Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

     I am on a kick right now where I am reading all of the children’s classics I never got through when I was technically a child.  I do believe you can keep the mindset of a child for as long as you live.  Life is so much more enjoyable that way.

     The previous two books I read were quick reads.  I just finished “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” by Lewis Carroll, and I would not exactly say it was easy.  Most everyone knows the story of Alice who follows a white rabbit wearing a waistcoat down his hole (the rabbit is wearing the waistcoat; not Alice).  But I think you can never fully appreciate a story until you read it in its original form.  (Eventually I will read “A Christmas Carol.”)

     This is the first of two stories (the sequel, “Through the Looking-Glass” I will write on when I finish it).  Alice, a young girl, begins by sitting near her sister on the bank, without much to do.  Then a white rabbit in a waistcoat runs by looking at his pocket watch, and proclaiming that he is late.  With nothing else to do, Alice follows him down his hole, with not a thought on how to get back out.

     From then on, the story reads very much like a dream.  Alice comes across curious creatures and predicaments, and does not even question when bottles of drink make her shrink or cakes make her grow.  She then meets a philosophic caterpillar who smokes, a hatter perpetually stuck in teatime, and a Cheshire cat that not only smiles, but can disappear.  Alice has trouble conversing with anyone because what shouldn’t make sense apparently does, and what should make sense no longer does.  Everyone seems to be on the same page aside from Alice, who has difficulties making heads or tails of why a pack of cards are the queen’s guards, or why the queen wants everyone beheaded.

     It is an interesting read, but not quite logical.  It is one that you should read more than once and do research into in order to get the most meaning from it.