Category: Schacht Fall 2018

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.

Throughout Lewis Carroll’s book Through the Looking Glass, he constantly reinforces the idea of identity. In Through the Looking Glass, Carroll not only discusses the idea of self-identity but also how objects are identified. In the passage, Alice experiences identity confusion not only with herself but with the objects around her.

For starters, before Alice even enters the wood, she considers what will become of her name when she loses it. In Alice’s mind, she will be given a new name- “almost certain to be an ugly one.” This could be Alice trying to see who she will be without her name as her identity. Once Alice finally enters the wood, she forgets what it’s even called. In fact, she wonders what it calls itself. This relates to the idea of the identity principle in mathematics and logic because for anyone to call the woods the woods, it had to originate from somewhere. Not only does this relate to the identity principle, but it also relates to self-identity. Because Alice personifies a tree, the shade, and the woods she questions the objects’ self-identity.
Once she forgets her name, Alice immediately panics. She questions her identity without having a name. To Alice, her name represents everything she is, thinks, feels, and believes. Without a name to identify herself, she no longer has a grasp of these things. Although she was determined to remember her name, she failed to identify herself.

Alice forgets her name because, according to the gnat, “further on, in the wood down there, they’ve got no names.” The question raised in this passage is focused on what names mean to people. Does it represent a person’s individual ideas, thoughts, actions, etc.? Carroll is trying to get the reader to consider this thought process, while causing the reader to have an identity crisis themselves. Alice states that it would be fun “trying to find the creature that had got [her] old name.” She most likely finds this intriguing because she is still searching for an identity that she will keep when she grows up. Alice could be implying that she will use her name loss to try and see who she will become by ‘trying on,’ so to speak, different identities. However, he excitement soon fades when she can’t remember the name of anything. She longs for the comfort of her name and her identity.

Carroll is trying to convey the fact that a person or objects name is more than just a way for other people to identify it-it’s a way that the person identifies themselves. A name is much more intimate than it seems.

In Lewis Carroll’s 1871 novel Alice Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, the theme of identity is very prevalent.  While this can be said of Carroll’s other Alice novel, one of the most interesting moments I found where identity is explored, was the scene where Alice is discussing the idea of names with a ridiculously-sized talking gnat.  The Gnat declares that names are easily changed, and that it would actually be convenient for Alice to be able to change or lose her given name.  While Alice does seem to forget her literal name when she enters the forest, I believe that names really represent identities in this sequence, which raises several important questions.  What kind of power do our names hold over us? How easy or difficult is it for us to change our names and identities? How do our names affect other people’s expectations of us?

The Gnat points out that changing one’s identity, or losing one’s name, might not be such a bad thing; but how do we proceed through life without a clear set of principles? Carroll seems to be saying that it is possible to change our names and undermine what people think of us without sacrificing our true selves, but that doesn’t mean that one should.  It is perfectly within Alice’s power, as seen by her trip through the forest with the fawn, to lose her name and all the responsibility that seems to come with it, but if she avoids the important parts of her life by constantly changing, she will be less developed in the long run.  Just because Alice could avoid her lessons doesn’t mean she should.  Throughout the novel, Alice is constantly trying to change who she is; she begins as a pawn in a fantastical game of chess with a goal of making it to the end of the chessboard to become a queen.  But if you are losing part of yourself along the way, then maybe constant changing isn’t the best course of action.  Carroll is most likely proposing that one must stay true to who they are instead of trying to change their name and identity for the sake of others.

Another major concept that Carroll explores here is the way in which our    names and identities define who we are and how they can be connected.  If Alice were to lose her name, would that make her a different person? This is a question that doesn’t seem to have a concrete answer but it is worth asking. When Alice loses her name in the forest it seems she has not gone through a significant change but the fawn she’s traveling with seems to be the exact opposite.  It is warm and friendly to her when neither of them have their names, but when they remember who they are, the fawn takes off in terror. This seems to suggest that a name and identity come with certain expectations from others, and as the gnat claims in the passage, these expectations are changed when name and identity are changed.  Without her name, Alice would not be expected to go to her lessons because without a name her identity is in question and if her identity is in question, than who is to say what defines her and what her responsibilities are.

