Alice's adventures in Wonderland

Parody in "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll

In 1865, writer Lewis Carroll published the children's story, "Alice's adventures in Wonderland" using a pseudonym. The reason behind this is because of the seemingly radical depiction of the politics of the Victorian era, the prevailing political and social structure in his society for in the nineteenth century. More than a simple yet interesting children's story, "Alice's adventures in Wonderland" is actually a parody of the real-life events surrounding Carroll's society during the period. The literary work, evidently, reflects and criticizes the rigid conservatism of 19th century society.

Pushing forth Carroll's objective in writing "Alice's," one of the devices that the author used to convey his criticism of the socio-political structure of 19th century society is through symbolism. Utilizing the symbol of Alice's shifts from growing to shrinking and vice-versa throughout the story, Carroll demonstrates the various perspectives his protagonist experiences. As a small person, Alice feels inadequate and cannot do things the way she wanted them to be. As a giant, meanwhile, Alice expresses both amazement and irritation: she is amazed by the power and control she has over the creatures of Wonderland, and irritated because as a giant, she always clashes against the "authorities" in Wonderland, particularly the Queen of Hearts. These reflects demonstrate how Carroll's attitude towards grown-ups and growing up is jaded -- that is, being a "giant" apparently shows the 'corruption' of one's values as well -- and Alice's character reflects this by returning to being a child after gathering her courage to antagonize the Queen of Hearts.

Instances showing Carroll's theme of corruption of an individual's values as one grows older -- that is, criticism of grown-ups, is illustrated in his symbolic depiction of the antagonism between mice and cats, the mice being the poor individuals in the society, while the cats representing the elite class of the society. The natural hatred between mice and cats is reflected in the mouse's expressed anguish against Alice's amazed narrative of cats in her world: "Let us get to the shore, and then I'll tell you my history, and you'll understand why it is I hate cats and dogs." This simple line carries with the weight of the history of social inequality: Carroll endeavors his readers to look into history how inequality has become a long tradition encouraged and perpetuated in human society by people with self-interests. In this example, grown-ups become symbols for the wealthy people who continually oppress the poor in order to gain control over society.