Alice in Wonderland is a very strange story. I think that this book could have a number of hidden meanings, the most profound of these being Alice's inner conflict with her own self identity. In this story, I assume that Alice is roughly between the ages of eight and thirteen. These in themselves, are very important years in an adolescents life. These are the pre-pubescent years. These years determine one's identity before puberty, which in turn, set the stage for the teenage years, and then on to adulthood. .
In the beginning of this story, and all throughout, Alice is chasing a white rabbit down a dark and unknown hole. I perceive this, to be Alice chasing her innocent childhood into the unknown years of maturity. When Alice is first falling down the hole, she notes that it takes a while and that she has time to notice familiar things along the way, much the same way growing up is. Throughout the story this white rabbit seems to keep popping up and Alice always seems to be following it, searching it out. This goes to show she is not quite ready to give up the childhood that seems to be getting away from her.
There are many times in the story where Alice eats little cakes, eats from a mushroom, and drinks a fluid from a bottle. All of these things have a profound effect on Alice's appearance. All of these things either make her taller or shorter. Which in turn would make her weigh either more or less. This is a very big problem that all teenage girls encounter on a daily basis. Every teen and preteen girl is constantly concerned about her weight. Alice said that she was scared when she was too tall, because it scared others. This was the case with the bird that mistook her for a serpent. Alice was also scared when .
she was too small. This was the case when she met up with the puppy. This puppy only wanted to play with Alice, but she had to run, for fear that the dog would want to play with her, and end up killing her.
