FOR THURSDAY
1) Bring to class AND post on blog (so that I have an idea about who’s focusing on what)
- at least two scenes and/or characters you want to focus on (you will need 3 for the final essay), and how you think they are connected to each other, through their symbolic components. Remember that symbols, in dreams, can be objects, characters, specific qualities of characters, behavior of the dreamer, physical representations of the dreamer, etc. Everything in a dream is substitution, so there isn’t much that doesn’t qualify as symbolic.
For my essay, I would like to include the pigeon and serpent scene from chapter 5. The specific symbols within that scene I would like to focus on are the serpent, the pigeon, and the roots of trees/banks/hedges. I focused on this scene for my paragraph, but I would like to further my understanding and analysis of the symbols. Another scene I would like to analyze is the first two pages of the chapter Alice's Evidence. I would like to compare the two scenes in order to observe Alice's growth in confidence (demonstrated by her growth in size) through the novel. The first scene demonstrates Alice's weakness to adult figures, however, at the final scene she shows defiance to the adults and stands up for herself. I would like to see the contrast in the symbolism such as her size, the King, the word "important", and the other symbols. Alice's size is a continual representation of her inner strength. The King can represent her ego trying to determine the balance between honesty and fairness. These symbols connect with the pigeon and the serpent because Alice's size symbolizes how she has achieved her inner balance between childhood and adulthood by gaining confidence. She no longer sees childhood and adulthood in extremes of the pigeon and the serpent.
ReplyDeleteI want to write about the Cheshire cat and Alice's cat Dinah. The main questions I want to solve is what do the cats represent? Why are they represented through cats? I have identified the Cheshire cat as one of Freud's animals. A character that leads the dreamer through their dream. The cat tells Alice which direction to go in to be lead to the mad hatters tea party, constantly asks her how she is getting along with different characters, and helps save her from certain situations. Lewis Carroll describes the cat as "The Cat only grinned when it saw Alice. It looked goodnatured, she thought : still it had very long claws and a great many teeth, so she felt it ought to be treated with respect."(89). This description gives the character somewhat of an authority. On the other hand Alice's Cat Dinah has no authority. Alice is constantly praising the cat, and feels like its leader. Alice takes a motherly role over her cat "and she is such a nice soft thing to nurse"(26), and then feels in the opposite position with the Cheshire cat. The two cats are opposites of each other, one controlling and the other being controlled.
ReplyDeleteIn Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Alice's back story is that her older sister gets more attention from both the girl's parents because she is a big success in the family. However, Alice is jealous of her sister and is annoyed by her because she does not get that same attention from her parents. However, instead of Alice showing this jealousy and annoyance with her sister she hides these feelings and acts super interested in her sister's life. We can even see this before the dream when Alice is studying with her sister, even though she is annoyed. This I think shows that Alice is using reaction formation because although she is jealous and annoyed by her sister, she acts like she loves and admires her sister.
ReplyDeleteThese two scenes are example of this:
"'What IS a Caucus-race?' said Alice; not that she wanted much to know" This scene is when the dodo bird is showing Alice the Caucus-race, but is obviously seems annoyed and maybe even jealous at the dodo bird because she can't race, but the bird can. However, she still wants to know about the game and makes it seem she is interested.
"'Thank you, it's a very interesting dance to watch,' said Alice, feeling very glad that it was over at last" In this scene The Mock Turtle is showing Alice how to do the Lobster Quadrille and Alice makes it seem that she is interested in learning the dance, but again she is annoyed at the Mock Turtle for showing her the dance.
Therefore, in both scenes I think that the Dodo bird and the Mock Turtle are representations of Alice's sister.