While each of us goes through our own, unique paths toward our identity, there is a much broader, archetypal—and perhaps formulaic—, road that we follow: the road from the naiveté of childhood to adolescence, and eventually adulthood.  Though it may be somewhat of a stretch, the first and second chapters of Alice in Wonderlandappeared to me as symbolic for Alice’s path toward a new, more adult identity.  The passage I found to be most encompassing of this in the least amount of words is as follows:

‘That was a narrow escape!’ said Alice, a good deal frightened at the sudden change, but very glad to find herself still in existence; ‘and now for the garden!’ and she ran with all speed back to the little door: but, alas! the little door was shut again, and the little golden key was lying on the glass table as before, ‘and things are worse than ever,’ thought the poor child, ‘for I never was so small as this before, never! And I declare it’s too bad, that it is!’

As she said these words her foot slipped, and in another moment, splash! she was up to her chin in salt water. Her first idea was that she had somehow fallen into the sea, ‘and in that case I can go back by railway,’ she said to herself. (Alice had been to the seaside once in her life, and had come to the general conclusion, that wherever you go to on the English coast you find a number of bathing machines in the sea, some children digging in the sand with wooden spades, then a row of lodging houses, and behind them a railway station.) However, she soon made out that she was in the pool of tears which she had wept when she was nine feet high.

‘I wish I hadn’t cried so much!’ said Alice, as she swam about, trying to find her way out. ‘I shall be punished for it now, I suppose, by being drowned in my own tears! That will be a queer thing, to be sure! However, everything is queer to-day.’

As children enter adolescence, they are often “frightened at the sudden change.” Alice’s change is from very physically small to being absurdly large, then small once again.  She starts off small, like a naïve child in a much bigger, mysterious world.  Her growth to immense size represents growth to adolescence—both a transformation of her physical identity and her emotional one, as shown by her crying.  During adolescence, many experience an inflated sense of self; they are invincible, the center of their own universes, and the adults around them now appear small, insignificant, and don’t know much of anything.  Though the latter two characteristics are difficult to find in that instance in the text, Alice’s growth could still serve as a symbol for the adolescent identity.  Finally, her shrinking back to a small size represents the realization of full adulthood—they are not as “big” and invincible as the thought they were. They are a small fish in a big sea, a realization that many of us likely had upon first arriving at college. The pool of tears could represent how young adults have to reckon their new identity with their former teenage identity, dealing with the mistakes and remnants of their former life. As the story progresses thereafter, Alice takes on a more mature and adult persona in comparison to the nonsense surrounding her.

This interpretation of the scene forces us to question the degree to which our identities are formulaic, similar to how we asked in class how formulaic texts in a specific genre are.  Interestingly, almost all texts from Shakespeare to the modern age follow a broad formula: roughly eighty percent of the word use in any given text includes simple words like “of,” “it,” “and,” and so on, while the remaining twenty percent is devoted to more complex and scarce words.  If this rule of thumb is true, similar to the broad identity changes from childhood to adulthood, the remaining twenty percent is what gives a text or even a person their identity and individuality.  This shows just how potent the remaining share of both words and experiences are to give each individual—text or person—their own identity. While my passage shows the broader, archetypal element in Alice’s identity, the defining and individual elements of her identity are explored more potently later in the text.

Harlem Renaissance poet, Claude McKay, presents the poem The White House on the identity struggles that oppressed Americans often face. An important issue that McKay tries to solve in this poem is how a disheartened person should feel about being an outcast. The lens of this poem examines how a member of American society feels, when they are excluded from the benefits that are offered to only some. Not only does it raise the question of what it means to be an American, but how an individual should deal with the bitterness of being excluded. Like an adolescent student feeling excluded in the school cafeteria, or being rejected membership in an exclusive club; we all have felt what it’s like to feel left out. In this case, however, the author takes it from the perspective of physically being the country of America, yet still feeling as an outcast. This is more similar to the individual who has gained membership into a club or sports team, yet is not fully accepted into the social aspect of it. Often times, this can be worse for us since we constantly work to be accepted by our peers, and having this dynamic can seriously damage our self-esteem.

Despite the unfortunate situation of many Americans not feeling that they belong to the nation’s identity, due to how they are treated, McKay offers an optimistic approach to dealing with this as an individual. He states that when society shuts its metaphorical door of opportunity and acceptance to certain people, they are compelled to be “sharp as steel with discontent.” He recognizes that nobody wants to be in this situation, yet if they are, then they have the right to be upset while keeping a level of composure in expressing their sentiments. By telling the reader, specifically one who relates to the conflicts presented, the author is creating an identity for certain Americans. It is an identity in which he gives instructions for how to attain that specific identity. Like a coach who instills values of teamwork within the athletes, McKay is attempting to give a new identity to individuals who are disheartened with being an outcast. Even if that individual experiences the “potent poison” of discrimination, the author hope to give such people an identity that he aligns with.

