Alice: A Child's Adventures in Childhood

The following is the paper I submitted as my analysis of childhood displayed in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I propose that innocence in childhood is a fabricated relationship. I don't think that blogspot will allow me to indent, but I think the paragraph breaks are clear enough. Enjoy.

A Child's Adventures in Childhood

Most cultures espouse innocence with the childhood age bracket. The corruption of youth is a common worry of parents who feel that the maintenance of this innocence is their duty to protect. While this protection is primarily protection from physical harm, as an infant transcends into a childhood age, parents seem determined to shelter them from the corruption of the evils of the world to prolong an assumed state of undefiled purity of mind. In the opening poem to Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Carroll gives us no indication of the necessity of associating innocence with childhood. In fact, as he describes his boat ride with the three Liddell sisters, whom he has endearingly named the, “cruel Three” (7), he describes their bold and audacious demands of his narration. It reads:

Imperious Prima flashes forth

Her edict 'to begin it' –

In gentler tone Secunda hopes

'There will be nonsense in it!' –

While Tertia interrupts the tale

Not more than once a minute. (13-18)

Such boldness is acceptable in childhood as it cultivates creativity and playfulness. In fact, it seems that childhood is quite dull without it. This audacity is necessary for good story-telling and enjoyable games of pretend, but it isn't looked on fondly in adulthood. As we follow Alice in her journey through a land in which she finds herself after haphazardly falling into a rabbit hole in pursuit of the unknown, we encounter an environment that is devoid of familiar logic and the validity of parental worry of corruption is put under a new light. This new environment brings out the essence of childhood in Alice. The strange situations, unfulfilled expectations, and the overall state of confusion drive Alice to react without tact or restraint. This gives us insight into the nature of her rudeness, impatience, search for identity, and her preoccupation with how she is viewed in the eyes of others. We very rarely see any signs of undefiled goodness, politeness, kindness, or desire to obey. The customs of Victorian England only serve to mask her natural flaw and selfish drive. In this timeless story of whimsy, we get a sense that this perception of child sinlessness is, like Wonderland itself, an illusion.

A representative of the child, Alice, like everyone else, is in pursuit of happiness. Thus far, however, the methods to facilitate this pursuit are limited to her. She reacts on whim and without forethought. This is most applicably seen in her initial pursuit of the White Rabbit. “...and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge. In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again” (12). It is in her eager willingness and fearless curiosity that she chases the White Rabbit down into Wonderland. Not only does the narrator give no indication of inhibition or consideration on her part, he intentionally informs the reader that absolutely and undoubtedly no thought concerning caution that might have been invested into such a decision was put forth. Her immediate reactions indicate her state of mind. She still hasn't learned to process and weigh out the ramifications of her actions carefully. Coming from a society of customs, however, Alice understands that there are limitations to her speech and conduct, but still isn't completely comfortable in engaging as an active member in a society. This gives cause to consider childhood as a veil thinly masking the understanding of the reason for the customs in place. Children know that there are certain things that are permissible and certain things that are not. They're not necessarily sure why or which is which, but they are aware of the existence of the rule. Behaving in a manner innate to their nature is what is practiced, but the response that behavior gets determines whether it is acceptable behavior for the circumstance or whether they need to adapt it to receive a response more in their favor. At the beginning of the story, this is still a new application for Alice who is clearly living in the speak-first-think-later state of childhood. During her conversations with the mouse, she repeatedly allows the mention of her cat slip only to frighten away and offend the mouse causing him to leave during his narrative. When the birds in the group ask her who Dinah is, her lack of restraint indicate that she still hasn't learned the lesson of discernment. She says, “'Dinah's our cat. And she's such a capital one for catching mice...And oh! I wish you could see her after the birds! Why, she'll eat a little bird as soon as look at it!'” (40). The narrator tells us the effects of her exclamation. As she should have expected, “On various pretexts, they all moved off and Alice was soon left alone” (40). Innocence would require an individual to be ignorant of the institution of etiquette, and yet still naturally adhere to its standards of beauty and goodness. Here, childhood is not portrayed as the innocent and angelic stage of life in which things are simple and pure. It is the training ground for producing individuals that adhere to a set of social expectations and does well to educate them on the consequences of not fitting into a society.