For this essay, I would like to write about Alice’s lack of parental guidance, which makes her insecure about herself. The back story, would be about how the parents only pay attention to Alice’s sister and not her. Due to these actions this would make Alice insecure with herself. The scenes I would like to use are in chapter 5 and chapter 9. The scene I would use in chapter 5 is Alice’s interaction with the caterpillar. The symbols I would use are the mushroom, the caterpillar, and the unnatural changes in Alice’s size. In this scene Alice is insecure with her size, so the caterpillar directs her to choose what size she wants to be. I wrote about this scene in my paragraph, but I would like to analyze the symbols more. The other scene I want to focus on is when Alice is talking to the duchess in chapter 9. In this scene Alice is insecure about the future. She is unsure what will happen to herself when she is around the Queen. To calm Alice down, the duchess talks to her and gives her moral support. In this scene, the duchess is portraying a motherly figure. In these two scenes I would like observe how two different characters, who act as parental figures, guide Alice through the dream, and in life.
ReplyDeleteI would like to focus on the Caterpillar scene and the scene when Alice encounters the Duchess. The Caterpillar seems to be the fatherly figure and the Duchess is a failed mother that seems to not care about her child. If the Duchess represents Alice's mother then the baby that she carries would represent Alice. The idea of "bad" mom comes in when she sings a lullaby and "giving it a violent shake at the end of every line" (39). Additionally, she "[flings] the baby" at Alice and leaves demonstrating that she doesn't care about the child. So for this essay, I want to look into the relationship Alice has with her parents in reality and how she fails to "fit in" with her family. I also want to look into the idea that Alice is using projection: she thinks her parents aren't fond of her but in reality she is trying to express her insecurities.
ReplyDeleteI want to try to write about the Tea Time scene, including the symbols of the Mad Hatter, the Dormouse (maybe), "Time," and the neurotic movement around the table. In this scene we see the Hatter demonstrating an insecure "mastery" over time. We also can see it resembling a tea party that a child would throw. I would like to explore this idea more and figure out what it means about Alice's life. I would like to look more into the Mad Hatter and write about what his odd relationship of rebellion, and love, against and with time, have to do with his underlying guilt, and how it reflects Alice's real life. I would like to also discuss the Court Scene and the Hatter's testimony, to seek out any connections.
ReplyDeleteI will also try to add my pig paragraph to the essay, seeing as I find myself writing more and more about guilt.
Scene: Tea Time, maybe the Court Scene, the baby-pig scene.
Characters: Hatter, Dormouse (maybe), the baby/pig.
Generally exploring the guilt that Alice's super ego pushes on her.
I think that the caterpillar and Alice’s transformation into a serpent are connected because both deal with the idea and conflict of maturity and growing up. Both caterpillars and serpent shed their old skin and either transform into something new or grow a new skin. In this way, it identifies with Alice in that she is maturing to another stage in her life whether she likes it or not.
ReplyDeleteCaterpillar
Represents a defense mechanism in which he shrouds the things he is scared of or unsure of in smoke but is also the one who can tell her who she is and what her path is.
Also a caterpillar which represents the idea of evolution and growing up so she may be scared of the idea that she will have to grow up one day and attempts to ignore it using other methods but eventually moves onto another life.
First encounter of changing in which she reads the labels very carefully to ensure that she does not end up like the people who got burnt/eaten
Does not want to become a story/a stupid girl
She wants to have her own definite identity and not fit into some mold
Alice’s transformation into a serpent
Perhaps this is a sign that she feels like an intruder in her own family and that she appears dangerous to others simply because of her appearance and context/background information and she is judged by that
She is trapped in this idea that she can be defined by this one feature.
Also a switch in identity.
For my essay i will include the 3 - legged table from the first chapter of the book and from what I wrote in the paragraph to establish a background for Alice’s conscious life and foundation for the troubles of her dreaming. Second, i will focus on the court the Red Queen holds for the tarts and its actually importance to Alice’s potential growth or failure. The court is symbolic of Alice’s direct ego defenses/fear of growth. Lastly, i will write about the queen herself and Alices direct ego defenses portrayed in the Red Queen. Also, how the Red Queen is a direct reflection of Alice’s willingness to react and behave to those who oppose her, outside the dream world.
