I got lazy so here is my English report on Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carol. My Fanatical Adventure with Through the Looking-Glass
As time would so have told, I recall picking up a tiny red book. A small pocket sized red book. Maybe this tiny red book stood out to me, maybe it looked nice. In days that were kinder to me, I chose this book, just this small red book in Barnes and Noble. On the plain cover of this book in gold letters laid magnificently were the words “Through the Looking-Glass” Second Grade was new to me, I had just moved into a house in Monmouth County. Going to new school felt like just stepping through the looking glass. Everyone and everything there was new, odd and strange. Maybe, that’s why I liked the book so much, I felt I could relate with Alice. My first impressions of the book were delight and being confounded at the story. The story was about a girl who had stepped a mirror and entered a strange world. In this world many of the denizens were chess pieces. Shortly after Alice steps into the world the Red Queen tells her she will become a Queen if Alice can make it to the eighth rank as a pawn. I felt like I could relate to Alice at this point because, I too had stepped into a strange new world. I also had great expectations placed on me in my new home. Many people in this world were new and could not be understood by Alice, due to their strange ways of communication and how they spoke. I could relate this to me at the time easily because I had to fit into with a new school and meet new people, a task like that would certainly be daunting to face. In the world of the Looking-Glass many of the denizens spoke in poems, rhymes or in vague sentences. When I was reading the book the characters latched on with their words and didn’t let go at all. The words spoken were woven together with beautiful structure, along with meaning in the way the characters spoke. When Alice met the flowers in the garden, the flowers called her a “Flower that can move about”. I find this to be a great piece of dialogue as what separates the two if flowers can talk also. In this case would humans be flowers, or would flowers be considered humans for once. When Alice met the two brothers Tweedledee and Tweedledum, I felt amused at the brothers as they argued a lot over all sorts of things. The brothers were like my brother and me as at that time we argued and fought a lot over all sorts of things. The brothers tell a poem to Alice, however as the brothers finish up telling the poem, The Carpenter and The Walrus, they fight again and get armored for battle. Tweedledee and Tweedledum fortunately do not fight because a giant crow swoops in and scared then off, as predicated by the nursery they were singing before. Soon after this event ended, Alice met the White Queen, who transformed herself into sheep soon after. Alice then takes her on a row boat and starts rowing to get her into the sixth square of chess. During this trip the sheep starts shouting randomly about crabs and feathers. However, unknown to Alice at the time those were actually rowing terms and made perfect sense at the time compared to what Alice was thinking. I can relate to the White Queen because when I first moved to where I live, I felt like many people thought I was talking gibberish compared to what they were talking. However, I was talking about things they had no interest in. When Alice reaches the seventh rank she runs into the Red Knight who is intent on capturing the “White Pawn”. Fortunately the White Knight comes to her rescue and saves her; he acts with chivalrous behavior as that was expected of knights back in the time. I felt like the White Knight reminded me of my Guidance Counselor at the time as he helped me get along with the people in my new school. The Guidance Counselor stepped in and made sure that I could fit in easily and without much difficulty. When Alice finally reaches the eighth rank she is crowned a Queen instantly. Suddenly the other two Queens expect her to throw a party which Alice had no idea of beforehand. This part amused me because it was nonsensical in many ways. When Alice sits down at her own party, the party erupts into an uproar. Alice then grabs the Red Queen, whom she believes caused her all this trouble on that day and starts shaking her. This was much like the ending of Alice in Wonderland where she shook her black cat and woke up from her dream. In this book Alice also shook her cat until she woke up from her dream, when she woke up she thought the black cat was the Red Queen and the white cat was the White Queen. In many ways the story was a dream much like how life is a dream. Life can throw many nuisances and curveballs, however I went through moving into a new area and liked it.