9/6 Alice books as guides to college

Alice books as guides to college

1.       

“What size do you want to be?” it asked.

“Oh, I’m not particular as to size,” Alice hastily replied, “only one doesn’t like changing so often, you know.”

“I don’t know,” said the Caterpillar.

Alice said nothing: she had never been so much contradicted in all her life before, and she felt that she was losing her temper.

(AA, page 52)

I found the word “size” to be metaphorical in this dialogue exchange, even though the scene itself is taking the word literally, since Alice shrunk. When you connect the word “size” back to something like college, then the word can become something like “job” or “type” or “identity.” Do that, and then this conversation between the Caterpillar and Alice can sound awfully familiar to several conversations I’ve had with my parents. In high school, we are taught to figure out who we are and what we want to do so early in our lives, so that college can appear to be a clear path to take. Once we fall off that road, nothing seems to make sense to us, and sometimes, talking to more experienced adults fail to help if we can’t grasp what their words mean. In the scene, Alice complains about how constantly changing in size and shape is a horrible unnerving feeling. The Caterpillar, on the other hand, reminds Alice that constantly changing is never a bad thing.

2.       

“You are old, Father William,” the young man said,

“And your hair has become very white;

And yet you incessantly stand on your head –

Do you think, at your age, it is right?”

“In my youth,” Father William replied to his son,

“I feared it might injure the brain;

But, now that I’m perfectly sure I have none,

Why, I do it again and again.”

(AA, page 49-50)

This poem written by Lewis Carroll explores a significant idea throughout the novel –the idea can be related once again to any college student: youth. In the poem, a son comments on his father’s physical deterioration, describing him as an old man and should therefore act more like one. However, in response, Father William explains that he has no reason to act like an old man. Just because his physical body is older and more fragile does not mean his personality and heart should change. The real irony throughout the poem is that the father’s heart is actually much younger than his son’s. My girlfriend’s father is a fantastic example of a middle-aged man who still happily acts like a teenager at times. You can tell by all the silly pranks that he occasionally commits. One time, he almost fooled me to cut cheese, thinking that it was raw fish. College is most definitely the time that many people would describe as the transitional phase where kids truly become adults. But just because we are now adults doesn’t mean that we should lose the fun that fueled our childhood. Just like how Professor Bump put it in lecture, we should never forget our childhood.

3.       

“In the progress through Wonderland the young rectory boy/girl exhibits all the culture shock of a freshman transposed from home and dropped into college life. The length of the fall down the rabbit-hole speaks of the emotional distance involved”

(page 281)

My personal fall down the rabbit-hole was definitely above average in length and emotional impact, mainly because my fall went through two different time zones –from California to Texas. Furthermore, because now that I am at a college, which accepts any student from anywhere, the diversity is turned up to eleven. There are people from different states and even different countries! Clubs and events and parties of all kinds everywhere! Like Alice’s reaction to Wonderland, which is full of noise and peculiarities, I felt confused. Everything I thought I knew was put to the test, just like Alice’s experiences. In addition to Alice’s feelings, I felt exactly the same as Dorothy when she wound up in the land of Oz (“I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore”).

4.       

“[Alice] insists upon learning through experience as opposed to listening to someone else for information. […] Not only to venture into the unknown in life, but to venture into our soul and deep within our hearts to find out who we are. To never end our soul search.”

(page 286)

College, as I mentioned before, is a time where people try to discover themselves and figure out exactly what they want to do with their lives. Here is when people pick their majors or switch majors and pursue their passion. But one thing I learned through working in my job is that some of the best progression people go through is through their own hands-on experience. This is strange because it is overall contradictory to college, a place where all the students just sit and listen to someone else’s information and instructions. The student essay on Alice describes Alice as a hero for the very reason that she opposes this “system” because of her incredible curiosity and personality. A bit part of college that many forget about is that college is a place where you are supposed to freely roam and seek out opportunities. These opportunities don’t come to you –you have to find them yourself. But the most important lesson: You think that you finally touched your own soul and found out who you are. You have no idea, because this journey of finding yourself will always exists so long as you are alive. The journey is just slightly different each time, depending on what part of your life the journey is taking place in. From middle school to high school, we have always pictured college as a “final frontier” of some sorts. College is merely the beginning, a door that leads you to an enormous world that you thought you knew.