ipl-logo

Rhetorical Devices In Alice In Wonderland

1362 Words6 Pages
'Alice in Wonderland ' by Lewis Carroll is a novel that criticizes the way children were brought up during the Victorian society. Carroll presents the readers with the difficulties these offspring must endure in order to develop their own personalities/egos, as they become adults. For Alice, Wonderland appears to be the perfect place to start this learning adventure. A way to see her story is compering it to the world as if being upside-down. The first lesson Alice must learn in this peculiar journey through Wonderland is to achieve separation from the world around her and to stop identifying herself through others, in order to discover who she really is and who she wants to become in the future. She must understand that all transitions in life take some time, and this particular one will require an extra portion of patience on her part.
Self-identification is a fundamental theme in Carroll’s novel. Many of the creatures in Wonderland asked Alice to identify herself, some of them even before engaging in any sort activity with her. “Who are you? Said the Caterpillar” (Carroll, L. 2012 Chapter V page 18, Kindle edition). Carroll applies here a rhetorical device similar to the onomatopoeia (commonly used in the fables), where animals are a key element to the learning experience, since most kids and even adults can easily relate to them. The creatures in Wonderland represent grown-ups in real life, for whom it is very important to know who they are dealing with before
Open Document