Thursday, October 7, 2010

Alice in Wonderland

Title: Alice in Wonderland
Publisher: Walt Disney Enterprises, Inc.: Grolier Books, 2000
ISBN: 0-7172-8909-5

As a child I always loved Disney stories and all the imagination and excitement that comes along with reading them. when I was a child my mother read several stories to me such as "The Little Mermaid", Cinderella, and "Snow-White and the Seven Dwarfs" but the one that stuck out the most and perhaps became my all time favorite book was "Alice in Wonderland". As a child I would get lost in a fairytale story. I would sit for hours and reenact the story by taking on different roles of the characters.
    In my opinion, fairy tales can be a  controversial issue. Some stories have been past down from generation to generation and the writing has changed a bit over the years. Most fairytale stories (the ones that have been revised) are meant to show children the value and importance of imagination and creativity, but I feel some send a bad message. For example, throughout the story of Alice in Wonderland Alice goes through a series of strange ordeals. She falls through a rabbit hole after falling asleep and gets thrown into a world where down is up and up is down. She comes to a small door which has a talking doorknob. It becomes clear that Alice is a young girl who has vivid dreams of nonsense things, such as talking animals, insects such as a caterpillar who smokes and she also meets an evil queen who wants to cut off her head! I believe for a young child this may seem frightening.
    Memorable songs and whimsical escapades highlight Alice's journey. As the story progresses Alice becomes more curious of this strange world and decides to investigate the world her mind has created. I guess that's why its called Wonderland! After getting into trouble with the evil Queen of Hearts, she tries desperately to escape this strange nonsense world. Alice runs as fast as she can for the small door from which she came. She sees herself through the keyhole fast asleep, and realizes that everything she has experienced was a figment of her imagination.
    There are so many fairytale stories that have hidden meanings and underlining themes. In most fairytale stories today, children experience worlds that would never exist in real life. It is up to children to distinguish between fantasy and reality. Even though fairytales are widely interchangeable and popular among children, it is up to adults to help children realize the characters in the stories are not real. Fairytale stories were not written to teach lessons. The story of Alice in Wonderland plays with logic and has left a lasting impression on children and adults everywhere. This classic story is full of philosophy and it will always be my favorite fairytale story.

1 comment:

  1. I must say, Alice in Wonderland was not one of my favorites as a child, but I have grown to enjoy it as an adult. I think that the reason it wasn't one of my favorites was because the story had so much going on, like you said with the nonsense things. I do know that my niece enjoys the story very much and the movies even better, even though I think the newest movie comes across as kind of scary. As far as fairy tales go, this one would definitely fall into that category because of its 'magical' aspects and characters. It is definitely an attention grabbing story that kids would enjoy!

    ReplyDelete