 

When we look at how identity can be expressed, it is easy to overlook how identity can easily be erased from others. When one group of people attempts to disenfranchise the identity of another, the effects can be disastrous. McKay realizes what it is like to be an immigrant in America, being able to establish here but not accepted by people around you. The frustrations and anger that this injustice brings to many is more than people can comprehend, but McKay offers advice to mitigate these feelings. He acknowledges that its okay to feel this way, but that one’s anger shouldn’t be a roadblock in finding their true identity. If we feel oppressed, we are not going to be comfortable expressing ourselves. The best solution for this, according to McKay, is to stay strong but remain careful not fight the fire of hate with more negativity. By keeping a peaceful approach, like Mahatma Ghandi or Martin Luther King Jr., the fire will eventually burn out. That is the identity that he hopes we will embrace for a better future.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11/11-h/11-h.htm

Throughout Alice in Wonderland, Alice goes through multiple changes that change the way she views herself and the world, such as drastically changing size. She, of course, finds this very confusing and unusual, and holds these opinions up to the point where she meets the caterpillar in Chapter v. Advice from a Caterpillar. Here, she is confronted by someone, the Caterpillar, who believes that nothing she says it out of the ordinary, and that there is nothing wrong with her situation. It’s at this point that we can see the differences in mindsets of various people can change how we view our identity, as we see if the Caterpillar had been going through the same changes he would’ve felt no significant change in his identity.

“‘Well, perhaps you haven’t found it so yet,’ said Alice; ‘but when you have to turn into a chrysalis—you will some day, you know—and then after that into a butterfly, I should think you’ll feel it a little queer, won’t you?’

‘Not a bit,’ said the Caterpillar.

‘Well, perhaps your feelings may be different,’ said Alice; ‘all I know is, it would feel very queer to me.’”

This shows the influence of how we feel about different things on how we view our identity, and the identity of others.

In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, when Alice is trying to work out who she is, she attempts to recite a poem she had learned in school. She says, “the words did not come as they used to do” meaning that the words she did manage to recite were not the correct words to the poem. Alice says:

 ‘How doth the little crocodile
      Improve his shining tail,
     And pour the waters of the Nile
      On every golden scale!

     ‘How cheerfully he seems to grin,
      How neatly spread his claws,
     And welcome little fishes in
      With gently smiling jaws!’

The actual poem is “How Doth the Little Busy Bee” by Isaac Watts. The poem talks about how the busy little bee build her home, laboring all the time. In the third stanza, Watts says, “In works of labor or of skill, I would be busy too; For Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do.” During this time, it was a common belief that if children did not have something to do, Satan would be lurking in the shadows and would tempt them to do something sinful.

This reminded me of the 1647 Old Deluder Act implemented to keep people away from sin, and furthermore, to establish grammar schools for children to be taught at. I learned about this in my Social Foundations of Education class in the context of setting up schools to educate the youth, so it interested me to see this sort of reference in a book written in 1865.

It really made think about the way children were perceived: as something that is corruptible by the wicked ways of Satan. Poems like these, and other catechisms made a way for children to remember what do do and how to act, in a way that is moral and good.

Singer. Piano Player. Princess. Ice Skater. Basketball Star. Missionary. Elementary Teacher. These are all jobs that throughout my life I have at some point wanted to have. Growing up, I have questioned what I want to do with my life several times, and looking back I realize some things were not ideal (especially when you are a mediocre piano player, ice skater and terrible at basketball). This quest for what I want to do with my life was a part of me growing up and discovering my identity. The passage I chose for my blog post  is from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.  It raises the question of whether a child can know his or her identity.

 

To give you some context for the passage I chose, Alice has just been awoken from her dream of Wonderland by her older sister. Realizing Wonderland was all a dream, she recounts her remarkable experience to her sister, and then Alice runs off. This leaves Alice’s sister thinking of the magic of Wonderland, and the wonder of dreams. The difference between Alice’s and her sister’s ideas of Wonderland was Alice’s sister knew that none of it was real when she was told the adventure.

