Cheshire Cat Symbolism Essay

Introduction

Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a whimsical and fantastical tale that captivates readers with its imaginative characters and peculiar landscapes. Among the colorful cast of characters, the Cheshire Cat stands out as a symbol of enigma and wisdom. In this literary criticism essay, we will explore the symbolism of the Cheshire Cat and its significance in the story.

The Vanishing Act: Illusion and Reality

The Cheshire Cat’s most prominent characteristic is its ability to appear and disappear at will, leaving only its grinning face behind. This vanishing act serves as a metaphor for the transient nature of reality in Wonderland. The cat’s ability to manipulate its visibility reflects the whimsical and unpredictable nature of the world Alice finds herself in. It questions the stability of perception and challenges the boundaries between what is real and what is imagined.

The Grinning Face: Masking Truth and Deception

The Cheshire Cat’s iconic grin is another symbolic element that invites interpretation. Its constant smile suggests a facade of friendliness and amusement, masking a deeper knowledge of the workings of Wonderland. The cat’s mischievous grin can be seen as a representation of the deceptive nature of Wonderland and the various characters Alice encounters. It symbolizes the masks people wear and the hidden intentions they may possess. The Cheshire Cat serves as a reminder to question appearances and seek deeper understanding.

The Cat’s Wisdom: Riddles and Philosophical Insights

Throughout the story, the Cheshire Cat engages Alice in philosophical conversations and presents her with riddles. Its words are often cryptic and thought-provoking, challenging Alice’s perception of the world and encouraging her to question the rules and norms she has taken for granted. The cat’s wisdom represents a guide for Alice as she navigates Wonderland, encouraging her to think critically and challenge conventional wisdom.

The Disembodied Nature: Individuality and Fragmentation

The Cheshire Cat’s disembodied nature, with only its head or grin visible at times, reflects the theme of individuality and fragmentation in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The cat’s ability to detach itself from its physical form represents the fragmentation of identity and the fluidity of self-expression. It suggests that individuals in Wonderland, and perhaps in the real world as well, can assume different roles and identities as they please, without being bound by societal expectations.

The Cat’s Elusive Nature: Embracing the Unknown

The Cheshire Cat’s elusive and mysterious presence mirrors Alice’s own journey of self-discovery. As Alice encounters various challenges and absurd situations, the cat acts as a guiding force, nudging her towards self-reflection and personal growth. Its presence encourages Alice to embrace the unknown and venture into uncharted territories, symbolizing the importance of curiosity and open-mindedness in navigating the complexities of life.

Conclusion

The Cheshire Cat in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland represents a multifaceted symbol that encompasses themes of illusion and reality, deception, wisdom, individuality, and embracing the unknown. Through its vanishing act, enigmatic grin, philosophical insights, disembodied nature, and elusive presence, the Cheshire Cat guides Alice and readers alike through the whimsical and perplexing world of Wonderland. It serves as a reminder to question appearances, challenge assumptions, and embrace the mysteries that lie beyond the surface. The Cheshire Cat’s symbolism adds depth and intrigue to the narrative, inviting readers to explore the complexities of human existence and the power of imagination.

Alice in Wonderland: Hero or Not

Joseph Campbell wrote about the hero monomyth after he discovered that most hero stories have a common pattern and storyline. Joseph Campbell’s hero monomyth is a theory he proposed that heroes follow in a narrative, especially in an adventure novel. His theory states that almost all heroes follow the steps of this patterned journey. ‘Alice in Wonderland’ in its many media forms has been a very popular children’s story ever since it was published in 1865. The story written by Lewis Carroll for a girl he taught named Alice follows many of the steps in the hero monomyth. The story has been rewritten and produced in to multiple movies, plays, tv shows, musicals and even comic books. Carrolls version of Alice is the first and oldest but still follows Campbell’s theory of the hero monomyth.

