Lewis Carroll s Hidden Presence Of Puberty - 1540 Words

Lewis Carroll’s Hidden Presence of Puberty The transformations that Alice experiences throughout Lewis Carroll’s, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, display the metaphorical change the protagonist goes through from the stage of childhood to adulthood and the continued struggle to understand her identity. These changes are experienced after Alice follows a white rabbit down his hole and into an incredible world known as Wonderland. This place, although completely fictitious, represents an alternate world to the main character that is unexplainable to herself and the real world. During her time in this world, she faces many adversities between changing sizes or being on trial that confuse her throughout the story. At the end, Alice learns†¦show more content†¦Then when the reader sees Alice fall into the rabbit hole, we see she is distracted by the shelves along the walls which cause her to get lost in her own thoughts. This is Carroll’s way of changing the setting of the story from the Victorian wo rld to a dreamworld known as Wonderland. It is proven to be a dream when she hits the ground and is unharmed even though she just fell for multiple minutest and is unharmed. Wonderland later becomes the place where Alice learns about the transition to adulthood that she is making. Once Alice lands safely, she continues to chase the White Rabbit around. She needs to fit in a door and sees a drink that says â€Å"Drink Me†. The potion turns her into a smaller version of herself. Later in the story she eats something that makes her much bigger than a normal human being. She is confused throughout these processes and questions everything going on in this alternate world. Sigler addresses the situation by saying, â€Å"She must suddenly confront the frightening prospect of having to make her own way in a world she cannot, despite all her efforts, understand† (Brave New Alice 62). This is showing the internal battle that exists in Alice’s mind in Wonderland. This displays Carroll’s hidden message of puberty impacting the female body and psyche. When a girl transitions from the stage of child into the young adulthood she has many questions about what is happening to her body. Elizabeth supports this concept in her Alice in Puberty article by