 

The passage says: “Lastly, she pictured to herself how this same little sister of hers would, in the after-time, be herself a grown woman; and how she would keep, through all her riper years, the simple and loving heart of her childhood: and how she would gather about her other little children, and make their eyes bright and eager with many a strange tale, perhaps even with the dream of Wonderland of long ago: and how she would feel with all their simple sorrows, and find a pleasure in all their simple joys, remembering her own child-life, and the happy summer days.”

 

This passage is the last sentence in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, yet it shows a view of Alice’s “identity shattering journey”  that is completely different from the rest of the book. When Alice tells her sister the dream, Alice thinks it is confounding, confusing and yet something incredible. Alice’s sister’s response is completely different though. Alice’s sister finds Alice’s dream as a strange tale from a simple child’s perspective. In this one sentence, Alice’s whole quest to discover her identity is completely undermined. Her sister imagines Alice growing up and just mystifying others with stories from her childhood. This diminishes Alice’s search for identity by making it sound like her thoughts were just simply crazy random thoughts that have no real meaning. At some point you have to grow up and then you will figure out your identity.

 

The question of can a child figure out their identity, has a suggested answer in this passage. No. The child cannot come to full  terms with their identity because they are still growing up to be the person they are meant to be and until they grow up they can not know what their identity truly is, and even then in my personal experience it can constantly change. As your life progresses you are constantly discovering more about you. So therefore Carol suggests in this sentence, you cannot understand your identity fully as a child. 

Although the last sentence of a book  is often overlooked if you spend time looking at it you can walk away with a different perspective from the book. This is why I chose this passage. It is important to take the time to read every part of the book including the last sentence.

For this blog post, I chose a passage from Alice Through The Looking Glass chapter 4, in which Alice discusses the possibility of being a figment of imagination in the mind of the Red King.

“He’s dreaming now,” said Tweedledee: “and what do you think he’s dreaming about?”
Alice said “Nobody can guess that.”
“Why, about you!” Tweedledee exclaimed, clapping his hands triumphantly. “And if he left off dreaming about you, where do you suppose you’d be?”
“Where I am now, of course,” said Alice.
“Not you!” Tweedledee retorted contemptuously. “You’d be nowhere. Why, you’re only a sort of thing in his dream!”
“If that there King was to wake,” added Tweedledum, “you’d go out – bang! – just like a candle!”

This passage clearly discusses the idea of identity in an interesting, meta/fourth wall breaking way. The passage raises an important, slightly paradoxical question about identity: how do I know I exist? This passage basically makes us as readers question whether we are actually “real”, and if we are who we think we are. The passage raises this question through it’s use of dialogue between Alice, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, where the three clearly discuss what would happen if the king were to awake–coming upon the conclusion that Alice herself would cease to exist as she may only be a figment of the king’s imagination. Alice believes that she is herself, and that she is real. However, Tweedledee and Tweedledum tell her otherwise, saying that she is merely a dream in the mind of the Red King. This expertly raises the question of “How do I  know I exist?” because it makes the reader think if maybe they themselves are a figment of imagination, without them even realizing. I believe the reason this is done is that Lewis Carroll wanted the reader to read this passage, stop, and really make them think. This was his way of messing with the readers’ heads in a clever, fun way. This might also have been done purely as a way for Carroll to make readers aware that their minds could be so much more open and ready to perceive things if they really try. I believe this might also be a reason because the idea of being a figment of someone’s imagination is so thought-provoking and crazy that it really makes the reader “expand their thoughts” as a way to truly wrap their heads around the idea.

Another thing involving the aforementioned question that the passage does is toy with it in a way that proves the question is nearly impossible to answer. The passage does this once again through the exchanges of Alice and her two companions. Basically, what can be alluded to through this chunk of text is that Alice really has no way of knowing if she is herself, unless the king wakes up, in which case she STILL wouldn’t know, as she would cease to exist and become literally nothing. This proves that the question is pretty much impossible to answer because: how would you truly find out you were real? There’s not much one can do in a situation like this and hypothetically, if the person who “created” you woke up, you’d vanish and never find your answer. The passage utilizes the witty remarks from Tweedledee and Tweedledum  and Alice’s confusion as a clever way to drive this point home; Alice doesn’t understand that she could be a dream, but Tweedledee/Tweedledum explain that it is very possible, but that the only way to know is for the King to wake up, in which case Alice goes POOF!

Overall, this passage does a very good job of raising an unanswerable, totally mind-bending question as well as providing clever dialogue to toy with the reader and with the idea that the question will inevitably, and perhaps agonizingly, remain unanswered.