Alice in Wonderland For the CSET

to read the bottle before she drinks it. She knows the simple rule in this case, and knows well enough to avoid the label “poison.”

Another theme is that of a change and growing up. Alice talks to herself when she is stuck in the house, and resolves to write a book about her strange adventures when she is grown up, but then realizes mournfully that she is “grown up” already, in terms of size. But Alice’s size is juxtaposed to her naïve comments and worries; these moments emphasize that growing up is

more than a matter of size. The conversation between Alice and the Caterpillar brings into focus the themes of change and growing up; for the Caterpillar, for whom dramatic transformation is a natural part of life, change is neither upsetting nor surprising. He is unshakably calm, with the exception of when Alice complains of being only three inches tall (the Caterpillar is exactly three inches tall). To survive in Wonderland, one must change (learn rules) and transformation (physical size), and the Caterpillar understands that Alice is trying to learn this. In the final chapter Alice does finally learn this. Alice makes enemies of the Card Court because she refuses to play their games as they want her to; in a book where Alice learns game after game, this final game is one where Alice must learn the rules but then subvert them. In refusing to be bound by the unjust proceedings of the court, she comes into her own as a developed person with a sense of justice and a capacity for independent thought.

The illogic of language and a child’s difficulty at so learning, as well as the relationship between sense, nonsense, and words is an important theme of the book. At one point, Alice protests that she says what she means, or at least, she means what she says. She insists that the two are the same thing. But the creatures correct, using examples of similar flipped sentences where the meanings are totally different. (Example: “I like what I get” and “I get what I like.”)

The Character Alice

Alice is characterized as a bright child who often says or does foolish things; in other words, Alice has much in common with any child who is trying to behave like someone older than she is. Her blunders come about because of unfamiliarity rather than stupidity. She is also an unusually conscientious child; note the moment when she is falling down the hall, and she puts