As our class digs deeper into the meaning of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, we have briefly explored the moments in which he mentions Alice growing and shrinking. We have assumed that her height change is only associated with her consumption of different food and drinks. However, I have started to wonder if this theme is related to a feeling she has in life outside of Wonderland.
Throughout the book, it is easy to recognize that Alice often feels lost and unsure of why certain things are happening during her adventure. Things that she is unfamiliar with occur continuously, causing her to become confused about herself and her circumstances. In chapter two, she asks “who am I then?” Along with the changes occurring in her daily life, she begins to go through many physical changes. She is confused as to why she grows and shrinks whenever she consumes certain things. It is unclear to her why she cannot stay the same size. All of these drastic changes cause her to feel different, and she is unsure how to feel about this.
After studying this text, I have questioned if Alice’s desire to remain the same size in Wonderland was also true in her real life. After all, some children find it difficult to come to terms with the fact that they cannot remain a child forever. At the age of eight, children begin to recognize a shift in how they are viewed by others. It becomes clear that they must become more independent and deal with certain issues on their own. We see this in Carroll’s book when Alice is put into a new world without the guidance of an adult. It is up to her to find her way and make her own decisions, which is not something most children enjoy doing. It is likely that Alice was being encouraged to become more independent at the time her father wrote this book, which could have caused him to incorporate this idea into his story.
It is my belief that Carroll’s inclusion of Alice’s changing height in the story is influenced by her uncertainty of growing up. This idea is visible when it is stated that “she went on growing, and growing, and very soon had to kneel down on the floor: in another minute there was not even room for this, and she tried the effect of lying down with one elbow against the door, and the other arm curled round her head.” This quote makes the reader wonder if Alice is uncomfortable with the idea of growing up so quickly. Even though she grows within minutes of eating in the book, it is likely that she feels as though she is growing at a very fast pace in real life.
Given that Lewis Carroll wrote this book for his daughter, Alice, it is quite possible that he included certain events that were relevant to her life at the time. Although he wrote about her growing in an abstract way, I believe this theme was influenced by her unease towards becoming older.
