Darwin’s theory seems to imply orderliness and meaning, a logical explanation for the way the world works. In contrast, Carroll’s Wonderland is confusing and senseless. The entire place seems to be a pun on the real world; butterflies are made of butter, babies turn into piglets. I find trouble in seeing Darwin’s ideas and Wonderland relate.

Many of my classmates noted the interconnectivity between animals and humans in this world. Prianka wrote about how Alice could directly communicate with animals; this is a link missing in our reality. Perhaps Carroll seeks to show us that children have a deeper connection with the natural world. They are able to see the souls in all things. For example, Alice is genuinely concerned about the flowers outside the queen’s house being lonely, asking “Aren’t you sometimes frightened at being planted out here, with nobody to take care of you?” (158) I remember thinking my stuffed animals were real and having conversations with the family cat. But growing up takes this imaginative feeling of individuals. As we “evolve” into adults, we lose the connection between ourselves and the natural world. We thus find a “desperate longing for the sanctuary of childhood and a return of innocence” (Dougill, 280) in our adult lives.

Stuffed Animals

Brad noted Carroll may have used Wonderland as a hyperbole for the complexity of nature. Much of what makes up our world is so complex it is unfathomable—the fact that we are made up of minute cells, parts of cells, atoms, protons, neutrons, quarks is mind boggling. When the White Queen tries to explain she is one hundred and one years old, something that would be almost ridiculous in Alice’s world, she says “there’s no use trying…one ca’n’t believe impossible things.” (199) Thus, Carroll again points out the differences between reality and what is possible in Wonderland.

Children still see wonder in nature.

Wonderland, though senseless and bizarre, is thus a representation of what could and what may be. We are still unaware of what exists and how it has come to exist and can always find wonder in our everyday surroundings.

Wonderland can come to life