Most of my readers have probably noticed that I use a ton of Alice in Wonderland quotes in my post. The reason is pretty simple:
It's one of the greatest stories ever written!
Penned in 1865 (can you believe that?) it is still one of the most read books by children. Several movies have been made about it. And so many pop culture references were born from it.
But why? Over a hundred years later, why do we still love this book so much?
I can only speak from a personal place. But here are some of the answers I came up with:
“I knew who I was this morning, but I've changed a few times since then.”
As a strange little girl myself, I completely fell in love with Alice and the surreal, creepy fantasy world Lewis Carroll created. But as I grew older, the more I read of her adventures though Wonderland, the more layers I discovered about her.
For one, Alice was the first female protagonist I read about who didn't need to be saved by a man!
Everything she thing she did, every decision she made, was her own doing. She was strong, but still vulnerable. She stood up for herself even before a psycho queen, and she wasn't afraid to call the Mad Hatter out on his bullshit!
And as the story goes on, you see her become stronger and more capable.
But the other thing that's interesting about Alice is the question of her sanity.
- Did she imagine it all?
- Was she actually on drugs?
- Was she as crazy as everyone in Wonderland?
- Did she ever really wake up?
There are actual psychological theories written about Alice's mental state. One in particular I read in a magazine about 10 years ago that hinted at her being a disturbed child before she even got to the rabbit hole.
Why didn't the manic creatures of Wonderland seem that crazy to her? Was it something in them she saw in herself?
Maybe this is why I identify with her so much I wonder?
"Were' all mad here!"
What the Cheshire Cat told Alice when she questioned her sanity.
This is probably my favorite quote of all time! Mainly because the thought of "true sanity" is a lie. We are all messed up! Even if it's just a little.
No one is 100% whole. We are flawed mammals who are bumbling our way through life, trying to reach a destination that never truly pays off. We are insecure, selfish, scared, manic, emotionally unstable, and so many other things.
We are all broken. Looking for others just as broken as we are.
Wonderland represents a place where being broken is not only accepted... it's encouraged.
“If you drink much from a bottle marked 'poison' it is certain to disagree with you sooner or later.”
It's rumored that Lewis Carroll wrote "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" while being stoned out of his mind on shrooms. Which is pretty impressive since the only thing I can do on shrooms is not fall off the planet!
There has always been a deep connection between Alice in Wonderland and drug use. Obviously from the images of her drinking from the bottle that said "drink me" and eating the tart that said "eat me," and the intoxicated affects they had on her after.
In fact the expression "tripping" was born from this story as it's a take on her "bad trip" in Wonderland!
This would explain why she sees hooka smoking caterpillars, disappearing cats, and all the other strange shit she encountered.
It also explains why she continued to "chase" the White Rabbit."
The rabbit represented her "high." A creative take on the drug metaphor: "chasing the dragon!"
“Through the looking glass!”
The looking glass was symbolic of a place where everything looked right and seemed normal, but in "reality," there was something very wrong about it.
Much like we humans. We put on masks everyday to hide what's really going on. We blend. We drink our lattes with a smile.
But on the other side of that smile is something we are hiding.
- Pain
- Secrets
- Guilt
- Fear
- Anxiety
The mirror is said to expose all. We can fool everybody but ourselves right?
In Alice's trip through the looking glass, she thought she made it back home and was safe, only to realize she was still trapped in Wonderland. She had to confront her fear of the Jabberwocky, a dragon-like monster that chased her throughout the story.
Just like the Jabberwocky, we have demons that will chase us through friendships, relationships, careers, debt, etc., until we confront them and deal with them!
TIME TO WRAP THIS UP!
There's so much more I could really dig into with this, but for the sake of time, I'll probably save that for "part 2!"
If you haven't read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, you are missing out on one the wildest stories of all time!
You'll be shocked at how much you'll walk away with!