Alice as an Archetypal Hero BY pencil Hannah A. Mercado IV Naira Literature Alice in Wonderland is a renown classic written by Lewis Carroll from 1865. While on a boat party, Lewis told tales to three children for entertainment. One of the children, Alice, was enamored by the story and requested that he write it down. This is what inspired the story. It is whimsical and caters to children's delight and to some readers it is confusing at most. To better understand the tale, we will breakdown Lice's character as an archetypal hero. Now what is an archetypal hero?
An archetypal hero is one of the many universal symbols of literature. It is subdivided into hero archetypes: the quest, the initiation, and the sacrificial scapegoat. These are the three things that the protagonist
...must go through before he could be generally recognized as a hero. Who is Alice? She is young girl set in the Victorian era of England. In the beginning of the story, she is well mannered and has an iron set of beliefs that come from her education and background. She is not exposed to any distressing or exciting situations and thus found herself bored.
In search for adventure, she tumbles down a rabbit hole and encounters situations that would test her belief. The similarity of Alice to archetypal heroes is seen in the first chapter of the book; and that is the beginning of a quest. Alice, in her monotonous afternoon, found something different: a talking white rabbit and in her curiosity, followed it. The rabbit and the garden symbolize desires or dreams that she would be chasing throughout th
story. Her falling into the rabbit hole and into Wonderland is parallel to the first step of initiation.
Separation is needed in order to isolate any other factors that would suggest that the hero's efforts is not his. It also tests the hero's qualities and is a catalyst for uprising conflicts. Exposing Alice to a whole new different world challenges her character. More so if it is the total opposite of what she believes is true. In this new world, she is seen as something different rather than something normal. In our view, she is a perfectly average young Victorian girl (if a little too smart for her age) but unknowingly, this is another recurrent theme in heroes: the special tribute.
Her being 'normal' is what makes her 'different' in the tops-truly world of Wonderland. The antagonistic characters she encounters defy her belief of logical cause and effect. The acceptance of the nonsense that governs Wonderland is the first recurring conflict in the story. Being immersed in Wonderland confuses her and makes her doubt her identity. The constant negative reactions to her 'differentiates' makes her gradually get used to it. In ten climax, ten court AT Knaves, seen realizes now seen was easily swayed Day ten else world of Wonderland. This is where the transformation takes place.
The terror that the Red Queen spreads around is not Justified by anything but her mean personality. Alice realizes that the whole world of Wonderland is a farce, therefore finding the truth and reason behind anything there is Just a wild goose chase. This is where Lice's character is solidified. After her literal, archetypal, and figurative transformation is
her return. Alice returns with new knowledge and experience to the world of the conscious and retells her adventures to her older sister who undermines Lice's somewhat traumatic experiences into a fanciful child's story.
In definition, Alice could be classified as an archetypal hero as she satisfies the hero archetypes. This sheds some light that archetypically, many things could still be derived from the literature as universal symbols. I learned many things from seriously analyzing the text. I didn't really like the book before but after seeing that under all the confusing English puns and Jokes, is actually substantial content, I learned to love it in its many layers and faces.
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