Alice and Darwin, Reality and Fiction

Alice in Wonderland is a mixture of fiction and reality. The reality of Carroll’s stories is laced through the streets of Oxford. Naturally, therefore, the Oxford Museum should pay some tribute to its legendary young heroine. But why is she in the same line of display cases as ancient whales and the extinct dodo bird? Why is she not in a situation like the Harry Ransom Center, with an emphasis on literature? Clearly, Oxford scholars are not dimwitted. There must be some connection between art and science.

         

The Alice books place great emphasis on the nature of growing up. “The constant changes of size which she experiences signify the effect on the body of growing up, and the implication that she is entering a new stage of life is taken up in the sequel [to Alice in Wonderland], Through the Looking Glass” (Bump 276). In the second book, Alice’s progress on the chessboard “signals her transformation from child to adult” (Bump 276). And who places more importance on new stages of life than Charles Darwin? Are there not some faint implications of an evolutionary theory at work within Alice? Even between Alice and Chuck there is the similar tendency to imagine new things. Contrary to Alice’s opinion, one “[can] imagine impossible things,” (Carroll 199). Darwin’s theory of evolution was certainly deemed impossible by standards of the time. Our people, our species, is renowned for thinking the impossible and achieving the impossible. Copernicus thought the impossible, proposing that the earth and its moon revolve around the sun, and then Americans achieved the impossible, putting three astronauts on the moon.

Nature plays an integral role in both books, suggesting that humans and nature are on the same playing field (or chess board). Many of the characters Alice encounters or hears about are animals. The caterpillar, the walrus, and the white rabbit are all examples. And nature, in its various forms, serves to teach Alice (and greater humanity) certain lessons. Hurricane Katrina definitely showed America a lesson about the effects of global warming on gulf temperatures. On page 160, the roses label Alice and the Queen both as flowers. The interconnecting nature of humans and our environment is depicted here. The nature of Alice, however, is more of a general sense of unity. Nature and humans, reality and fiction. All are meshed into one to teach us a greater lesson about the meaning of our existence.

We, as humans, have had many wrong ideas in the past. For hundreds or even thousands of years certain incorrect theories have been preached around the world. The nature of our earth is one big question mark. It might be nearly impossible to determine how much of our existence is fiction and how much is reality. “Which do you think it [is]?” (Carroll 271).