Book Review: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
(Last read January 13, 2005)

Classics are classics for a reason. Lewis Carroll creates, on the surface, a child's fantasy land, populated with memorable creatures and characters -- each just as extraordinary and odd as the next. I wish my college professors had seen this story fit to dissect, for I'd love to delve into what I believe is Carroll's distaste for structure and authority, absolute contempt for conformity, and bleak opinion of humankind, especially where its imagination is concerned.

Alice's search for normality in an imaginary rabbit hole (or through a mirror) is no different than our own searches. We cling to things that appear familiar; because they are familiar, they must be safe. But we can only hold on to those things for so long, because sooner or later we find that things aren't really as they appear (babies turn into pigs, flowers can be painted red, and just because you're bigger than a house does not mean you're bigger than a dog). And until we deal with the reality, we're left to wander "wonderland" indefinitely -- playing games that don't make sense, being threatened by people with no real authority, and looking for things we'll never find.



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