The Novel Alice s Adventures, Alice Falls Asleep And...

Many have compared life to a journey over the course of which, one experiences dozens of tumultuous changes and transitions. On this journey, the human body continually undergoes a developmental pattern of physical, mental, and social modifications. Even in the realm of literature, fictional characters inevitably follow this fate. In literature the stage, between childhood innocence and adulthood, characters transform in what is referred to as coming of age, otherwise known as adolescence. Because all humans experience this transition, it establishes coming of age as a timeless universal literary theme. Among coming of age novels include Lewis Carroll’s tale about a seven-year-old Victorian girl named Alice. In the novel Alice’s Adventures†¦show more content†¦The hallway contains dozens of doors that are all locked. Alice’s pre-adolescent stage parallels with her position in the hallway. Alice’s position in the hallway represents that she is at a stage stuck between being a child and a young woman. She posses a small golden key to the garden door, the only door that Alice cannot enter due to her size. Thus, her journey and her self-awareness begin when she strives to fit into the garden door. Issues concerning her size, identity, and her social exchanges with both Wonderland and its creatures spur and characterize Alice’s development towards becoming a young woman. In particular, Alice’s fluctuating size and â€Å"opening out like† (Carroll 11) a telescope parallel with a child’s seemingly spontaneous growth spurts, which occur frequently and most noticeably during pre-adolescent and adolescent years. In fact, Alice Liddell, the inspiration for the original tale, was ten when Lewis Carroll (the pen name of Charles Dodgson) first told the tale (Vallone 245). In addition, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland began as tale about the adventures of seven year-old Alice Liddell (Vallone 245). In reality, most children like Alice Liddell grow, but in Wonderland, Alice changed drastically and symbolically. Physically Alice’s growth correlates in many instances with her behavior. For instance, prior to drinking the mysterious liquid, Alice ponders on the substance’s toxicity, however, she fails to consider possible outcomes while forgetting