Alice’s Adventures in Isolation

Cole Harris, Luke Noble, Joshua West

Preface

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a novel written by Lewis Carroll and was published on November 26th in 1865. Alice is sitting on a riverbank with her sister looking over her shoulder at the book her sister is reading. The next thing Alice sees is a white rabbit with a waistcoat on running by her looking at a pocket watch and says that he is late. Alice follows the rabbit and jumps down the rabbit hole, this leads her to a big hallway that is lined with doors. Alice is then too big to fit through some of the doors and she figures out she can grow and shrink by eating different things. After several interactions with other animals, Alice runs into a caterpillar that gives her a mushroom that lets her shrink and grow by eating different parts of it. Eventually, Alice runs into the Queen of Hearts and plays a strange game of croquet. The queen starts calling for other players to be executed showing off her madness. Alice is then in the trial of the Knave of Hearts for stealing the Queen’s tarts; Alice is then called to the witness stand while the King begins to read a poem that he misinterprets the admission of guilt by the Knave. Alice protests the King’s interpretation. Alice and the Queen start to argue so the Queen then yells as loud as she can “Off with her head”(Carroll ch. 12). Alice then grows to a huge size and fights off the Queen’s army. The next thing Alice knows is that she has awakened on her sister’s lap. They both go inside to have tea while Alice tells her sister about her dream. 

Alice’s Adventures in Isolation

I saw the rabbit and jumped down the hole and now there is no one around me, just a big hallway with doors everywhere. I’m scared and lonely not knowing what I got myself into. There is a bottle that says “drink me” so somebody had to be around since it was not there before. I thought to myself was it the rabbit that put it there. After drinking it I started to shrink up. After struggling with the doors and the key I found this box with a cake in it that said “eat me”. I have a feeling it’s that rabbit messing with me. I ate the cake and grew to a humongous size. There was no one around me and I could not get through these doors, but it was hopeless I sat down and began to cry. I was desperate for someone to just show up out of nowhere and help me, but I am stuck in this isolation that I did not want. 

Stuck inside of this isolation I continued to venture. I started to venture with a group of animals. A very wise mouse starts to tell me a history lesson. One of the animals I was venturing with proposed a “cactus race”. After a while, the cactus race ended and I gave mints to all of the animals as a reward. The mouse I was traveling with started to tell another tale. I was more focused on other things and because of this the mouse got mad. He left, which causes the rest of the animals I was traveling with to be sad. As I was talking to the animals about my cat back at home, I mentioned a funny story about how she kills birds. Out of fear all of the animals run away from me. I am all alone again with tears inside my eyes. 

The rabbit returned once again, I was very eager to see him. He was muttering to himself, I believe because he had lost something. He did not notice me at first, but then became quite angry upon noticing my presence. He told me to leave and bring him a pair of gloves and a fan. I was frightened and ran away. Whilst retrieving the items the rabbit requested I stumbled upon a small bottle with the words “Drink me” written on it. I put it to my lips and drank, knowing something was bound to happen. I began growing and growing, to the point where I could no longer fit inside the room. I had to stick one of my arms out the window and my leg up the chimney. I am tired of growing smaller and larger, I wish I had never gone down the rabbit hole. The rabbit soon arrived at the house and tried coming into the bedroom. I would not let him out of fear, even though I was now a thousand times his size. The rabbit tried to send Bill down the chimney, but I kicked him across the yard and into the hedges. I saw some little cakes on the floor and decided to eat one in hopes that it would make me smaller. It did! I escaped out the window and into the woods, where I tried to figure out how to return to my normal size. I found a puppy in the woods and began to play with it. I then ran off until I became too exhausted to go any further. I decided it was time for me to rest.

Works Cited

Carroll, Lewis. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. 1865. Project Gutenberg, 

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11/11-h/11-h.htm. Accessed 27 Apr. 2020.

One thought on “Alice’s Adventures in Isolation

  1. Joshua (and Cole and Luke), “Alice’s Adventures in Isolation” presents a thoughtful and imaginative account that captures the spirit of Lewis Carroll’s narrative. Crafting more graceful transitions in the preface and providing some closure, and conveying more of the effects of the pandemic that Alice is witnessing would strengthen the project. I hope that you’ll consider submitting a revised version to Sanctuary, CVCC’s literary magazine, when there’s a call for submissions next fall. I am glad that I had the opportunity to work with you and wish you all the best with your future endeavors.

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