Carrolls version starts with Alice sitting in a tree listening to a boring lesson from her older sister. She plays with her cat and imagines how happy she would be in a world of her own, of which she called Wonderland. She then sees a rabbit wearing a waistcoat and holding a pocket watch saying over and over “I’m late, I’m late”. This call to adventure is where Alice’s hero’s journey begins. According to the story written by Lewis Carroll, ‘she ran across the field after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole. In another moment down went Alice after it’ (3). Alice falls into a room with many doors along the walls. She catches a glimpse of the rabbit going through a tiny door and tries to follow him but the door is too small for her to go through. In order to go through the door or ‘cross the threshold’, as Campbell would call it, she must undergo a series of ordeals (80). She drinks from a bottle labelled ‘drink me’, which causes her to shrink to the size of the locked door. In order to get to the key for the door which she left on the table when she shrunk, Alice takes a bite from a cake which states ‘eat me’. After doing so she grows way past the height of the table nearly surpassing the size of the room. She shrinks yet again while crying and crosses the threshold into wonderland. Alice meets many people while following the rabbit. The people she met along the way are part of her tests as she has to figure out how to get away and continue her adventure but many tend to also be helpers. First she meets the Dodo bird who is conducting a race she joins in to dry off with the other animals even though she finds the race with no winner to be pointless. Continuing on her adventure Alice finds a friend in the Hatter along with a hare and a mouse. They do not really help her as much as they do in the movie depictions, but they host Alice’s Unbirthday tea party and wish her luck on her travels. Alice then meets a caterpillar who smokes from a hookah and asks, “who are you”. The caterpillar helps Alice by telling her to break off bits of the mushroom she is sitting on in order to return to her original size and she takes some with her. The Cheshire Cat is more of a helper according to Campbell’s definition or a supernatural helper in the world of adventure who fulfills this function. The Cheshire Cat shows Alice all of the many ways to go and shows up to help her when she is in need but eventually leads her to the queen. Alice soon finds out that the queen is a tyrant. She is invited to a croquet match that is rigged for only the queen to win but Alice wins by mistake. This game of croquet is where the climax of the story begins. The queen is Alice’s enemy in the story, she beheads everyone and anyone. The queen beheads three gardeners who are painting the white roses red and wants Alice punished for embarrassing her. The Cheshire cat enrages the queen with his tricks, embarrassing her once again and she blames Alice for it. Alice faces an unfair and rigged trial and is convicted in her final battle. According to the story “she had grown so large in the last few minutes that she wasn’t a bit afraid” (Carroll 58). She consumes her mushrooms and grows as she interrupts the king and tells the queen how much of a tyrant she really is. Alice yells at the pack of card sending them into the air, waking her up from her dream and into her sisters lap.

‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ almost conforms to Campbell’s hero monomyth but it lacks many steps and significant qualities of what makes a hero. Unlike Campbell’s Hero’s Journey Alice doesn’t bring any reward out of the struggle nor an elixir and she does not have much of a climactic final battle although she disputes with the queen. According to Campbell’s hero monomyth “The object, knowledge, or blessing that the hero acquired during the adventure is put to use in the everyday world. Often it has a restorative or healing function”. Unlike a more typical hero Alice does not transform, she believes everything she believed before the journey into Wonderland. She doesn’t share her wonder-ful story or her knowledge about nonsense but she does follow many steps in the pattern of a hero making her arguably a hero.

Alice in Wonderland’ Vs ‘Hunger Games’: Comparative Analysis

The film The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and the text Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll both examine the notion of point of view. However, both plots are formed through the close interaction between the reader and the narrator. The narrator’s influential role forms what will be expressed through the narrative and what will be portrayed for the reader to observe. Through the use of both visual and verbal discourse, the texts signify features of focalization, narration, charisma, and intertextuality. These language types allow the reader to gather further knowledge and understanding about the narrative and the specific point of view the narrator is trying to embody. However, the significance of a story is constructed within the reader on a personal level in terms of past experiences and context, irrespective of the observations that the narrator promotes.

