“Alice in Wonderland” Postcolonial Deconstructionist Analysis
Disney’s Alice in Wonderland is a movie adapted from the popular books by Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. The still popular film was created in the early 1950s and tells the story of a young girl and her adventures in a surprising, new world called Wonderland. Through a postcolonial critic’s eyes, the story can be viewed as a clash of two cultures, one young Americans are familiar with, and one in which is left up to the imagination. The two cultures individually have their own ideals and guidelines which differ very much from one another.
Before Alice knows of Wonderland, she is daydreaming while her sister is reading to her as some form of education. Alice makes a tiara out of flowers for her kitty, Diamond, as she ignores her lesson. She sings to herself, “In a world of my own, I could listen to a babbling brook and hear a song that I could understand. I keep wishing it would be that way, because my world would be a wonderland.” Alice is searching for something her culture does not offer, which is one of imagination and talking nature. She is searching for something her culture lacks.
When analyzing this piece with post-colonialism theory in mind, I recognize that there is a switch in the binaries of colonized/colonizer. Usually, in post-colonial theory, the colonizer is the one who inhabits in the new land and exerts power, while the colonized are the people oppressed by the new power and are viewed as “the Other.” However, when Alice accidentally stumbles into Wonderland, her own culture beliefs take a shift as she becomes oppressed by existing standards regarded in Wonderland, thus making this a deconstructionist post-colonial piece of analysis since the colonizer (Alice) becomes the oppressed.
When Alice initially enters Wonderland, she becomes the lost colonizer who is demanding answers from the colonized. She questions the White Rabbit about what he is late for, but he refuses to pay her any attention because he views her as less than him. The White Rabbit only states, “Oh, my ears and whiskers, I’m late, I’m late, I’m late.” By not acknowledging Alice, the White Rabbit implies that Alice is “the Other” for she is not seen as equal or above him.
A clash of cultures is exhibited when Alice finds her way to the flower garden in “The Golden Afternoon” scene. The beautiful flowers sing a proud song about their culture, including lyrics such as, “There are dog and caterpillars and a copper centipede, where the lazy daisies love the very peaceful life they lead… You can learn a lot of things from the flowers, for especially in the month of June. There's a wealth of happiness and romance, all in the golden afternoon.” When the flowers imply for Alice to sing along with them, she chimes in a misses a note. Because she faults when singing, they begin to question her and her presence, poking fun of her physical state of being with phrases like “Did you notice her petals? What a peculiar color. And no fragrance. And just look at those stems. Rather scrawny, I'd say…” They declare her a “weed,” even though she refutes them and states she is a girl. They state, “We don’t want weeds in our garden,” and shoo her out of their land. By doing this, the flowers enforce the idea that Alice is indeed “the Other” and will never equal the social class of them.
One would think that after this scene, Alice would be much more hostile to the relationship she has built with the colonized’s culture (Wonderland). However, in her frustration, she exerts still the same curiosity which brought her to this land in the first place, resulting in her questioning the caterpillar soon to follow. Thus, she exemplifies Bhabha’s use of ambivalence in post-colonial terms for she has a “simultaneous attraction toward and repulsion in the context of the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized” (notes).
The caterpillar is a very pivotal character in “Alice in Wonderland,” for he is the first character to truly search for Alice’s identity and waits for an answer. He questions, “Who are you?” to Alice upon first meeting her, in which she responds, “Why, I hardly know, sir. I've changed so much since this morning, you see… I'm afraid I can't explain myself, you see, because I'm not myself, you know.” At this moment, Alice recognizes that the colonized culture of Wonderland has changed her identity. Post-colonial critics recognize this as mimicry, in which the oppressed subject begins to mimic the oppressing culture.
The hegemony of Wonderland is contrived of a few important ideals: time is imperative, respect for the Queen a necessity, and the understanding that “we’re all mad here.” Alice, as the colonizer, rejects the notions of the oppressive culture’s hegemony continuously throughout the movie. She is consistently wandering about, never able to find her way or to manage her time. At the end of the movie, she shows a great disregard of respect for the Queen, even though she is the most powerful lady in Wonderland with the option of another’s execution placed directly in her hands. And lastly, at the tea- party, Alice deduces that everything is just ridiculous and that she does “doesn’t want to go among mad people.” This superior culture’s hegemony affects the oppressed Alice throughout the story, yet she demonstrates sheer resistance in trying to maintain her own separate identity from those of the Wonderland culture.
Alice, as the oppressed colonizer (when viewing this movie from a deconstruction post- colonial critics eyes), is silenced in the colonized land of Wonderland for her continual inability to be able to communicate with those there. The language is one of the same, but the mindset in which the two cultures communicate in is one wholly different. The colonizers are used to “being mad” while Alice’s familiar culture is one of structure and education. Throughout her search home, Alice often finds herself in frustration by her inability to receive proper instruction from the mad people of Wonderland. Thus, the language of the colonized is one of oppression, for if one does not communicate in this format, they will forever remain “the Other” and consequently never find their way home.
“Alice in Wonderland” is a movie which exemplifies the culture conflicts which occur when the colonized/colonizer meet and interact. However, when looking at this story from a post- colonial critics viewpoint, one is better to understand the characters’ struggles by flipping the binaries of colonized/ colonizer and viewing Wonderland as the oppressor and Alice as the oppressed. By Alice’s recognition that her culture lacks something, and her desire to seek and find what it is lacking, she is sent into a whirlwind of a world which meets her wishes at the extreme. By the end of the text, the oppressed colonizer (Alice) wants nothing more but then to return to her previous culture in which she understands the hegemony and can communicate her ideas clearly.
