Alice's Adventure in Wonderland Book Report
Theme:
In the story, Alice encounters a series of puzzles that seem
to have no solutions, which imitates the ways that life frustrates
expectations. She expects that the situations she encounters will make sense,
but they repeatedly frustrate her ability to figure out Wonderland. She tries
to understand the Caucus race, solve the Mad Hatter’s riddle, and understand
the Queen’s game. In every instance, the riddles and challenges presented to
Alice have no purpose or answer.
(Main) Characters:
Alice
Alice is a girl from a wealthy English family who finds
herself in a strange world ruled by imagination and fantasy. She feels
comfortable with her identity and has a strong sense that her environment is
comprised of clear, logical, and consistent rules and features. Alice’s
familiarity with the world has led one critic to describe her as a “disembodied
intellect.” Alice displays great curiosity and attempts to fit her diverse
experiences into a clear understanding of the world.
The Cheshire Cat
The Cheshire Cat is unique among Wonderland creatures.
Threatened by no one, it maintains a cool, grinning outsider status. The
Cheshire Cat has insight into the workings of Wonderland as a whole. Its calm
explanation to Alice that to be in Wonderland is to be “mad” reveals a number
of points that do not occur to Alice on her own. First, the Cheshire Cat points
out that Wonderland as a place has a stronger cumulative effect than any of its
citizens. Wonderland is ruled by nonsense, and as a result, Alice’s normal
behavior becomes inconsistent with its operating principles, so Alice herself
becomes mad in the context of Wonderland. Certainly, Alice’s burning curiosity
to absorb everything she sees in Wonderland sets her apart from the other
Wonderland creatures, making her seem mad in comparison.
The Queen of Hearts
The Queen of Hearts is the
character that Alice must inevitably face to figure out the puzzle of
Wonderland. The Queen of Hearts is literally the heart of Alice’s
conflict. The Queen of
Hearts is not as concerned with nonsense and perversions of logic as she is
with absolute rule and execution. She is a singular force of
fear who even dominates the King of Hearts. In the Queen’s presence, Alice finally
gets a taste of true fear, even though she understands that the Queen of Hearts
is merely a playing card. The Gryphon later informs Alice that the Queen never
actually executes anyone she sentences to death, which reinforces the fact that
the Queen of Hearts’s power lies in her rhetoric. The Queen becomes
representative of the idea that Wonderland is devoid of substance.
PLOT:
Alice sits on a riverbank on a warm summer day, when she
catches sight of a White Rabbit in a waistcoat running by her. The White Rabbit
pulls out a pocket watch, exclaims that he is late, and pops down a rabbit
hole. Alice follows the White Rabbit down the hole and comes upon a great
hallway lined with doors. She finds a small door that she opens using a key she
discovers on a nearby table. Through the door, she sees a beautiful garden, and
Alice begins to cry when she realizes she cannot fit through the door. She
finds a bottle marked “DRINK ME” and downs the contents. She shrinks down to
the right size to enter the door but cannot enter since she has left the key on
the tabletop above her head. Alice discovers a cake marked “EAT ME” which
causes her to grow to an inordinately large height. Still unable to enter the
garden, Alice begins to cry again, and her giant tears form a pool at her feet.
As she cries, Alice shrinks and falls into the pool of tears. The pool of tears
becomes a sea, and as she treads water she meets a Mouse. The Mouse accompanies
Alice to shore, where a number of animals stand gathered on a bank. After a
“Caucus Race,” Alice scares the animals away with tales of her cat, Dinah, and
finds herself alone again.