Visual and language features are vital in analyzing The Hunger Games and Alice in Wonderland. They both portray a vigorous part in positioning and shaping the reader’s responses to the text from a specific point of view, as both narratives propose a viewpoint that permits the reader to analyze and interpret the story. In Suzanne Collin’s The Hunger Games, the point of view is the narrator of the main character, Katniss Everdeen. The novel is written in first person, showcasing Katniss Everdeen’s perspective throughout the novel and allowing the reader to build an emotional connection to the protagonist almost instantly. The novel begins with an abrupt personal opening line, ‘’When I wake up, the other side of the bed Is cold’’, the use of the word ‘’I’’ serves as a personal pronoun that indicates to the reader that they will watch the narrative evolve from a first-person standpoint.

Collins purposely wrote the novel in a first-person point of view to generate a personal connection between the reader and the protagonist, allowing the reader to interpret the meaning of the text emotionally and closely. Collins allowed for the sensitive attachment between the reader and the protagonist to occur through Katniss’s brutal experience in The Hunger Games. The reader is drawn inside the action of the games and experiences the horrors of the realities of the game firsthand. Collins allows the reader to have entry to a point of view through the depiction of Katniss’s character conveying her emotions wholeheartedly. Her emotions and descriptive dialogue throughout the novel are carefully positioned for the reader to interpret the significance of the narrative. On page 52, Katniss has a flashback remembering her father’s wise words, ‘’as long as you can find yourself, you’ll never starve’’. This expression spoken by her father figuratively embodies the philosophy that will offer the key to Katniss’s victory in the games. Her journey is one that allows her to discover her identity, which embodies her enduring willpower as well as her more emotional personality. The effect of her father delivering these lines allowed Katniss to reveal the raw emotions that she usually concealed to portray a brave and courageous demeanor for the purpose of the games. This displays the narrative in an expressive and raw light that allows the reader to feel an emotional attachment to Katniss’s feelings, as the focalization of Katniss discovers her personal identity and experience in The Hunger Games. This scene also shapes the story as an emotional dystopia and allows readers, specifically teens to realize that expressing your emotions is not a sign of weakness but rather a normal feeling that humans go through. Thus, the reader can evaluate the significance and meaning of the text through Katniss’s point of view in this scene.

The point of view of Katniss is also prevalent when observing her thoughts on the capitol and its privileges in comparison to the districts. Katniss quotes, ‘’They do surgery in the capitol, to make people appear younger and thinner. In District 12, looking old is something of an achievement since so many people die early… A plump person is envied because they aren’t scraping by like the majority of us. But in the capitol it’s different…’’. Katniss’s thoughts come directly after noticing how young Caesar Flickerman looks from the plastic surgery he has invested in. These thoughts highlight the clear differences in class and status and how every aspect of a human’s life is reliant on their social hierarchy. Katniss challenges her contradictory emotions in regard to class in her early phases of volunteering as tribute, as she is stunned by the extravagance of the capitol. The class hierarchy is a continuous trend that flows through the novel and the games itself. The burdens of poverty took a toll on Katniss but provided her with a sense of encouragement and strength that ultimately helped her journey to victory in the games. This scene is vital in allowing readers to appreciate the significance of the story and to understand how the narrative was shaped in relation to this separation of classes based on wealth and poverty.

Collin’s main goal was to shape the novel in a way that provided a political message to teens. This divide between the classes allows the reader to understand that there is in fact an unfair political divide within society that is hard to overturn and control. Katniss realized that this divide was unjust and wanted to make a change for her and her district. Her emotions allowed the reader to understand this divide from her point of view, allowing readers to comprehend the significance of this scene in making meaning of the text. The narrator allowed the reader to perceive the situation through her eyes, signifying the importance of class divisions and how to revolt against these ideals.

