Fantasies Fulfilled: Alice's Journeys Into Wonder And Darkness '

24 March 2014
Childhood Fantasies Fulfilled: Alice’s and Marlow’s Journeys into Wonder and Darkness At some point or other, every human being must embark upon the “journey” from a state of innocence to one of experience. The effective loss of such innocence in favor of the awareness of one’s own mortality, as well as the darkness and malevolence of the surrounding world, is an inherent aspect of the human condition. Such a transformation often occurs with the onset of adolescence, as one matures from child to adult; however, the “journey” may extend beyond the puberty stage of human development, as the mature adult continues to acquire experiences that further affect a loss of relative innocence. In the novels Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
The moral and logical quagmires in which they find themselves force them to (at least partially) adapt to, and come to terms with, the harsh and absurd “realities” of the places into which they have ventured. Encountering numerous obstacles in their travels, Alice and Marlow face continual threats to their quests to maintain a sense of innocence and search for personal identity, including: unfamiliar terrain; backwards logic; wavering faith; and maniacal tyrants. Their journeys bear an even greater resemblance to each other in the realizations that each is ultimately an inward journey, an exploration of the human spirit as each character endures tremendous hardship and adversity, be it the trials of pubescent growth and change, or a brutal colonial adventure up the Congo River and into the “heart” of the “dark continent.” It is through this last parallel between the two journeys, the spiritual examination, that Alice and Marlowe come to know themselves, to realize who they are, and what they can do—but also, most importantly, what they must and must not do in order to salvage themselves from the ravages of knowledge, awareness, and
The name itself, “Wonder”-land, connotes the journey that Alice has embarked upon to her own consciousness; a child plagued by curiosity as she grows into herself, she explores the essence of her own curiosity, or wonder. Her trip down the rabbit hole very much resembles Marlow’s venture up the river, each of them traveling into his/her mind and soul, seeking out answers to the questions of personal existence and identity; and, also like Marlow, it is through an interaction and understanding of the exterior world that she will come to possess some sense of internal meaning, or self-knowledge. A central aspect of Wonderland that emphasizes Alice’s sense of unfamiliarity is the lack of consistency in spatial/size orientation. Depending on what she consumes, Alice grows or shrinks to ridiculous proportions. This phenomenon draws an ostensible parallel to the awkward grow spurts of puberty, and draws attention to Alice’s inner feelings of confusion and discomfort in her own body. Be it the bottle and cake urging her to drink/eat them (Carroll 4-6), or the mushroom, of which “[o]ne side will make [her] grow taller, and the other side will make [her] grow shorter,” (Carroll 33), everything in this strange new world has a drastic effect on her size, and not always proportionally, evidenced as her neck grows to such lengths that