As childhood becomes an atmosphere characterized by trial and error in which the consequences of errors are being outcast from the rest of society, the world – and for Alice, Wonderland – becomes a very confusing and frightening place. Like Alice in Wonderland, children find that very few things about the adult world make sense to them. Children then begin to utilize what little knowledge they have. It is important to understand, however, that this knowledge is not inherent comprehension, but rather acquired understanding attained from the observation of adults and the trial and error on the part of the children previously mentioned. Because children live within the confines of their imaginations until they begin their interactions with adults, logic and reason are learned behaviors necessary for the proper assimilation into a society that caters to grown men and women. As she travels through Wonderland, Alice has to adjust and reshape her preconceived notions of logic and reason to accommodate the “logic” of Wonderland. She often finds that her logic doesn't hold up to the standards of Wonderland and even do her a disservice. The most poignant example of different levels of logic can be found in her dialogue with the Cheshire Cat in the chapter, “Pig and Pepper.” Upon asking the Cheshire Cat which way she ought to go, he tells her that it depends entirely on where she wants to end up. To this she replies, “I don't much care where,” to which he logically, but still to little help replies, “Then it doesn't matter which way you go” (76). When Alice informs the Cheshire Cat that she does not wish to go among mad people, he responds, “Oh you can't help that...we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad...You must be...or you wouldn't have come here” (77). It is in this transaction that we see Alice's inability to reason in Wonderland. Her understanding of common sense has very little resemblance to theirs. This seems to comment on the relationship between children and adults. It indicates that adults view the logic of children as muddled and disorganized and children see adult logic as unnecessarily perplexing. Though the logic of a child might be viewed as idyllic and pure, the reality is that it is rigid and limiting: the less experience they have, the more stringent their reasoning abilities are. As a children and Alice grow, however, their logic becomes more malleable as they sacrifice the wonderment of the imagination and pretend for a world that is more tangible and visible. Alice politely entertains the idea presented by the Mock Turtle regarding the lessening of the lessons and fires back the very logical question, “And how did you manage on the twelfth?” (118). She does not challenge the Mock Turtle's credibility. She merely asked a question that would logically follow his account, even in Wonderland. His lack of response indicates the adult tendency to ignore reasonable questions asked by maturing children for which they have no answer.

Once Alice realizes that it might be to her benefit to begin implementing proper social English cues, she tries to apply them to Wonderland where they often don't work. This is met with frustration and disheartening. In her confused state, she finds that applying different approaches that she feels should result in her favor to certain situations often have the opposite effect. This shatters her confidence in the knowledge she believed to have acquired. This gives cause to consider children as vulnerable and emotional individuals who begin to question their understanding and, at times, the essence of their identity. Alice begins to have identity crises when she finds that that which she does well in England has no bearing in Wonderland. Childhood here can be categorized as a search for identity with the use of socially constructed measurements. For example, when Alice first questions who she is, she measures her identity by her ability to remember and recite the multiplication table. When she cannot, she concludes that she must now be someone else because the authentic Alice knows that information well. She says, “London is the capital of Paris, and Paris is the capital of Rome, and Rome – no, that's all wrong, I'm certain! I must have been changed for Mabel!” (25). Throughout the story, we are given example after example of Alice demonstrating her knowledge, albeit at times her misunderstood knowledge, to prove to herself and to others that her identity is rooted in that which she knows, not necessarily that which she is because, due to all the physically changing tools given to her, that which she physically is may not be reliable evidence to prove her identity. During the trial of the Knave, she is very proud of herself for recognizing the roles in the courtroom. With the assistance of the narrator, she assesses herself in light of her English counterparts. She identifies the jurors multiple times to herself, “...being rather proud of it: for she thought and rightly too, that very few little girls of her age knew the meaning of it all” (130). Not only is this detached from any notion of innocence, it's laden with pride and self-exaltation. Children are depicted here as prideful individuals with an envious awareness of the intelligence of other children. Though she is proud of the amount of knowledge she possesses at her age, it is because her young age sometimes proves to be the cause of her rebuke that in this search for identity, Alice cannot maintain a constant desire or preference of age. She shows indecisiveness and contradiction. While trapped in the White Rabbit's house, she contemplates the possibility of ceasing to age and says, “...shall I never get any older than I am now? That'll be a comfort, one way – never to be an old woman – but then – always to have lessons to learn! Oh, I shouldn't like that!” (44). She doesn't want the responsibility or appearance of adulthood, but doesn't like the submissiveness of childhood. This depicts children as indecisive and fickle. If innocent childhood is defined by contentment and joy, no one told the youth.

Eventually, Alice becomes so fed up with the nonsense of Wonderland that she asserts her role as an adult. This is seen in her physical growth in the last scene in Wonderland. This is what childhood eventually amounts to after an identity search, confusion, and frustration: an ability to have a participating voice in society. Innocence had no place at the beginning of this process and it certainly has no place in this culminating final stage. Childhood is the molding and preparation a young individual needs to undergo to learn how to function in a society of customs and regulations governing our naturally corrupt conditions. Wonderland, like the notion of innocence in childhood, is an illusion. It is one ended by the reality of wisdom and discernment as a child steps out of their dream world into reality; or, as in the case of Alice, when they are forcibly removed from it because they've been in Wonderland far too long.