ReplyDeleteI will be discussing Alice's interpretation of madness and how she uses the concept to cope with the neglect her parents have bestowed upon her. Within the mad tea party and Alice's interaction with the Cheshire cat, Alice is puzzled by the madness apparent in her dream, perhaps even feels she herself is going mad. The madness observed is a result of Alice's psyche holding onto her imagination. The word mad becomes her synonym for childish, which she uses to justify her lack of confidence. Alice has been unable to experience the childhood she so desires which leads her to "madness": an explanation for her disappointment. The Cheshire cat and tea party attendees represent Alice's subconscious fear of losing her youth, and are there to reassure herself that her fantasies are not fleeting.
ReplyDeleteThe first scene I want to discuss and focus on is when Alice goes to visit the Mock turtle in chapter 9. More specifically when she is first introduced to the Mock turtle and is ordered by the queen, right before the duchess is ordered to be beheaded. This scene is to a degree representative of Alice acknowledgement of her role in her surrounding when she chooses to stay and listen despite the fact she finds the Mock turtle dull and boring. The second scene that caught my attention is the trial in which Alice behavior completely changes, and she steals the pencil from the lizard. This scene in relation to the first show how Alice understands her role in society, and decides to act upon it. the scenes are like the cause and effect of what happens to Alice. She gives herself a certain value of self worth, and reacts according to what she thinks she should do in that position.
ReplyDeleteI would like to examine the deck of cards or the queen and king and the dynamic they have with alice. I'd particularly like to discuss the scenes where the deck of cards paint the roses and a few parts of the trial. They seem to represent a struggle Alice has with a figure of authority in her life. To me, the characters suggest that Alice is verbally abused by one parent and ignored by the other. Some symbols of particular importance are the Queen's title Queen of "hearts," the "cross-examination" of witnesses during the trial, and the relationship between the King and Queen. The two scenes and characters demonstrate a pattern of unexpected authority, where Alice is particularly aware of the situations' ridiculousness and doesn't hesitate to point them out. She exhibits triumph over the traumas the King, Queen, and cards represent, shown since she is more in touch with reality.
ReplyDeleteMy theory concerning Alice's real life is that she is emotionally abused by her single mother and teenage sisters that want her to stop behaving like a child and want her to act old enough to fend for herself. This is the reason behind her superego and objective anxiety in her fantasy as in real life, she is conditioned to feel guilty for just being a child and acting as children do. I want to take and build upon some of the ideas in my Duchess paragraph and make the argument that Alice's ego defenses, such as displacement and identifying with the aggressor, help Alice reason why her own family emotionally abuses her. The scenes/characters I plan on including are the size change in the Mouse's house passage, the Duchess and the baby pig, and the March Hare and the Hatter. Below are some of the ideas I am working with so far but am working to build stronger connections:
ReplyDeleteGrowing and shrinking in the Mouse's house: Alice takes the role of the aggressor by invading the Mouse's privacy. Gloves and fan demonstrate her playing grown up but her excessive growing display the risk that comes with such responsibility. When she says "It was much pleasanter at home...mice and rabbits" (21). She is identifying with her aggressor by taking her role and trying to make sense of the abuse. Displacement is at hand when she wishes for something she actually repels.
(Can combine these two)
Duchess and baby pig: Through the duchess and baby pig, Alice is able to identify that her mom is the reason why she feels insecure about her childlike impulsive behavior. Through the Duchess aggressive shaking she starts to identify with her aggressor as the lullaby's lyrics start off with "Beat him when he sneezes...because he knows it teases"(39) but ends saying "I beat him when he sneezes; for he can thoroughly enjoy the pepper when he pleases"(40).
March Hare and the Hatter: Representation of her teenage sisters. During the tea party, the Hatter and the Hare makes trivial statements such as "I like what I get is the same as I get what I like" (45) in order to question Alice's knowledge and make her question what is true about herself. This can be reconstruction of trauma that helps Alice find confidence in her insecurity later on in the trial when she stands up for the Knave and questions their reasoning.
The main idea that connects these few is that trying to reason her family's emotional abuse causes Alice to realize that she is not at fault for being insecure rather that her family is, which then causes her to overcome her insecurity of being and acting like a child.