Disney’s Alice in Wonderland is a movie adapted from the popular books by Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. The still popular film was created in the early 1950s and tells the story of a young girl and her adventures in a surprising, new world called Wonderland. Through a postcolonial critic’s eyes, the story can be viewed as a clash of two cultures, one young Americans are familiar with, and one in which is left up to the imagination. The two cultures individually have their own ideals and guidelines which differ very much from one another.
Before Alice knows of Wonderland, she is daydreaming while her sister is reading to her as some form of education. Alice makes a tiara out of flowers for her kitty, Diamond, as she ignores her lesson. She sings to herself, “In a world of my own, I could listen to a babbling brook and hear a song that I could understand. I keep wishing it would be that way, because my world would be a wonderland.” Alice is searching for something her culture does not offer, which is one of imagination and talking nature. She is searching for something her culture lacks.
When analyzing this piece with post-colonialism theory in mind, I recognize that there is a switch in the binaries of colonized/colonizer. Usually, in post-colonial theory, the colonizer is the one who inhabits in the new land and exerts power, while the colonized are the people oppressed by the new power and are viewed as “the Other.” However, when Alice accidentally stumbles into Wonderland, her own culture beliefs take a shift as she becomes oppressed by existing standards regarded in Wonderland, thus making this a deconstructionist post-colonial piece of analysis since the colonizer (Alice) becomes the oppressed.
When Alice initially enters Wonderland, she becomes the lost colonizer who is demanding answers from the colonized. She questions the White Rabbit about what he is late for, but he refuses to pay her any attention because he views her as less than him. The White Rabbit only states, “Oh, my ears and whiskers, I’m late, I’m late, I’m late.” By not acknowledging Alice, the White Rabbit implies that Alice is “the Other” for she is not seen as equal or above him.
A clash of cultures is exhibited when Alice finds her way to the flower garden in “The Golden Afternoon” scene. The beautiful flowers sing a proud song about their culture, including lyrics such as, “There are dog and caterpillars and a copper centipede, where the lazy daisies love the very peaceful life they lead… You can learn a lot of things from the flowers, for especially in the month of June. There's a wealth of happiness and romance, all in the golden afternoon.” When the flowers imply for Alice to sing along with them, she chimes in a misses a note. Because she faults when singing, they begin to question her and her presence, poking fun of her physical state of being with phrases like “Did you notice her petals? What a peculiar color. And no fragrance. And just look at those stems. Rather scrawny, I'd say…” They declare her a “weed,” even though she refutes them and states she is a girl. They state, “We don’t want weeds in our garden,” and shoo her out of their land. By doing this, the flowers enforce the idea that Alice is indeed “the Other” and will never equal the social class of them.
One would think that after this scene, Alice would be much more hostile to the relationship she has built with the colonized’s culture (Wonderland). However, in her frustration, she exerts still the same curiosity which brought her to this land in the first place, resulting in her questioning the caterpillar soon to follow. Thus, she exemplifies Bhabha’s use of ambivalence in post-colonial terms for she has a “simultaneous attraction toward and repulsion in the context of the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized” (notes).
The caterpillar is a very pivotal character in “Alice in Wonderland,” for he is the first character to truly search for Alice’s identity and waits for an answer. He questions, “Who are you?” to Alice upon first meeting her, in which she responds, “Why, I hardly know, sir. I've changed so much since this morning, you see… I'm afraid I can't explain myself, you see, because I'm not myself, you know.” At this moment, Alice recognizes that the colonized culture of Wonderland has changed her identity. Post-colonial critics recognize this as mimicry, in which the oppressed subject begins to mimic the oppressing culture.
The hegemony of Wonderland is contrived of a few important ideals: time is imperative, respect for the Queen a necessity, and the understanding that “we’re all mad here.” Alice, as the colonizer, rejects the notions of the oppressive culture’s hegemony continuously throughout the movie. She is consistently wandering about, never able to find her way or to manage her time. At the end of the movie, she shows a great disregard of respect for the Queen, even though she is the most powerful lady in Wonderland with the option of another’s execution placed directly in her hands. And lastly, at the tea- party, Alice deduces that everything is just ridiculous and that she does “doesn’t want to go among mad people.” This superior culture’s hegemony affects the oppressed Alice throughout the story, yet she demonstrates sheer resistance in trying to maintain her own separate identity from those of the Wonderland culture.
Alice, as the oppressed colonizer (when viewing this movie from a deconstruction post- colonial critics eyes), is silenced in the colonized land of Wonderland for her continual inability to be able to communicate with those there. The language is one of the same, but the mindset in which the two cultures communicate in is one wholly different. The colonizers are used to “being mad” while Alice’s familiar culture is one of structure and education. Throughout her search home, Alice often finds herself in frustration by her inability to receive proper instruction from the mad people of Wonderland. Thus, the language of the colonized is one of oppression, for if one does not communicate in this format, they will forever remain “the Other” and consequently never find their way home.
“Alice in Wonderland” is a movie which exemplifies the culture conflicts which occur when the colonized/colonizer meet and interact. However, when looking at this story from a post- colonial critics viewpoint, one is better to understand the characters’ struggles by flipping the binaries of colonized/ colonizer and viewing Wonderland as the oppressor and Alice as the oppressed. By Alice’s recognition that her culture lacks something, and her desire to seek and find what it is lacking, she is sent into a whirlwind of a world which meets her wishes at the extreme. By the end of the text, the oppressed colonizer (Alice) wants nothing more but then to return to her previous culture in which she understands the hegemony and can communicate her ideas clearly.
I just wanted to say thank you for posting about literary theories and literature and making it so someone can actually understand what you are saying. Thank you. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteThank you, I really appreciate the compliment! I will be writing more during the summer. If you have any requests, let me know!
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