Oh Alice, What Will You Teach Us Next?

I believe that Carroll supports equality amongst humans and animals in his classic children’s story Alice in Wonderland. Although Alice considers talking animals quite strange at first, she does treat them all with respect.

Many critics, including our student essay sample, claim that Carroll does not portray an equality between the two species because of the “Walrus and Carpentar Story” that the Tweedles tell Alice. I do agree that Alice “focuses on the Walrus and the Carpenter’s feelings – not the Oyster’s,” (534). However, I believe that Carroll rhetorical purpose was for his audience to learn through Alice. In this story, Alice is able to see the wrong in the Walrus for eating “more than the Carpenter” and in the Carpenter for eating “as many as he could get” (513). Alice leads her audience to understand from this story that “They were both unpleasant characters” for eating the oysters who befriended and trusted them. This is the correct message to send to a young audience so that they understand the ill actions of the Walrus and the Carpenter are bad while also not scaring them from eating anything at all.


Carroll also shows this equality in the dinner Alice attends with the Red and White Queen. When she is served mutton and introduced to it by the Red Queen, Alice asks the mutton “may I give you a slice?” (515). The Red Queen supports the equality between animals and humans by stating “it isn’t etiquette to cut any one you’ve been introduced to” (515). The sane issue arises when Alice is served pudding and tries to eat it. The pudding responds “What impertinence. I wonder how you’d like it, if I were to cut a slice our of you, you creature!” (516). I believe that this statement leaves the reader with the idea of equality and that we are not any better than the food we eat. Although it does leave an older reader to question what we are allowed to eat in order to survive, it does teach a young reader the necessary respect we should have for fellow animals.

Aside from what we are allowed to eat, Carroll suggests an ethical equal relationship with animals through Alice’s many encounters with them. She uses appropriate etiquette with the mouse in the pool of tears when she says “Oh I beg your pardon. I quite forgot you didn’t like cats” (469). When she meets the caterpillar, she addresses him as “sir” (479) and asks the despicable Duchess “Please would you tell me why your cat grins?” (483). Throughout Alice’s encounters, Carroll gives a great deal of importance to manners, a valuable lesson to teach a young audience. Through his eloquent words he is also able to show the distinct difference between good and bad. The animals are portrayed as good and intrigue Alice whereas human characters such as the Duchess and the Red Queen are considered bad figures. To further prove this fact, Carroll portays Alice shaking the shrinking Red Queen, but only after she has been identified as a bad person.

Therefore, I believe that Carroll effectively teaches his young audience to respect the animals we coexist with. Additionally, he shows the distinct difference between good and bad while showing the importance of using polite manners towards them both.