For those who are reading along or who want to read along. I started reading the book today. I, however took the lazy route. I skipped the introduction and went straight to chapter 1.

I found a website with book club discussion questions for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Background info and an introduction can also be found here.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Traditionally, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass are both considered stories intended for children. If you were asked to support the contention that these are actually stories for adults, how would you defend this?

Alice Liddell, the model for Carroll’s fairy tale heroine, was a young child when these stories were first told. Although a child in the story, Alice often exhibits mature characteristics; and the adult characters often exhibit childish behavior. Do you consider these books to be an adult’s view of childhood, or a child’s view of adulthood?

Alice rarely speaks nonsense and rarely enjoys it when it is spoken to her. In fact, her speech and manners are as proper as those of any Jane Austen heroine. How is Alice’s perception of the world changed when confronted with the world and characters of nonsense?

The Cheshire Cat suggests that everything Alice experiences in Wonderland is a dream or the result of madness. Prefiguring Freud’s theories, Carroll, in a diary entry, defined “insanity as an inability to distinguish which is the waking and which the sleeping life.” Besides the obvious absurdities in imagery what other aspects of these books mimic a dream state?

“Take care of the sense, and the sounds will take care of themselves.” This play on the proverb, “Take care of the pence and the pounds will take care of themselves,” is a good example of Carroll’s word play. Often these word plays end up with a nonsensical locution; but at other times, as is the case here, they create a completely different, often subversive, meaning. Discuss other examples of Carroll’s word play.

Throughout her adventures, Alice grapples with her identity. While this is a common feature of most children’s books, Alice’s questioning often inadvertently invokes the ideas of western philosophers from Plato to Bishop Berkeley. What philosophical issues about identity does Alice raise?

Throughout both Alice and Looking-Glass, Alice usually exhibits a passivity to the incomprehensible events around her. However, at critical times, she learns to assume control of her circumstances. When does this occur and what actions does she take?

What is the significance of the mushroom that Alice eats during her adventures?

Let’s assume that in Lewis Carroll’s original telling of these stories, he viewed himself as a teacher/mentor to Alice Liddell. How do the ways in which the fictional Alice adapts to her shifting and unusual circumstances translate into meaningful lessons for a child of Alice Liddell’s age?

If the Caterpillar from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland were to give advice to Tweedledee and Tweedledum fromThrough the Looking-Glass on how to solve their differences without having “a bit of a fight,” what might the Caterpillar advise?

Since their publication, many readers have found material in Carroll’s book unsuitable for children. Which parts of the Alice books, if any, do you think are unfit, or even harmful, to children today?