The connection between children and parents in the Alice books seems to be one that is a bit tense. Children look up to their parents who in return seem to never be there when they are needed. Parents are outdated in their children's lives to make them less dependent on authority figures and more dependent on what they know, assume is right and what correlates with the teachings they have been taught thus far in their lives. The Mad Hatter who portrays an adult figure, just as many of the other characters, he is immature and irrational. Everything that the mad hatter says can be examined and he is very much like an nosey child looking for answers and taking word exactly instead of symbolically. Alice is nosy, she knows her place in society, shows good habits. Alice maintains herself as an adult Victorian woman, even though she is only a child looking for understanding in the world. In contrast to many instances Alice continues to be the mature adult figure as everyone else around her involves in child like behavior. Everything that she has been taught is questioned. Wonderland makes the relationship between children and parents unpredictable from rewards and punishments not relating with the behavior at hand. Awareness of what is good and bad is constantly challenged and instead of children looking for someone to guide them, they are guiding themselves. Alice scorns the adult figures in the story based on their behavior and what she knows about proper etiquette of Victorian qualities. The Alice books, Alice easily gets upset when new rules are shown in Wonderland and through the looking glass. Everything she has learned before coming to Wonderland and while she is there, contradicts itself. Where in her reality she is supposed to be sophisticated and carry herself with class and follow suit of her social class, Wonderland takes away her status lifestyle and she is placed low just as everyone else.
