Students Compare Their Experience of U. T. to that of Alice in Wonderland:

a thematic summary

• The hedge maze as a parody of the freshman’s view of the campus: "Is this the campus?  But it's so huge? How do I know which paths to take?"  (Lauren).
• Alice’s life-sized chess board as a parody of  “the crowded lawns and free-spirited student body” at U. T. (Dawn).
• The White Rabbit’s frenzied hurrying to an appointment as a parody of “the rush of college life and the necessity of purpose, both of which overwhelm” the freshman (Rania, David).
• Alice’s fall down the rabbit hole as a parody of the freshman’s confusion at all the building abbreviations: “she tried looking at the sides of the hole and saw a confusing array of maps and abbreviations tacked onto the wall.  "HRC?  UGL?  SSB? ... and she continued to go down for what seemed like forty acres” (Jamie).
• The doors in the hall at the bottom of the rabbit hole as a parody of the doors in the classroom buildings: “wooden doors, that were numbered in black ink in a rather confusing order.  "101 here...110 here...and 102 is at the end of the hallway!  What a confusing place!" (Jamie).
• The tiny door Alice encounters at the bottom of the rabbit hole as a parody of how small the freshman feels on the campus (Dawn).
• The tiny door as a parody of the tiny door that opens onto the President’s office in the main building: “and Jamie got down on her hands and knees and peered inside.  She saw a beautiful rooftop garden full of statues, and a fancy office with stained glass windows.  (10) Jamie wanted more than anything to leave the hallway and visit the fancy garden, but she was too big.  "I guess that garden isn't meant for average students like me," she surmised” (Jamie).  
• “’It was much pleasanter at home,’ thought poor Alice, ‘when one wasn’t always growing larger and smaller…I almost wish I hadn’t gone down that rabbit-hole” as a parody of the homesickness of the freshman (xx, Jamie).
• Alice’s encounters with radically different situations as a parody of the freshman’s encounters with other freshmen at U.T.: “During my first semester at UT, I experienced different races, different political views, and different religions first hand. I walked through campus much like Alice trekked through Wonderland, attempting to adapt and adjust to all of the new situations” (Dawn). The “queer looking party” of animals” Alice meets after her pool of tears as a parody of the crowd the new freshman joins: “While many of my new friends were much different from myself, I learned about their backgrounds and personalities and soon felt much more at ease.” (xx). Alice smothered under the pile of card-men as a parody of the freshman buried in exams, projects, and responsibility (Dawn).
• Alice’s Pool of Tears as a parody of (1) “the loneliness and feeling overwhelmed at exclusion from college life” of a freshman (Rania) and (2) a freshman’s feelings upon discovering that she was late to class and the class was not meeting in the usual room (Eve).
• The Dodo as a parody of a student who misses a lot of class (Rania).
• Following the white rabbit/albino squirrel as a parody of following distractions instead of studying (Robin).
• “Drink Me” episode used to parody various temptations,  including alcohol consumption at U. T. (Ada, Khoa), the temptation of the live music capital of the world (Courtney), the temptation of the outdoors, esp. kayaking on Town Lake, riding a bike on the Hike and Bike Trail, etc. (Courtney), the temptation of hanging out with friends (Courtney, Rahim)
• “Eat Me” episode used to parody the temptation of LSD (Khoa, Jefferson Airplane).
• The Lobster Quadrille dance of the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle as a parody for Sixth Street (Rahim).
• Following the white rabbit as a parody of following a boyfriend or girlfriend to U.T. without thinking about it (Dawn).
• Pig and Pepper episode used to parody food in Kinsolving dormitory (Ada, Rania)
• Search for the white rabbit/longhorn as a parody of the search for knowledge at U.T. (Courtney, David, Jamie)
• The queen yelling “Off with her head” as a parody of professors and their grading systems at U. T. (Dawn, Eve).
• Humpty Dumpty as a parody of an English professor at U.T. (Frances, Rania).
• The trail scene, “Who Stole the Tarts?” as a parody of (1) a freshman English class at U.T. ; (2) the justice system in general (Robin).
• The army of cards as a parody of the football team.
• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as a parody of a class in logic at U.T. (Erin).
• Mad Hatter’s Tea Party used to parody (1) a freshman English class at U. T. (Brette, Eve, Nick); (2) a first-semester Biology class (Dawn); (3) a fraternity (Robin);  and (4) a student conversation (Rahim).
• “The Pool of Tears” as a parody of the feelings of  freshmen trying to move all their stuff into their rooms (Jessica)
• “The Pool of Tears” and “A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale.” Used to parody a freshman English class at U. T. (Ada) Assorted Wonderland characters used to parody an English class at U. T. (Courtney, David)
• Tweedledum and Tweedledee as a parody of (1) two fraternity members (Jessica); (2) a professor and his teaching assistant “Constantly quarrelling with each other and the students over classroom protocol and work procedures” (Dawn).
• Alice’s recitation of boring poetry in order to get dry after the pool of tears as a parody of studying Greek pastoral verse in a freshman English class (Eve), or a parody of a reading aloud a selection from Ruskin in a course anthology for an English class (Jamie).
• The Cheshire Cat as a parody of an Advisor who was “weird, elusive, and frustrating; and told me that all options were crazy” (Robin).
• The Caterpillar’s question “Who are you?” as a parody of (1) Advisers who don’t have time listen to the student’s answer (Jessica, Rania, Robin); (2) Leslie, the transvestite who hangs out around Sixth St. (Robin); (3) Prof. Bump’s class modeled on the Baird Freshman English class at Amherst College: “[I] do not exist to give you the answers. [My function] is to ask the questions,” (3) he replied” (Erin, Jamie).
• (The Caterpillar’s question “Who are you?” and Alice’s changing sizes as a parody of the bewildering identity changes in college: “Like Alice, I did not know how to reply. One spends four years in high school creating a persona, routine, and niche in their surroundings, only to have each of those things overturned in college” (Dawn). Like the Caterpillar’s “Who are you?” this is a question meant to provoke some deeper thought in the reader and myself.  Just why are we at the University of Texas?  Education? Future Careers? Or is there another reason we are overlooking?” (Elizabeth, Jamie).
• Alice’s mastery of how much food to eat to achieve a certain size as a parody of the freshman learning the amount of time needed to study in order to achieve a desired grade (Dawn).
• Alice’s growing larger as a parody of the freshman’s growth: “I grew larger with each test I passed, with each friend I made, and with each trek across campus I successfully completed” (Dawn).

References are to student papers written for Prof. Bump and collected on the web at http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~bump/VSA/Texas.html