Welcome
to the Splendid Wonderland!
Well, that was the beautiful land of Oz! I'm a little partial to
it
myself. In a moment we will be met by the White Rabbit, whom we
will follow down the rabbit hole. Oh, there he is now! Isn't he
dressed quite well? His little jacket and pocket watch is very
fitting for the little rodent. Watch your step...here we go!
Down, down to Wonderland! Pay attention to all the beautiful artwork on
the walls and the peculiar pieces of furniture as we fall. See,
it's not so bad of a fall! We will land in Alice's pool of tears and
swim through the door over there, then we will proceed with the tour of
our most peculiar land yet!
Wait,
that's a peculiar shape, even for Wonderland! It's
a strange quarter moon shape with two tiny glowing dots, almost as
if...Wait! It's the Cheshire Cat! Hello Cat! How is the invisibility
today?
Cheshire Cat: "Hello, Locasta. I was just 'dropping' in to say
hello to your new group."
We have just fallen through the rabbit hole and were following the
White Rabbit but, looking around, I think we may have lost him! Do you
know where he may have gone?
Cat: "Well, seeing as we're all mad, I haven't the slightest.
Perhaps you should look somewhere you least expect. Wherever he is, he
is sure to be punctual."
Ah yes, that is true, the White Rabbit is always on time. Where do you
suggest we visit during our stay in Wonderland, Cheshire Cat?
Cat: "You could visit the Duchess. She is always ready to meet
new
people, unless of course, there is pepper involved."
Pepper? What does that have to do anything?
Cat: "When the silly little Alice first met the Duchess, her cook was
making soup and she used too much pepper! The Duchess was sneezing all
over the place, which made her very angry. She was so angry that
she
made her baby miserable too."
Her baby?
Cat: "Oh yeah, you know, the one that turned into a pig. Alice took the
baby when it cried from all the shaking and yelling the Duchess was
doing. The longer she held it, the uglier it got. Alice
thought it was a little pig-faced to begin with, but you know how
people are, no one ever says 'my, what an ugly child you have!' or
anything of that sort. So when the child's little hands turned
into hooves, Alice was a bit surprised. The pig squirmed out of
her arms and ran off!"
That must have been a sight!
Cat: "Only for those who are not used to madness of Wonderland."
Where can we find the Duchess now?
Cat: "The Queen has had her arrested! Her trial will begin in an hour
or so, so I am off! I suppose that is where you will find the White
Rabbit as well. Ta-ta!"
Where did he go? Oh well, no worries. On to the rose garden! We
shall see if the Queen has chosen white or red roses today! Always
changing her mind, that queen. Hope none of us lose our heads!
That would be a dreadful way of ending our magnificent adventure
together!
Author's Note: I had a little
harder
time choosing the story for this one. There is so much dialog and
randomness throughout the book, it is pretty hard to retell in the
style I have chosen so far. I made references to a lot of scenes
in the book, most of which were represented in the Disney animated
version of the book. In each story I told in this storybook, I
wanted to choose one that perhaps people had not heard because of pop
culture and modern versions. In this tale, I told the story of
when Alice first meets the Duchess. Alice is not at all impressed
with the Duchess, thinking she mean for treating her child in such a
way. However, if you continue to read the book, Alice actually
meets her again, on the way to her trial. The Duchess is a
different person then, and has an interesting conversation with Alice,
solidifying to Alice that there are no normal characters in Wonderland
at all. In this tale, you also meet the Cheshire Cat, perhaps my
favorite of all the Wonderland characters. He is incredibly
sneaky and witty, but very confusing to Alice. At one point in
the book, the Cheshire Cat becomes the character with the most sense
and reminds Alice of her state in life. She is confused about
which road to take, the cat asks where she intends to go and she says,
she doesn't know. The cat then replies: "Then it doesn't matter."
This reminds all of us that unless we have some sort of plan, the
things that we do, really do not matter. To me, this was one of
the more profound parts to the book.
Bibliography:
Book: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Author: Lewis Carroll
Date: 1865
Web Source: Myth-Folk
Class Website
Image Info:
Falling Down the Rabbit Hole by Rene Cloke. Web Source: Flickr