Am I the only person in the world who hates Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland? Growing up, I had friends who loved Disney’s Alice in Wonderland and immensely enjoyed the novel. While I did not love the movie nor even read the novel until recently, I was a victim of its immense cultural influence, when I dressed up as Alice for one of my last Halloweens as a child, mostly because it was one of the cheapest costumes available. It was not my best day in cultural awareness.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll narrates the story of Alice, who is bored on a summer day with her sister. She spots a talking, clothed White Rabbit with a pocket watch run past. She follows the rabbit into a rabbit hole, where she finds a curious hall with many locked doors of all sizes, a bottle with the words “Drink Me” that makes her shrink, and a cake with the worlds “Eat Me” that makes her grow. This is only the beginning of a bizarre adventure that features a blue caterpillar who smokes hookah, a Cheshire Cat that disappears except for a smile, a Mad Tea-Party that asks “Why is a raven like a writing desk?”, and the infamous beheading Queen of Hearts.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is one of the best examples of the nonsense literary genre; multiple meanings have been found in the seemingly ridiculous situations and characters. While I enjoy solving riddles and finding hidden meanings as much as any other intelligent person, I was simply made impatient by the twists and turns, instead of intrigued or delighted. Although I could not recommend the novel to anyone as a form of entertainment, I would recommend it to form a basis of knowledge in popular culture and fantasy literature.
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