Alice in Wonderland, by Graciela Suárez (Advanced level, Year 1)

Alice in Wonderland

As a little introduction to Alice in Wonderland, we must say it is a book which mixes dream and reality in a fictitious place.
Satire and caricatures are used to criticize the social moment where the author lives.
Alice in wonderland is a book which links a girl’s involvement in adults’ world.

The book starts when a girl, Alice, goes after a white rabbit; From that moment on Alice lives some fantastic adventures: from eating a cake and, talking a caterpillar, a pig or a Cheshire cat or her playing cricket with the crazy Queen.
After all her adventures, she realizes that she had lived a nightmare; at the end she becomes aware the nightmare will be the future society.
The book is, in general, an easy book whose vocabulary is not so difficult; in fact there are many children adaptations of it.
Lewis Carroll explains a nightmare where a girl faces up with a new world for her, adults’ world and Alice is seen as the Victorian heroine.
The most outstanding chapter is the picnic with the hatter and I believe this chapter is a criticism towards British society and the tea tradition of a crazy country, as the Cheshire cat said.

Finally, I recommend this book because it is a wonderful world of a dreamy girl, an unpredictable novel where there is a clear criticism to Victorian education and society.