Alice in Wonderland VIII -- chapter 5: ADULTS ARE ALL WONDERFUL MONSTERS

While they skipped the quintessential "You are Old Father William," the scene with the caterpillar is, I think, one of the best moments in Disney's animated Alice in Wonderland.

Carroll said that the nose and
chin of the Caterpillar are actually
two of his legs; I don't know what
Tenniel might have said about it.

1. As seen in the previous chapter, Alice has constant problems with the "adult" creatures in Wonderland, and as said in a comment for that chapter, I believe Wonderland is indicative of Alice's, or any kid's, experience navigating the world of adults, and not that world as an adult will see it, but as as child sees it.
2. Alice's inability to recite poetry "correctly:" is it an issue of simple forgetfulness, a general lack of self control on her part, or the influence of the place upon her?
3. Robert Southey's "The Old Man's Comforts and How He Gained Them" is below (Southey also wrote "Goldilocks and the Three Bears").
4. Is there any deeper connection between the poem and Alice/Carroll/the narrative than the Caterpillar's apparently random request?
5. If the creatures of Wonderland are parallels for stuffy old grownups, why are they so easily offended?  Along those same lines, what of its advice, "Keep your temper"?
6. Does the caterpillar read Alice's mind when it says, "Of the mushroom," regardless of Carroll's belief that mind-reading and telekinesis were real?
7. Puzzle: how might Alice guarantee that she gets one piece from each side of the mushroom?
8. Her growth (both up and down) indicate that her changes are not always proportional.
9. What do you make, if anything, of Alice the Serpent?  And what of Alice's truthfulness, which always gets her in trouble here?
10. I wonder if Carroll's efforts to demean adults through his descriptions of them in the book (because if they're all adults, then so is the pigeon, and, excuse me, but the pigeon is an idiot: "but if they do, why, then they're a kind of serpent") are meant to show how very dissimilar he is to them, as if he's working mightily to denounce his obvious participation in their exclusive club.

The Old Man's Comforts

and How He Gained Them

by Robert Southey

You are old, Father William the young man cried,

The few locks which are left you are grey;

You are hale, Father William, a hearty old man,

Now tell me the reason, I pray.

In the days of my youth, Father William replied,

I remember’d that youth would fly fast,

And abused not my health and my vigour at first,

That I never might need them at last.

You are old, Father William, the young man cried,

And pleasures with youth pass away;

And yet you lament not the days that are gone,

Now tell me the reason, I pray.

In the days of my youth, Father William replied,

I remember’d that youth could not last;

I thought of the future, whatever I did,

That I never might grieve for the past.

You are old, Father William, the young man cried,

And life must be hastening away;

You are cheerful, and love to converse upon death,

Now tell me the reason, I pray.

I am cheerful, young man, Father William replied,

Let the cause thy attention engage;

In the days of my youth I remember’d my God!

And He hath not forgotten my age.