As Dougill explains in Oxford in English Literature, Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland is a close parallel to a student's life at the University (in particular, Oxford, but UT applies as well). Charles Dodgson "lived all his adult life"[i] at Christ Church (an Oxford College) — first as a student then as a fellow. As the head of the college’s daughter, little Alice Liddell would have recognized many of the people and places that appear in the text are directly related to people and places at Christ Church. This considered many correlations can be made to our life as freshman entering a university and Alice’s adventures in Wonderland and in the Looking Glass.
The most obvious of these similarities is Alice’s fall down the rabbit hole, akin to our spiraling fall into college life and the “emotional distance involved”[ii] in being sepa
rated from everything we have known and “plunged into a peculiar world with its own rules, its own logic, and its own language—the university in altered guise.”[iii] But the small detail in her fall that I find interesting is the incident with the “ORANGE MARMALADE.”[iv] Alice picks it up off of the shelf thinking to find a delicious treat within the jar, but just as we open our refrigerators as freshman we are “disappointed”[v] to find it empty. This is reminiscent of our transformation to college students; we are still use to our parents stocking our food supplies. We realize that now, among all the other responsibilities that we have thrust upon us in our new found “freedom” we have to find a way to feed ourselves. As Alice longed to become a queen but then found that the crown was actually “very heavy,”[vi] we are realizing that the freedom we longed for while living with our parents can actually be somewhat of a burden. When I return home to my parent’s house the small nagging things my mother does that use to drive me crazy are now a comfort. Her determination to still treat me as a child even as I outgrow my teen years is strangely encouraging. I now prefer home cooked meals to eating out and actually listen to my father’s advice. After even a few weeks, I have realized—much like Alice—that “it was much more pleasant at home... I almost wish I hadn’t gone down that rabbit hole.”[vii]
rated from everything we have known and “plunged into a peculiar world with its own rules, its own logic, and its own language—the university in altered guise.”[iii] But the small detail in her fall that I find interesting is the incident with the “ORANGE MARMALADE.”[iv] Alice picks it up off of the shelf thinking to find a delicious treat within the jar, but just as we open our refrigerators as freshman we are “disappointed”[v] to find it empty. This is reminiscent of our transformation to college students; we are still use to our parents stocking our food supplies. We realize that now, among all the other responsibilities that we have thrust upon us in our new found “freedom” we have to find a way to feed ourselves. As Alice longed to become a queen but then found that the crown was actually “very heavy,”[vi] we are realizing that the freedom we longed for while living with our parents can actually be somewhat of a burden. When I return home to my parent’s house the small nagging things my mother does that use to drive me crazy are now a comfort. Her determination to still treat me as a child even as I outgrow my teen years is strangely encouraging. I now prefer home cooked meals to eating out and actually listen to my father’s advice. After even a few weeks, I have realized—much like Alice—that “it was much more pleasant at home... I almost wish I hadn’t gone down that rabbit hole.”[vii]
Alice’s inability to recite any of her lessons correctly is another curious incident. While in Wonderland she complains to the caterpillar that “I can’t remember things as I used.”[viii] This correlates to the idea put forth by Dougill that “It doesn’t matter what the professor teaches, it’s what the place teaches, it’s the young spirit that breathes in the hearts of those who are taught.”[ix] Thus we are brought back to the caterpillar’s original question to Alice, “Who are you?”[x] This is a question that plagues both Alice (“Who in the world am I?”[xi]) and us as college freshman. With pressure to decide what we want to do with our life and what to major in to meet that end, we are often overwhelmed. We would do well to take a valuable lesson from Dougill and Carroll and simply learn from our surroundings and “stay here”[xii] until we figure it out.
All in all we can draw endless similarities between Lewis Carroll’s Alice and our own experiences here at the university. But on a lighter note, the one I identify the most with is Alice missing Dinah, her cat. I miss my own Patchis very much…__________________________________
[i] Anthology p.671 (John Dougill, on Dodgson’s Oxford, in Oxford in English Literature, p. 127)
[ii] Anthology p.675 (John Dougill, on Dodgson’s Oxford, in Oxford in English Literature, p. 131)
[iii] Anthology p.672 (John Dougill, on Dodgson’s Oxford, in Oxford in English Literature, p. 126)
[iv] Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, in The Annotated Alice, annotated by Martin Gardner (New York, Norton, 2000) 13
[v] Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 13
[vi] Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There in The Annotated Alice, annotated by Martin Gardner (New York, Norton, 2000) 248
[vii] Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 39
[viii] Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 49
[ix] Anthology p.616 (John Dougill, Oxford in English Literature, p. 170)
[x] Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 47
[xi] Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 23
[xii] Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 24
[ii] Anthology p.675 (John Dougill, on Dodgson’s Oxford, in Oxford in English Literature, p. 131)
[iii] Anthology p.672 (John Dougill, on Dodgson’s Oxford, in Oxford in English Literature, p. 126)
[iv] Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, in The Annotated Alice, annotated by Martin Gardner (New York, Norton, 2000) 13
[v] Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 13
[vi] Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There in The Annotated Alice, annotated by Martin Gardner (New York, Norton, 2000) 248
[vii] Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 39
[viii] Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 49
[ix] Anthology p.616 (John Dougill, Oxford in English Literature, p. 170)
[x] Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 47
[xi] Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 23
[xii] Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 24
