Click on the "comment" button below to leave your blog post. I suggest you type your response first in a word document, and then copy and paste it into the comment box. When using book titles in your post you should set the title off with the underscore key: _Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_ (as the comment box does not recognize italics). If you are signed up to be a discussion leader, your blog post should be at least 500 words of original prose (do not duplicate anything other bloggers have already said here) in which you engage with the text for the week critically AND pose an original discussion question. If you are signed up to be a responder, your post should be 250 words in length and respond to, answer, extend, or disagree with a question or thought from another student's post. Be sure to write your full name and word count at the bottom of your post. The cut-off time for this blog post is Friday, January 29 at midnight (for discussion leaders) and Monday, February 1 at midnight (for responders).Discussion Leaders: Aly F. and Alison M.
Responders: McKenna, Amanda, Summer, and TeAnna
In Lewis Carroll's _Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_, I noticed how Alice portrays the ultimate image of innocence in the beginning chapters. I first noticed this when she was so willing to drink something simply because it is not marked "poison". On page 17 of the book it states, "However, this bottle was not marked 'poison', so Alice ventured to taste it, and, finding it very nice (it in fact had a sort of mixed flavour of cherry tart, custard, pineapple, roast turkey, toffy, and hot buttered toast), she very soon finished it off"(Carroll, 17). When I read this passage I immediately thought about how if I were in this type of situation I would have been much more weary about drinking a random bottle just because I was told to. I think that in the world we live in we learn to become more and more cautious.
ReplyDeleteAnother example of how Alice portrays innocence in the beginning of this book is on page 23. In this passage she begins to come to the realization that she believes that she has turned into another girl that she knows that is the same age as her and she begins to go through them in her head. "And she began thinking over all the children she knew that were the same age as herself, to see if she could have changed for any of them" (Carroll, 23). Obviously an adult would be thinking of all of the possible realistic possibilities for what was going on and one of them would not be that they had switched bodies with another person. I really enjoy how Alice's character is written as such an innocent child, when in fact she is all on her own in a world that she knows nothing of and which is very confusing. She is actually having to be very mature and fend for herself in this new world which we see as the book continues. I like how much she changes and grows as a character as the book goes on, I think that this makes for a very interesting book. What does everyone else think about Alice's character?
Another thing that I have noticed about this book is that it continues to introduce new characters even if they are only there for a couple of pages. I think that this is something interesting about this book because it is unique. An example is in chapter 2 with the birds that Alice swims through her pool of tears with. They are only in this story for a few pages but that doesn't mean that they are influential to the story. They show how Alice becomes a leader with them and continues to grow. I noticed that even though the characters are only there for a little bit they each contribute to the story in their own way that is important to Alice's journey through Wonderland. What does everyone else think about this aspect of the book?
Aly Fouts
Word Count: 507
I agree that the character really develops throughout the novel and yes she is very innocent, but her innocence disappears as the adventure goes on. Alice starts off making witty jokes to herself, making simple yet complex mistakes (forgetting the key on table and drinking what was in the bottle to make herself shrink), and questioning everything that came to her thoughts (falling down the well). As the novel goes on she starts to figure out that she knows more than what she thought she was capable of knowing but still is finding out how knowledgeable she is by accident; for example, when she is talking to the mouse she insists that the dog and the cat will like the mouse but realizes on her own that, that is not the case. Her innocence is also shown through her excitement for new things and how she doesn’t react as an adult would in those situations because she doesn’t quite know what the ‘norms’ are. An example would be when Alice is shrinking and she isn’t surprised because she is still in that state of mind of fantasy and magic, and that it may actually be a possibility. I also like how the book is written, in the mind of Alice. We really get a picture of what goes on in a character that is an innocent child. The characters were very interesting and yes, even though the characters where only there for a short period of time we still understood their importance in the novel and how they impacted Alice.
DeleteWord count:258
I agree that Alice is portrayed as an innocent child in the beginning chapters, but she does not keep that complete and utter innocent mind throughout. In the example on page 17 when Alice is drinking from the bottle, to me, she loses a sense of innocence. She obviously knows better than to drink from an unknown bottle because she checks for any outward signs of poison; but she believes that only because the bottle does not show outwardly signs of danger, that there are none. Alice has childlike wonder, but she is beyond childhood ignorance. An example of Alice’s innocence is when she talks to the mouse after distributing the prizes and receiving her own thimble from the Dodo. When Alice asks the Mouse of his history he replies “mine is a long and sad tale” (Carrroll 33). She glances down at the Mouse’s tail, pondering how a tail could be sad. This illustrates that Alice’s mind is not yet developed, for an adult would not have a problem differentiating a tale and a tail. I also found it interesting how the characters were introduced and only present for a few pages of the story. It is possible that this is another example of Alice’s innocence. Children do not have a strong train of thought and it is possible that the characters were present, but Alice chose to omit them from her thoughts. I liked this aspect of the book because although the characters were only present for a short amount of time, it allowed for multiple mini stories to make up the entire trip through Wonderland.
DeleteWord Count: 268
Blog Responders: Because there was only one discussion leader post this week, please feel free to respond to Aly F.'s question OR to choose and respond to any of the blog post possibilities on the _Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_ Reading Guide linked on the left hand side of the blog. See you all next week!
ReplyDeleteKrystal Howard
Martin Gardner provides annotations to Lewis Carroll’s _Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland_. Most of the notes provided were very helpful in understanding why something was written, the background behind it, or what it means. For example in chapter 2, Alice has the idea that “wherever you go to on the English coast, you find a number of bathing-machines” (Carroll 24-25). When Carroll was writing the book, bathing-machines may have been something that people during that time were familiar with. The annotation is helpful for readers of today. Gardner’s annotation gives a lengthy description explaining that they “were small individual locker rooms on wheels” (Gardner 25). Other useful annotations were those having to do with Tenniel’s illustrations. On page 27, Gardner points out that Tenniel includes an ape’s head in two illustrations. Gardner shares the suggestion that Tenniel drew them as a caricature of Charles Darwin. On page 113, Gardner also includes Tenniel’s original drawing of the white rabbit during the trail. The reader is able to compare/contrast the two illustrations. In both annotations about the artwork, Gardner gives interesting background information.
ReplyDeleteIn some cases, the annotations were distracting from the story. Many started out with interesting information, but continued on with lengthy descriptions that could lead the reader to become uninterested. For example, the annotation about the Cheshire-Cat gives useful information in the first few sentences or even the whole first paragraph when it describes the theories behind the cat’s grin (Gardner 61). It does not stop there. The annotation continues on with seven more paragraphs about the cat’s grin. This amount of information could be seen as an interruption to the story. If it does not keep the readers attention it is more likely to hinder their reading experience rather than assist it.
Amanda Sheeran
Word Count: 293