Have you ever wanted so badly to talk to something that just can’t? Maybe a childhood stuffed animal, a favorite pet, or any object you feel a connection to? Maybe even, a flower. In Lewis Carrol’s story, Through the Looking Glass, he explores this fantasy. Carroll brings a garden of flowers to life to speak to the main character, Alice. In this section, we learn a lot about the identity of these flowers. Though some of the things they say to Alice may be taken at face value, I believe they employ a much deeper meaning.
Astonished by the seemingly inanimate Tiger-lily now talking to her, Alice questions their ability. The Tiger-lily responds by saying they can talk “just as well as [Alice] can”, even “a great deal louder”. Like many people, these flowers believe they have important things within their hearts, but do not always have the confidence or platform to speak on them. This is especially prevalent when Tiger-lily says this almost condescendingly to Alice, because as a human Alice has more influence with her words than a tiny flower would. Another flower in the garden, Rose, goes on to tell Alice that it is just “not manners for them to begin”. Already, these phrases begin to shape an identity for the flowers.
Flowers are often seen to be very beautiful pieces of nature, but not necessarily the most functional plants. It is implied that if flowers could talk, as they do in this section, they would be very passive and timid. The flowers also make it very clear that though they want to be more active in asserting themselves, it is hard to do so without being able to move from where their roots reach into the earth.
I believe these factors of the flowers’ identities are very prevalent in our world today as well. People often want to make change happen, and speak on things they believe in, but do not believe they can do this themselves. Especially young people, like the flowers, may not feel like they have the voices to speak upon issues, because they are made out to feel lesser in our society because of age and inexperience. However, in more recent times, especially during our current political climate, people who once were seen to have no voice, have begun to speak up. Women, children, people of color, the LGBTQIA+ community, etc., have become stronger and more apt to speak up for what they believe in, as the Daisies in this passage later do.
The Daisies’ agreeance with Alice about their lack of protection in the garden is highly relative to recent movements such as Me Too and Black Lives Matter, among many others. When people, or flowers in this case, have cause to fear for their well-being, they are likely to speak up. Though some skeptics in today’s world, like the Tiger-Lily, argue that one should “Hold [their] tongue” for fear of repercussion, this attitude of revolution is incredibly important, both to the Daisies in the garden, and to our world today.