Alice meets the White Rabbit again, who mistakes her for a
servant and sends her off to fetch his things. While in the White Rabbit’s
house, Alice drinks an unmarked bottle of liquid and grows to the size of the
room. The White Rabbit returns to his house, fuming at the now-giant Alice, but
she swats him and his servants away with her giant hand. The animals outside
try to get her out of the house by throwing rocks at her, which inexplicably
transform into cakes when they land in the house. Alice eats one of the cakes,
which causes her to shrink to a small size. She wanders off into the forest,
where she meets a Caterpillar sitting on a mushroom and smoking a hookah (i.e.,
a water pipe). The Caterpillar and Alice get into an argument, but before the
Caterpillar crawls away in disgust, he tells Alice that different parts of the
mushroom will make her grow or shrink. Alice tastes a part of the mushroom, and
her neck stretches above the trees. A pigeon sees her and attacks, deeming her
a serpent hungry for pigeon eggs.
Alice eats another part of the mushroom and shrinks down to
a normal height. She wanders until she comes across the house of the Duchess.
She enters and finds the Duchess, who is nursing a squealing baby, as well as a
grinning Cheshire Cat, and a Cook who tosses massive amounts of pepper into a
cauldron of soup. The Duchess behaves rudely to Alice and then departs to
prepare for a croquet game with the Queen. As she leaves, the Duchess hands
Alice the baby, which Alice discovers is a pig. Alice lets the pig go and
reenters the forest, where she meets the Cheshire Cat again. The Cheshire Cat
explains to Alice that everyone in Wonderland is mad, including Alice herself.
The Cheshire Cat gives directions to the March Hare’s house and fades away to
nothing but a floating grin.
Alice travels to the March Hare’s house to find the March
Hare, the Mad Hatter, and the Dormouse having tea together. Treated rudely by
all three, Alice stands by the tea party, uninvited. She learns that they have
wronged Time and are trapped in perpetual tea-time. After a final discourtesy,
Alice leaves and journeys through the forest. She finds a tree with a door in
its side, and travels through it to find herself back in the great hall. She
takes the key and uses the mushroom to shrink down and enter the garden.
After saving several gardeners from the temper of the Queen
of Hearts, Alice joins the Queen in a strange game of croquet. The croquet
ground is hilly, the mallets and balls are live flamingos and hedgehogs, and
the Queen tears about, frantically calling for the other player’s executions.
Amidst this madness, Alice bumps into the Cheshire Cat again, who asks her how
she is doing. The King of Hearts interrupts their conversation and attempts to
bully the Cheshire Cat, who impudently dismisses the King. The King takes
offense and arranges for the Cheshire Cat’s execution, but since the Cheshire
Cat is now only a head floating in midair, no one can agree on how to behead
it.
The Duchess approaches Alice and attempts to befriend her,
but the Duchess makes Alice feel uneasy. The Queen of Hearts chases the Duchess
off and tells Alice that she must visit the Mock Turtle to hear his story. The
Queen of Hearts sends Alice with the Gryphon as her escort to meet the Mock
Turtle. Alice shares her strange experiences with the Mock Turtle and the
Gryphon, who listen sympathetically and comment on the strangeness of her
adventures. After listening to the Mock Turtle’s story, they hear an
announcement that a trial is about to begin, and the Gryphon brings Alice back
to the croquet ground.
The Knave of Hearts stands trial for stealing the Queen’s
tarts. The King of Hearts leads the proceedings, and various witnesses approach
the stand to give evidence. The Mad Hatter and the Cook both give their
testimony, but none of it makes any sense. The White Rabbit, acting as a
herald, calls Alice to the witness stand. The King goes nowhere with his line
of questioning, but takes encouragement when the White Rabbit provides new
evidence in the form of a letter written by the Knave. The letter turns out to
be a poem, which the King interprets as an admission of guilt on the part of
the Knave. Alice believes the note to be nonsense and protests the King’s
interpretation. The Queen becomes furious with Alice and orders her beheading,
but Alice grows to a huge size and knocks over the Queen’s army of playing
cards.
All of a sudden, Alice finds herself awake on her sister’s
lap, back at the riverbank. She tells her sister about her dream and goes
inside for tea as her sister ponders Alice’s adventures.
CONFLICT:
Conflict happens every time Alice meets a new character and
is being confronted with its strange rules and behavior.
CONCLUSION:
When Alice woke up and realizes that it’s just a dream and
she tells her sister about it.
