Alice in Wonderland: Role of Other Characters
One of the more interesting stories within the Alice in Wonderland unit was the Advice from a Caterpillar story. In the story, Alice is lost and happens upon a caterpillar smoking a hookah (age appropriate?) who questions her, "Who are YOU?" She is confused and said she doesn't remember who she is or what was going on because she had been so many sizes within a short period of time. He confuses her further by his questions and mysterious, vague phrases. He made her angry and frustrated because he was confusing and made zero sense.
In my opinion, the conversation itself was completely random and deviated completely from the original question. In the middle of the conversation he tells an even more random story about an old man and a younger man asking him questions. Honestly, I wasn't sure what the point of the story was because it just abruptly ends and the story reverts back to Alice and the caterpillar.
All of the animals she encounters are strange in their own ways. By the end Alice is pretty confused by where she is and what she was doing there. I think that Alice herself is pretty strange and unusual, but that may be from being in the strange world she falls into. Or a result of the animals she encounters. She meets a pigeon and the conversation changes morphs even more. As I was reading it was actually hard to follow along because the plot doesn't seem to follow any direction. I'm not sure what the point of talking to the caterpillar and the pigeon was. I think that maybe the characters give a view into the different lifestyle and world that is present in Alice in Wonderland. Overall, I think the characters, however strange or unusual, are important in portraying the weird world that makes up her experiences. It builds the world and characters that carry on throughout the rest of the unit.
I was curious to read your essay this week since I read this unit as well. Since I didn’t really remember much from the movie and I assume most people have seen it, so it’s interesting that we had some of the same opinions. Alice is definitely a VERY strange character and I referenced the caterpillar scene multiple times in my essay. This is a very strange story indeed, but I do like how it all manages to fit together!
ReplyDeleteThe caterpillar is definitely one of my favorite parts of Alice and Wonderland. The overall randomness of the entire encounter is just hilarious and strange, but I cannot be help and think that maybe there is something deeper there that none of us understand. Anyway, great job this week!
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