Alice+in+Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll


 * Content:**

In this book, you can find a lot of imagination and fantasies. For example, the smiling Chershire Cat, the mad Hatter, The Queen of Heart and the March Hare. All creatures that Alice met in Wonderland are regarded as 'mad' and 'non-sense'. Alice encounters physical growth throughout her adventure by eating a delicious cake, a mushroom, and drinking a bottle written 'drink me'.


 * Topic of the book**
 * 1) the idea of time (the clock that the March Hare wears in the Tea Party always show the same time: 3:30 which is the rest time for labour at that period of time)
 * 2) identity (think about who we are)
 * 3) growing up
 * 4) dream and reality
 * 5) curiosity


 * Textual meaning of the book:**
 * uses third person omniscient point of view (the narrator knows the thoughts and feelings of all the characters in the story
 * the interpretation of the book is opened to any individuals and you will get another insight from the book from time to time
 * involves songs and poems in the book (e.g. Twinkle Twinkle little Star' and the song 'The Queen of Hearts' is an actual nursery rhyme
 * involves different areas of knowledge, the most prominent one is Philosophy. The others include politics, mathematics, fantasy and reality, prejudices and discrimination (in Victorian Time), etc.

1. Identity issue** > (e.g. in Chapter 5: ' Advice from a catepillar': The Catepillar asked Alice 'who are you?' and Alice commented that ' I - I hardly know, sir, just at present, at least I know who I was when I got up this morning - but I think I must have been changed several times since then.')
 * Social meaning of the book:
 * In Wonderland, Alice struggles with the importance and instability of personal identity. She is constantly ordered to identify herself by the creatures she meets, but actually she doubts about her own identity as well.
 * The above conversation between the Catepillar and Alice can reveal the struggle of identity of some groups of growing teens or even adult. Sometimes people lost their identity or they don't know who they are during the time they are growing up or at some points of life. Asking ourselve who we are can help us understanding ourselves better.
 * This 'identity' issue also reminds me the book 'Sophie's World' by Jostein Gaarder, a philosopher. This book is about a girl who begins a strange correspondence course in Philosophy and she receives a letter that contains a few questions. Later in the day she gets another post describing the dieas of a philosopher who dealt with the issue raised by the question. And the first question that Sophie got is 'Who are you?'. Sophie stands in front of the mirror for a long time but she doesn't have the answer.


 * 2. The idea of 'Growing Up'**
 * The author tries to describe how a child sees adult world from the book, including all of the rules in the society that people set for themselves
 * In one of the lines, Alice thought 'Shall I never get any older than I am now? That'll be a comfort. One way never to be an old woman but then always to have lessons to learn! Oh! I shouldn't like THAT!'
 * Alice faces a world with different ways of living and sets of mind in Wonderland, e.g. the Duchess who is determined to find a moral in everything.
 * Near the end, Alice starts to understand the rules and creatures in Wonderland. She can tell the act of the Queen of Hearts is 'non-sense'. This shows that Alice finally has adapted the adult life and lost her imagination comes with childhood. She also notices the soldiers of the Queens of Hearts are only 'a pack of cards' and she doesn't afraid of them. Here, it shows that Alice is too mature to stay in the world of children. She needs to wake up and enters the world of adults


 * Cultural meaning of the book**
 * historical background of the book is in Victorian England world.
 * Alice interacts with creatures and objects that normally happens in her Victorian World.
 * The code of behaviour is corresponding to Victorian gentleman.
 * The definition of gentleman is somehow related to a certain type of education.
 * Alice is well-educated as we can find that she consistently recalls the lessons she learnt to show that she is well-educated.


 * Grade/Course that I would teach this text**

(In Hong Kong): Secondary One or Two (equivalent to Grade 7 or 8 in Ontario)

I suggest this could be taught in Philosophy Course (HZPOA) or ESL-D class


 * Activities/ assignment I could use when teaching this text**


 * write an imaginary story about their own adventure with illustration
 * rewrite the ending or one of the chapters of Alice
 * Think of the question 'who am I' and write a short passage about that


 * Challenges that I found in teaching this text in Hong Kong or ESL classes in Ontario**

As it is written in old English, vocabulary is really difficult for students to comprehend the meaning of the story. Students may find it discouraging when they read as they may need to look up the dictionary all the time.

In this case, teacher can start by showing the movie or cartoon before getting into the novel. Or the teacher could also print the script to students so that they can learn phrasal expressions used in the book.

(Alyson's suggestion: using the translation which is first language of students for students to read)


 * Finally**

It is good for teachers to keep their sense of imagination as a child and this will be one of the ways that we understand our students better!

Thank you!