Alice grew up in an side, upper class household. She studied lessons in History, English, Math, Etiquette, and Science. Alice spent the majority of her adolescent hear learning how to adapt and behave in a Victorian society. However, when Alice is thr take into Wonderland, everything she had learned is no longer applicable. In such a situation, closely people would try to adapt to the standards of the bare-assed society, but Alice does no such thing. She feels the norms of Wonderland are against her beliefs, and the inhabitants refuse to conform to the way of life that Alice once knew. Alice does non blend in to the life in Wonderland and she refuses to make the changes necessary to do so. The English society that Alice becomed in was an imperialisticic one. Because of this, she attempts to carry this idea out in Wonderland. The important reason that Alice did non conform to the new society is because they do not fit what she was taught. The Character Alice in Alice in Wonderland and through with(predicate) the Looking Glass is an imperialist who views the citizens of Wonderland inferior and exoticizes them due to ethnocentrism.
throughout the romance, Alice shows a soul of entitlement, a characteristic of imperialists. The audience is shown this not only in specific actions of Alice but by her universal attitude in Wonderland. In one of the first scenes of Alice in Wonderland, Alice falls down the Rabbit hole and is met by a tiny door that she is much to big to fit through. She is in any case greeted by a table with a bottle that says, ? salute me.? and a cake that says ?Eat me.? Alice helps herself to the food without any image as to who they belong to. This shows Alice not caring for the rights of people who live in Wonderland. She is taking it for herself. An early(a) act of entitlement came when the cigarette summoned for her servants heads to be chopped off after painting the roses the wrong colors. Alice takes it upon herself to reverse the Queen and hide the servants from their punishment. In her country, this would be an act of treason- a terrible crime. However, Alice?s self proclaimed entitlement makes overriding the Queen?s command in Wonderland easy. ace of the much pernicious instances of Alice?s idea of entitlement is the fact that she walks around everywhere in Wonderland without any permission. For instance, in the scene of the Frog and the Footman, she gets annoyed by both characters, walks past them, and opens the door of a private residence. This is some other act that would be considered illegal in her native land.
not only can Alice be viewed as an imperialist by her entitlement issue, but you can teach it by the way she is incessantly belittling the citizens of Wonderland. by means ofout the entire novel, Alice refers to the organisms as ?creatures?. The word ?creatures? has a negative connotation with it and is rather demeaning to the in separateigent inhabitants of Wonderland. It not only belittles the citizens, but it places them beneath Alice who never once refers to herself as a creature. This word alone places humans at the overstep of Alice?s animal hierarchy. Specific events where Alice belittles the citizens are the conversations with the caterpillar and the imbalanced Hatter teatime cut offy. While talking to the caterpillar, Alice places him immediately in the role of ?the other? (in terms of Orientalism) in the scene. He symbolizes the other by being foreign compared to other Wonderland citizens and having traits regarded as substance Eastern (his accent and hookah). Alice tries to understand him at first; discussing metabolism with the caterpillar in an attempt to reach a earthy ground since all caterpillars go through this in Alice?s world.. Alice then gets frustrated by him because he refuses to be savvy (or dominated) by her. She attempts to read his feelings by using an analogy of her own feelings. She does this to try and impose her feelings on to him much like an imperialist will try to impose their culture on others. When it does not work, Alice resorts to her favorite defense mechanism: making her opponent look smaller and less in proclaimigent than her. John Carroll shows this mechanism in the dialogue: ? ?Well perhaps your feelings may be different,? tell Alice: ?all I know I, it would feel very mollycoddle to me.??You!? said the caterpillar contemptuously. ?Who are you??Which brought them back again to the runner of the conversation. Alice felt a little irritated at the computed tomography?s making such very short remarks, and she pull herself up and said, very gravely, ?I think you ought to tell me who you are, first.?? (Carroll, p68)At the tea party, Alice is told jokes and riddles by the Mad Hatter. Alice, who eventually gives up trying to common fig tree them out, asks for the answers. The Mad Hatter does not know them, and Alice, instead of being a polite guest tells him he should never tell jokes if he does not know the answers to them. This is belittling to the Hatter and is in addition not appropriate for a self- invited guest. Alice is also belittling to the Wonderland beings with her uninterrupted corrections on etiquette. An instance of this is with the door mouse character. Alice was asked to tell a story by the mouse and the mouse informs her that he was not entertained by it. Alice responds with the quote, ?Be civil or finish your own story.? This quote shows Alice?s imperialistic tendencies by her being an intruder and yet correcting the inhabitants.
Part of the reason Alice is so rude to the Wonderland beings is because throughout the whole story, she uses a very ethnocentric view point. This ethnocentrism is what causes Alice to exoticize the beings and view them as inferior. Alice in Wonderland as salubrious as Through the Looking Glass, play on manner of speaking. Alice comes to the new land with English ideas and principles.
She is utterly baffled in Wonderland when words and events have different meanings than the ones they hold in England. An instance of this is the forgather race. This is one of the first interactions Alice has with Wonderland. She enters with the ethnocentric view that a Wonderland forgather race will be the equal as an English caucus race. When the caucus race does not follow the same rules as the English one, Alice is frustrated and decides it is nonsensical. The croquet match is interchangeable to the caucus race, only this time Alice enters saying, ?I?ll manage break down this time (Carroll p.104) .? What Alice Manages to do is assimilate Wonderland?s ?croquet? to England?s ?croquet?. She judges it only to be a tight and impossible version of the English one and misinterprets the Queen?s telephone line of ?Off with his head!?. In Wonderland, the previous line is more likely part of the game, rather than an outside part (seeing that no one actually gets their head chopped off). One more example of Alice?s ethnocentric view is in the trial scene with the Mock Turtle. Because it does not follow the confine up of the English court system, Alice decides it is an invalid system.
One of the more imperialistic notions of Alice is her obsession of the rules of Wonderland. As Daniel Bivona points out, ? Carroll renders a world organised by gamelike social structures in which ascendency of the game promises mastery of others.? (Bivona p.144) Throughout the entire novel, the audience sees Alice struggle with the rules of Wonderland like in the Caucus race, Tea Party, Croquet, and trial scene. Alice, as the imperialist, gets frustrated when the rules do not work in her favor. Much like an imperialist, and the infant that she is.- she throws tantrums and tries to gain power.
Alice in Wonderland as well as Through the Looking Glass can be looked at from many angles. Alice can be shown as coming of age novel or the story can be shown on a psychological/political piece . Through this latter interpretation however, Alice can be shown as an imperialist through her sense of entitlement, her belittling of the Wonderland beings, as well as her ethnocentrism and obsession with taking the ?games? of Wonderland. The audience can receive a very dire image of Alice through this interpretation and they can also see a very unsuccessful imperialist.
BIBLIOGRAPHYBivona, Daniel. Alice the Child-Imperialist and the Games of Wonderland. Nineteenth-Century Literature 41 (1986): 143-71.
Carroll, Lewis. Alices Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. New York: New American Library, 2000.
Lennys Alice in Wonderland site. 31 Mar. 2009
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