Lewis Carroll (1832-1898), also known as Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, was a mathematician, logician, photographer, poet, clergyman, and a professor. Alice in Wonderland is a fantastic story about a girl who steps into a magical world where everything is turned upside-down. My life at the University of Texas is very similar to her journey. The events in Alice in Wonderland reflect my life and experiences at UT.
When thinking about a wonderland, the first thing that comes to many people’s minds is a dream. The term “wonderland” is defined as “…an imaginary place of delicate beauty or magical charm… a place that excites admiration” (Webster). Similarly, a person’s ideal place is where a person is able to feel free. “In a college setting, the student is often overwhelmed by the general sense of freedom that they get” (Shideler 61). More freedom is given to a student in a college outside his or her hometown. There are various pathways to encounter and many obstacles to overcome.
Alice is outdoors with her sister and spies a white rabbit with a pocket watch. Mesmerized, she follows the rabbit down the hole and falls. She finds herself in a long hallway full of doors, which I see as the many choices we have in life. We are always placed in a situation that we can solve in a variety of ways. Take my life at the University of Texas for example.
Furthermore, I feel the choices we make now lead us to more choices in the coming days and determine our future. Alice later finds a drink with a note that asks her to drink it. There is also a cake with a note that tells her to eat it. She does both. Here at UT, I feel the same way. There are times when I am asked, even told, to do things that I am unsure about. Knowing that my friends are planning a trip downtown gives me the urge to join them. Though I’m not obligated to do so, I have the choice of setting aside my homework for a social event. Choices! Choices! Choices!
In the woods, Alice comes across the Caterpillar who is sitting on a mushroom. He gives her some valuable guidance. She begins to think from both sides of the “mushroom,” which can make her grow larger or smaller as she wishes. Strangers such as the “Caterpillar” are seen each day on campus, and I was grateful for their advice during my freshman year. I use to ask them for directions to Taylor Hall or the Geography Building. How else was I suppose to know that the Batts Hall was in the “six pack?”
Moreover, the way we think affects everything we do. Alice is able to grow larger or smaller whenever she wants. Once given this so-called power, she stretches her body out tremendously. While stretched, she pokes her head into the branches of a tree. It seems as though she tried too hard just like I did in my very first class at this university. I studied so much thinking that my computer science quiz was going be hard, but it wasn’t. To my surprise, I went overboard and bumped my head on the “branch of the tree.”
I believe there are always two ways to see things. Our mind is split into two categories, and they are the left and the right. The left of the brain is separate from the right even though they work together for a common goal. The left-brain uses words and abstraction while the right-brain “…tends to line up symmetrically with accounts of creative or inventive thinking” (Ulmer). The right-brain deals with sense of unity and emotion.