A Lesson From Alice by Emmy

A Lesson From Alice by Emmy - October 2021 Scholarship Essay

Most modern children’s books have a pretty clear lesson. It seems like the essential function of the genre. Sure, instilling a love of reading in the next generation and being entertaining are important too, but I think most children’s authors try to impart an important message or value along the way. Despite this, when I first read Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, I wasn’t quite sure what the lesson was meant to be.
Maybe it would’ve been clearer if I was closer to the age of the intended audience, but I was a junior in high school when I read it. I was assistant directing a production of Alice in Wonderland at a local elementary school, and I wanted to get a better understanding of the story and the characters’ voices in the actual book. Luckily, the library nearest me had a copy with tons of annotations explaining the subtext and unusual language. I had thought it would be sort of a boring read since books with references to 1860’s British politics aren’t usually my cup of tea, not to mention it being a children’s book, but, oddly enough, I couldn’t put it down. Something about the language was so fantastical and interesting that I couldn’t help but love it, and Alice had such a clear voice that the who whole story was ridiculously immersive.
Despite my love for the book, I didn’t really see what the big takeaway was meant to be, and it was starting to become a problem. The director wanted to change the ending of the play to something a little more in line with the book, and that meant something that neatly declared the theme as well as wrapping up the story. At first, I thought it must have something to do with being curious, after all Alice’s main character trait is being curious, but that seemed like an odd takeaway for a children’s book. I’ve never met a little kid that needed encouragement to be curious, they’re fairly notorious for asking questions without any outside help.
So, I had figured out one thing that I decided couldn’t be the lesson, but that didn’t seem to bring me much closer to figuring out what it could be. I knew the issue couldn’t be coming from an unfamiliarity with the story, because in addition to having just finished reading it, I had been in a production of Alice in Wonderland in ninth grade. If there’s one thing that’ll get you to understand a story, it’s watching it be played out a few days a week for couple months. That’s not to say that the rehearsals were boring; I loved every second of that show, and the people in it taught me some incredibly valuable lessons about determination, acceptance, and overcoming the impossible. However, none of these were the lesson of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
I kept thinking about it for a while. I knew there were endless analyses on the internet, but, perhaps a little stubbornly, I wanted to come up with something on my own. I knew I wouldn’t be the first or the last person to think of whatever theme I decided was the right one, but it was still an opinion I wanted to make on my own. I wish I could say I was in the middle of some great dramatic moment when I figured it out, but I was just reading over the script.
After so long thinking about this book, about everything the story meant to me, I decided it had to be about growing up. Maybe it’s not the main idea for everyone, but it is to me. When I looked back on every piece of media, every game and retelling and movie based on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland I had ever played or read or seen, I realized just how many times it had come into my life, and just how many positive memories I had surrounding it. All of Alice’s experience with changing sizes and experiencing a new world full of things she didn’t understand and not knowing who she was anymore, it all felt like growing up to me. It was also at this point that I decided maybe it was a little about being curious too, and being determined and accepting and overcoming the impossible, because even when the world is pulled out from beneath her feet again and again, Alice stays positive and continues to want to know more about the world. The lesson Alice teaches, to me, is that even when life changes and nothing is the way you’re used to, keep approaching the world with childlike wonder and curiosity, because new things can be exciting as long as you give them the chance to be.