The ongoing topic of identity and the illogicalities Katniss feels are assisted by the sense of irony that is present between what she detects in herself and what the reader detects. It is apparent to the reader that Katniss slowly learns to accept her emotions and uses this as a strength rather than a weakness, however, she is not always capable of recognizing this because she is recounting the story in the present tense. This is evident in the relationship between Katniss and Peeta, she is persistent in believing that her affection is only for the publicity of the show, even though her feeling for Peeta are most definitely sincere. This is evident in, ‘’The idea of actually losing Peeta hit me again and I realized how much I don’t want him to die…And it’s not just that I don’t want to be alone. It’s him. I do not want to lose the boy with the bread’’. Katniss tries to grasp the burgeoning bond between herself and Peeta. There is a sense of dramatic irony in the awareness of the reader that Katniss is falling in love with him. Calling him ‘’the bread boy’’ allows the reader to understand that Katniss is connecting him to the act of kindness he did for her. This moment allows Katniss to admit that her feelings helped her with her victory in the game. Thus, the point of view of Katniss as the narrator in this scene allows the reader to interpret the meaning of the text as a lesson of self-discovery of one’s feelings. It also shapes the significance of the story because Katniss’s point of view permits the reader to understand why the theme of identity is a vital aspect of the novel.

The act of rebellion is also evident although the narrator does not know it. Katniss learns to use the community as a catalyst for faith to get her through the games, yet her goal is still central to the notion of survival. Katniss being the reader’s only lens to the narrative, explores how the reader’s identity is formed even when the reader does not recognize it. In contrast to this, Lewis Carroll’s, Alice in Wonderland also demonstrates the feature of focalization through Alice discovering her individual identity and experience whilst exploring wonderland. In contrast to The Hunger Games, the point of view in Alice in Wonderland is not narrated directly through the protagonist like in The Hunger Games but is narrated in the third person and occasionally written in the first and second person. The narrative portrays Alice traveling through wonderland, expressing her feelings and experiences throughout the journey. Due to the narration of the story being told through a disembodied being, the reader does not get the story from the perspective of Alice, but rather her thoughts and feelings are being directly told to the reader, which generates a sense of detachment from Alice’s character. However, through the narrative point of view of the narrator, it is still possible to be invested and connect to Alice because of her strong personality and adventure throughout the narrative. Thus, the point of view allows the reader to shape the story and its significance through the reader’s perspective. Alice quotes in the story, ‘’who in the world am I?’’. Alice asks herself this question instantly after she develops into a full-grown human and scared the White Rabbit away.

Alice comes to the realization that she is not only trying to figure out wonderland but is also attempting to figure out her personal identity too. This is a challenge to Alice because she finds herself in a world that constantly challenges her viewpoint and sense of identity. Wonderland challenged Alice as she begins to understand that the way she perceives herself will remain unfixed whilst she is trapped in a world that upholds totally different rules and ideals from her own. In her time spent in wonderland, Alice identifies a slippery awareness of her self-perception. Because Wonderland is a byproduct of Alice’s own mind and imagination, it is evident that it is in fact Alice’s identity and not the mystical Wonderland that is being examined. The preposterous features and characters in Wonderland spread from Alice’s intellect, thus, her journey to grasp Wonderland becomes a quest to comprehend the feelings and thoughts that make up her persona and identity. Carroll purposely allows the narrator to give the reader a close insight into what Alice is thinking in this moment of the text, displayed through the narration of her process of thought during this scene. Alice’s questioning of her identity allows the reader to make meaning of the text and the way they interpret it. In this case, Collins wanted to ensure that the theme of self-discovery is apparent through the challenges of a mystical land that can embody the harsh realities of life too. Ultimately, point of view in narratives plays a vital role in how the reader can shape and perceive a text. It also allows the author to capture the story in a certain way through the point of view of a specific character in order to make their point of the story clear to the reader. The Hunger Games and Alice in Wonderland take a different approach in regard to the point of view that the story is narrated. However, they are both similar because both authors wanted the reader to feel emotionally attached to the protagonists of both texts although The Hunger Games was written in first person whereas Alice in Wonderland was not. They both portray a vital part in positioning and shaping the reader’s responses to the text from a specific point of view, as both narratives propose a viewpoint that permits the reader to analyze and interpret the story.