confident and adventurous girl. Her need to explore allows her to venture through Wonderland though constantly questioning everything about Wonderland. In the beginning of the book Alice has trouble converting from her logical world to this precarious and illogical world. Alice came into this world with a strong belief of her education and the behavior of good manners. This is supported by all the scenes where Alice tells a character that what it is doing is rude. It is also supported by the scene where Alice has a debate with the turtle about who had the better form of education. Alice’s traditional customs are close to useless in this new environment since the two worlds are completely different. Alice continuously questions her surroundings because she is so unfamiliar with them. Near the end of the story Alice questions her surroundings less and less. I believe this is because her she is becoming more and more accustomed to her surroundings. As the story comes closer to the end Alice slowly loses her sense of manners. She is constantly correcting and interrupting those around her. This is because she is starting to act like those around her and she does not have someone of higher authority to impede her decline of manners. Throughout Her journey through Wonderland Alice is constantly questioning her identity. For example when the caterpillar ask her “who are you” Alice in not capable to answer. Many readers ask themselves or others why this is. I believe it is because her surroundings is so unfamiliar to the point where she questions who herself is. Alice must choose between living the life as she was raised to live or living her life Wonderland has encouraged her to live.  Her journey through Wonderland has forced her to grow as an individual. She experiences emotions such as fear, excitement, and courage. Specific actions force Alice to step up and mature to her highest levels. An example of this is when Alice questioned the power of the Queen by talking to her in an ill fashioned tone in chapter nine. Though she was still afraid of her to a certain degree she still stood up to her. Alice’s journey through Wonderland helped her identify and mature herself as an individual.

Growing up

As I began the book my mind was flooded with questions. The more pages I read the more questions I came up with.  Out of all the questions there was one that attracted my attention the most:

What was the meaning for the size change?

My first theory about the size change was whenever Alice ate or drank something her size would change. But my theory was proven wrong because in chapter 12 she did not eat or drink anything yet she grew to her regular size and in chapter 2 she grew smaller from being really tall by fanning herself with the rabbit’s fan. After a period of not being able to understand the meaning of the size changes I decided to slow down and analyze each size change. After doing this I believe each size change represents a different stage of life.

In chapter one Alice is at her normal height and opens the door to the garden but she is too big to fit through the door. When she becomes small enough to fit through the door, by drink the liquid in the bottle, she can’t get in because she left the key on the table and can’t reach it. . In Chapter 2 Alice becomes very tall by eating the cake, which therefore stops her from entering the garden once again. She then goes back down in size by fanning herself with the rabbit’s fan. But when she is small again she falls into her own pool of tears. In both chapters’ situation Alice’s size change failed to achieve her happiness, which was to enter the garden through the small door.

In this situation I believe Carroll is using Alice to represent the process of growing up. Like many children Alice wants to grow up but they don’t like certain parts of growing up such as responsibilities and chores. Alice hoped that the size change would bring her the ability to enter the garden which she believed would ultimately bring her happiness, she later realizes it does not in chapter 9, but the size change does not bring her what she wants. This situation is just like a child who is hoping to grow up therefore being treated like a grown up but then later regretting his or her own wish. In Chapter 4 she once again changes size by drinking a bottle in the rabbit’s house. The result of her action makes her grow huge again. She grows so big that she takes up most of the space in the room and cant move. When almost being killed by the rabbit’s rash ideas to get Alice out of the house she eats cupcakes which help her reduce in size. After long reasoning of this scene I came to the conclusion that Carroll is still using Alice to represent the growing up of children.

I believe Carroll is doing the same thing in chapter 5 when Alice’s choice in either increasing or decreasing size puts her in a dangerous position with the pigeon. In chapter 4 the room is physically keeping Alice from the feeling of relief because she is so constricted. I believe the room represents adulthood and Alice becoming uncomfortable in the room represents her discomfort in adjusting to adulthood. Finally in chapter 12 Alice grew back to her full height. I believe Carroll uses this scene to represent her full maturity. Her courage of standing up to the queen helps support my theory.

If there are any comments of my analysis to the changing of size throughout the story please add.