Alice And The Wonderland Essay Research Paper — страница 2

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pineapple is raw and natural. And finally, the tastes have been organized according to different culinary techniques: custard, toffee, and cherry tart are all made with low heat and turkey and toast are made with high heat. Roasted Turkey, hot buttered toast, and custard are all served hot while toffee and cherry-tart are served cold. ( Roncada 4) This seemingly innocent observation made by Alice contains too many patterns to have been plain train of thought. Perhaps Lewis had something else on his mind while he wrote it. In Wonderland everything has the potential to be food, even non-edible items. The characters form a simple, somewhat idiotic, pattern that combines food with whatever is at hand. For example, during the tea party the Mad Hatter?s watch is smothered with butter.

This implies that WATCH=TOAST, which becomes clearer when the watch is dipped in the cup of tea. (Roncada 57) This begins a new pattern of events which could be formulated as-food on object-object is food. The Doormouse himself, who also has been in contact with food (tea had been dipped on his nose) is eventually dipped in the teapot as well. As the tea party continues, the relationship between food, objects, and characters mingle further until no definition of eatable and drinkable exist. This is seen finally as the Mad Hatter takes a bite from his tea cup. It is here that Alice begins to accept food as a factor able to influence one?s character: ?Maybe it?s always pepper that makes people hot-tempered?and vinegar that makes them sour?and camomile that makes them bitter?and

?barley-sugar and such that make children sweet tempered.? (73) There is a special pattern through which Alice treks through Wonderland. Her journey begins at the riverbank, she falls down the rabbit hole into a long narrow hall, and from there she enters an open pool. This ?open outside to closed inside? pattern is a constant through Wonderland. (Brandt 4) Also, she is constantly separated from spatial objects by her size. In the hall, it is impossible for Alice to reach the garden because of her size. For a rational person, with an unstable body, transferring from the hall to the garden would be easy. However, Alice takes things as they come at this point in time and simply says ?oh well? to the fact that she was the wrong size for the door, (as any child would). Her size

control system at this point in time is bottle (liquid, wet) shrink vs. cake (dry) grow. The rabbit?s fan also turns out to be a shrinking operator. At this point in time Alice also looses linguistic control and begins speaking homophonic nonsense to insult the mouse, ?tale?tail?not?knot?. (Brandt 5) The pool and the rabbit?s house are spatially connected, with the help of Alice running off. Here the growing system reverses: bottle (liquid) grow vs. cake (dry) shrink. Even in Wonderland Alice?s size control appears to be unique. This is seen when Alice grows too large for the rabbit?s house and her arm startles both the white rabbit and the lizard Bill. ?An arm you goose! Who has ever seen one that size?? says the white rabbit. If size control were an everyday event in

wonderland, Alice?s connection with the real world obviously still remains, as seen when she confuses growing large with growing old. While stuck in the rabbit?s house she says to herself ?there?s no room for me to grow up anymore here? referring to her size in comparison to the house?s. ?Shall I never get any older than I am now? That?ll be a comfort, one way-never to be an old woman.? Throughout her journey, each time she enters a house she sees and experiences something unpleasant. From the house to the wood, there is a second motory transition, Alice running off. Here she meets the caterpillar. He is sitting on a mushroom and smoking out of a hookah. Whether or not these two objects were placed purposely to represent the use of mind-expanding substances shall forever be left

unknown. However, the idea of such subliminal messages should not be ruled out. Alice here finds it almost impossible to answer simple questions such as ?who are you? and ?why?? Here the caterpillar introduces a new growth system to Alice: right hand mushroom-shrink vs. left hand mushroom-grow. From now on Alice uses her growth system a bit more wisely and has wise rebuttals towards characters she comes across. She is slowly growing familiar with the ways of Wonderland. The second house she comes upon belongs to the Dutchess. Once again the house is a horrible place for Alice to visit. The Dutchess is a mean tempered woman. She is also considered by many as the most radical pole of madness. She is first aggressive towards Alice and then more conciliatory as their conversation