Alice In Wonderland Belonging Analysis

The overall theme that covers all of my texts is conformity. The 1950s was known as the age of conformity. The texts that I am using are Owls do cry by Janet Frame, Changeling Directed by Clint Eastwood, Heavenly Creatures directed by Peter Jackson, and Alice in Wonderland directed by Tim Burton. These four texts all connect through the statements “Society forces people of difference to conform” and “Conformity causes people to need to escape through imagination”.

In the text Owls Do Cry, we are shown how society forces people who are different to conform through the character Daphne. Daphne refuses to leave the creativity and freedom of childhood which makes society see her as being different. This is shown in the literary allusion to Shakespeare’s

This lack of creative stimulation causes her to need an escape from her reality by ‘traveling to Wonderland’. Wonderland is where imagination and creativity is commonplace and seen as a good thing because of the nature of the world. In Alice in Wonderland, being ‘mad’ is seen as normal and is even encouraged for example the mad hatter is shown as being popular. When Alice asks if she has gone mad, her father answers “all the best people are”. Alice starts to see a blur between the real world and wonderland when people from reality are portrayed through certain characteristics in individuals in wonderland. This need to escape through fantasy is caused by the pressure to conform in reality. For example, Alice is expected to wear uncomfortable items of clothing such as a corset and stockings because people are told that those items are what individuals are expected to wear to be accepted as ‘normal’. Alice is also expected to marry for position and wealth because society tells us that having money and social standing is more important than being happy with a marital partner. While being proposed to is the first time she enters wonderland to escape fear and the expectations of adult