For my essay I want to continue the ideas I started in my paragraph, using the Caterpillar and the Mock Turtle to prove that Alice suffered some sort of trauma in school. The connection between the two is that the Caterpillar is a symbol for the aggressor who abused Alice, while the Mock Turtle is a physical representation of Alice's internal struggle for synthesis following the traumatic event. The Mock Turtle and its backwards thoughts and actions show Alice suffering from instinctual and objective anxiety as a result of abusive behavior on part of her teacher (the Caterpillar).
ReplyDeleteFor this essay I plan focusing on the Caucus Race scene, which I wrote about in my paragraph, and the Mad Tea Party. I believe that both scenes connect because the Caucus Race represents the custody battle that her parents had over her while the Mad Tea Party demonstrates the family dynamic which lead to her parents divorce and custody battle in the first place. While the symbols in the Caucus race reconstruct the traumatic event itself, the Mad Tea Party showed the role each family members played leading to the event. In the new scene I will focus on Hatter, who shows Alice's mothers role in the family, March Hare, representing her father's role, the Dormouse, showing Alice's sister, and Alice's reaction to all three.
ReplyDeleteFor my essay, I'm going to continue the story I began in my paragraph of Alice being afraid of turning out like her sister/her fear of time.
ReplyDeletethe White Rabbit: in both the movie and the book as a symbol of Alice's struggle with time, as well as noting the differences between his signifigance in her dream in the beginning as opposed to the end. She's projecting her fear of time onto him by making his characteristics all of her fears.
Hatter: I want to discuss how Alice is his stabilizer and how he represents her stream of conciousness. He additionally has a weird obsession with time and being stuck in one place and I believe that that is a different part of her fear of time: being stuck.
Red Queen: Alice's fear of becoming like her sister is exaggerated in the Red Queen. The Queen represents Alice's most extreme fear.
Possible other symbols: '6 Impossible Things'.. point of them being mentioned in the movie rather than the book? Did Burton draw on anything from the book to put this in the movie?; the Tarts/Stealing of the Tarts... The tarts are always in the queens possession, Alice was always simply the observer to the consequences of stealing them. Do the tarts represent a part of Alice's childhood and does the Queen punishing other people for taking them really juxtapose to Alice's fear of someone taking her childhood?
I want my essay to be focused around Alice's fear of growing up, her specific fear of becoming like her sister, and her relationship with time (her fear that she's going to lose it before she realizes).
Fish-Footman - Lawyers
DeleteQueen - Her mother
Mad Hatter - Her Father
All three are related because:
Alice is dealing with her parents break up and all three characters represent those who are making the situation most difficult for her. The Queen and Alice do not get along because the Queen wants Alice to be something that she is not, and thus they are always arguing. The Mad Hatter and the Queen do not get along very well, and the Mad Hatter get along fairly well and he comforts her as if he were a parent to her. And of course the Fish-Footman represent the lawyers who are settling the divorce.
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DeleteThe two chapters I want to focus on are "The Queen’s Croquet-Ground" and "The Mock Turtle’s Story." More specifically, in the chapter "The Queen’s Croquet-Ground" I want to focus on the part where the cards are painting the flowers and the queen arrives and Alice tells the Queen that they are only a pack of cards. In the chapter "The Mock Turtle’s Story" I want to focus mainly on the scene where the Mock Turtle tells Alice his story and she keeps interrupting him until he tells her to stop and he continues telling Alice and the Gryphon about his education. I think these are connected to each other by the idea of Alice trying to break free from her family, although she keeps making mistakes, which is why she is never able to prove them wrong and show how mature she is. The symbols I want to focus on in these scenes would be the cards, the queen, the rabbit, the Mock Turtle and the Gryphon. These characters are being treated unfairly and represent different character traits Alice has. The characters deal with their issues in different ways and I want to further analyze how this shows Alice’s persona maturing by becoming brave and learning to value herself.
