Because Lewis Carroll did not provide a
map, it is difficult to think of how to map out or even describe
Wonderland. However, while rereading Alice in Wonderland for the thousandth
time searching for a clue, I had an epiphany: the only way to enter Wonderland
is to dive head first. Carroll writes: “Alice had not a moment to think about
stopping herself before she found herself falling down what seemed to be a very
deep well.” Just as Carroll describes Alice’s entrance into Wonderland, in a
moment our imaginations enter Wonderland through the rabbit-hole. If there were
just one word to describe Wonderland it would be nonsensical. Because Wonderland is so nonsensical and we have no
map by Carroll, the only way to map Wonderland is by following Alice.
Alice tumbles down the rabbit-hole
and falls into a hall full of locked doors. She is quickly filled with fear and
begins to sob, creating a pool of tears. Alice must swim, along with many of
Wonderland’s creatures, in the pool she created. This is a good example of the
point that Cheryl Glotfelty makes, that “all ecological criticism shares the
fundamental premise that human culture is connected to the physical world, affecting
it and affected by it.” Alice directly affects the ecology she has stumbled
into with her tears. Alice in Wonderland
portrays the connection between the physical world and human culture through
Alice’s interactions with the land and its creatures. Carroll seemingly places
importance on human perception and interaction with the environment because the
only view of Wonderland the reader has is through Alice’s eyes. Figure A is a
map created by a fan which depicts all of the places mentioned in Wonderland,
but the interesting part is that all of the places are connected by a line
symbolizing Alice’s path.
Figure A
It
seems to me that this fan maybe even unknowingly reinforces Alice’s importance
to shaping Wonderland through this winding path drawn in the map. As the map
depicts, after Alice’s swim and arrival on the bank, she finds her way to the
Rabbit’s house. Again, Carroll emphasizes the relationship between Alice and
Wonderland through the changes Alice makes to the invented ecology. Because
Alice’s foolish acts cause her to grow to an enormous size, she wreaks major
havoc upon Rabbit’s house, spurring a negative response by some of Wonderland’s
creatures.
Alice
continues her adventures and after a few encounters with characters including
the Caterpillar, the Cheshire Cat, and the Mad Hatter, Alice arrives in the
Queen’s Croquet Ground. Carroll creates such images such as card soldiers
literally painting the rose trees red to please their Queen, and people using
flamingoes as mallets and hedgehogs as croquet balls. These creatures can be
studied through ecology, which Stephanie Sarver defines as “a scientific
discipline that studies the connections between organisms and their
environments.” Sarver’s raises an interesting point: are maps a way we humans—organisms—connect
to our environments? Humans use maps to explore and understand the land. Even
when a person has never been somewhere, they know what other countries or
continents look like, especially with the modern advancements like Google maps.
Is this why fans and scriptwriters feel the need to map out Wonderland? Figure
B shows how a scriptwriter maps out Wonderland, so that even though he will
never go there, he will have an idea of what it looks like. The desire for a
Figure B
relationship
with the land for such needs as hunting, gathering, trading, and traveling
caused humans from thousands of years ago to make maps. The human affinity for
cartography is obvious and is well documented through the knowledge of maps like
Figure C. Figure C is the
Figure C
oldest
known world map from the sixth century BCE.
Humans have been making maps for thousands of years, which demonstrate
the importance of cartography to humans and how making maps increases the
interaction between humans and the environment.
Wonderland is an ecology based on
the nonsensical imagination of a man and his heroine, Alice, a naive young
girl. As Alice dives, we must dive into Wonderland and follow her path to fully
understand the ecology and the text’s message: the importance of human
interaction with the environment. While Carroll’s quirky characters may create
speed bumps along this path, if we follow Alice, his message will ring true. At
the end of the tale when Alice’s sister wakes her for tea, Wonderland ends as
Alice’s journey ends, further solidifying Carroll’s message.
Works Cited
Carroll,
Lewis. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. New York: Random House, 1946. Print.
Glotfelty,
Cheryl. "What Is Ecocriticism?" The Association for the Study of
Literature and
Environment ASLE, n.d. Web. 24 Oct.
2012.
<http://www.asle.org/site/resources/ecocritical-library/intro/defining/glotfelty/>.
Sarver,
Stephanie. "What Is Ecocriticism?" The Association for the Study of
Literature and
Environment ASLE, n.d. Web. 24 Oct.
2012.
<http://www.asle.org/site/resources/ecocritical-library/intro/defining/sarver/>.
Illustrations
"Alice
in Wonderland Map." Fanart-central. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2012.
<http://pictures.fanart-central.net/n/NauticalNymph/99178.jpg>.
Figure A
"Alice
in Wonderland (2010) Map of Underland." Map of Underland. N.p., n.d. Web.
15 Nov.
2012. <http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/alice-in-wonderland-2010/images/11419458/title/map-underland-photo>.Figure B
"Armenia
and Karabakh, History, Maps, Images, Multimedia and Info." Armenia and
Karabakh,
History, Maps, Images, Multimedia and
Info. N.p., 25 Oct. 2010. Web. 24 Oct. 2012. <http://armenica.org/>. Figure C
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