ReplyDeleteScene #1: (chapter 2) Alice growing and she's far from her feet
ReplyDeleteScene #2: (chapter 6) Cheshire-cat
How they are related:
Alice's feet symbolize her family and how they are so far away from her and don't know who she is because her whole family ignores her causing her to crave attention. And in the cat scene, the cat symbolizes her few interactions with her family. Once they do talk to her they don't know anything about each other and they make Alice feel awkward in her own life
The characters I want to primarily focus on are the Dutchess and the Caterpillar. Both of their first impressions on Alice resemble the possible interpretation of Alice's superego based on Einitz theory of Self. The Caterpillar and Dutchess both provide insight to seemingly thoughtless questions and actions to what should be actually perceived. In light of this analysis, the Caterpillar is the first character to question Alice's, not per say her identity, but how Alice actually perceive herself, asking "who are you?"(48) to Alice and leading her down a path of new uncertainties. The Dutchess acts like an enforcer of the message, savagely "digging her sharp little chin into Alice's shoulder"(88). The constant repetitive questions Alice receives from the caterpillar and the repetitive answers she receives from the Dutchess breaks the barrier of Alice's hesitant behavior to a more decisive one. The pressure from these characters also almost foreshadow a how Alice grows throughout her adventure through Wonderland.
ReplyDeleteThe connections I have made so far in the book all relate to Alice being pressured to take on some kind of larger role in her own household. I have come to the conclusion that her mother has abandoned the family and as a result Alice's father and older siblings expect Alice to take on additional roles. Alice is fairly young and impressionable, therefore she has become confused on who she should be at home and generally in life. Her psyche has developed specific characters and events she will go through in order to answer what her larger role in life will be. The caterpillar represents those people in her household larger than her, pressuring her to establish who she shall be in life. The white rabbit represents her struggle with time and what time will bring for her as well as a reminder that time is valuable. Also when Alice first falls down the hole, she makes references to a motherly role, so I will be sure to include that in my essay. As well as the scene where she mentions how confused she is and whether or not she changed from the time she woke up this morning to when she is currently in the dream - and she is trying to figure out who she is.
ReplyDeleteI want to write about how the Red Queen represents the pressure Alice feels to conform and to grow up with the sense of responsibility her parents expect of her. The pack of cards represents those who allow themselves to be dealt and who play along with whatever the dealer (The Queen and The Mother) expects. The characters who are not cards represent those who refuse to be dealt. They instead are the leaders who actually have the power to be dealers, but choose not to. Each of these characters represent a different rebellious thought presented by Alice's id. Her issues would be resolved when the non-playing card characters come together to overthrow the dealer.
ReplyDeleteFor my essay I would like to continue on my paragraph argument. Alice's back story is that her father rapes her continuously while the rest of the family has no idea. Alice's father threatens that if she tells the rest of the family, he will become more violent with her. Therefore, Alice has this internal conflict between her deep desire to tell her mother and her fear of her father becoming more violent. The first scene that I will be using is the same from my paragraph. I will be focusing on the golden key, the locked doors, and the three legged glass table from chapter 1. The golden key is a representation of her taking control of the penetrating object. However, the locked doors symbolize Alice's father always having the power and control, regardless of who is holding the penetrating object. The three legged glass table symbolizes the unbalance and instability throughout Alice's life. The second scene I will be focusing on is when Alice talks back to the Queen right before she returns to reality in chapter 12. I'll be using the part where the Queen tells Alice "hold your tongue!" (83) and then Alice responds with "I wo'n't!" (83). In this interaction, the Queen represents Alice's father, imposing his control over Alice by telling her to "hold her tongue" or not tell anyone about their inappropriate relationship. When Alice sticks up for herself and responds by saying she won't hold her tongue, she is taking her control back. Alice is rising against her father and creating self control again. Finally, when Alice says, "who cares for you?" she is again taking power into her own hands but also understanding that she can go and tell someone about her father because the severe nature of her fathers actions against her are events that her family will not silence her for.
ReplyDelete