Surrealism: "Sense and Nonsense"

Returning back to the concept of the website title and theme (as explained in my first post, "Down We Go: The Hare"), Alice in Wonderland was one of the many movies from Disney that captured my little child heart. As a kid, I just enjoyed the characters and animation and had a good laugh at all the antics. But now, after finally re-watching this movie again, I was forced to acknowledge the seemingly great amount of time that has passed since my childhood—a consuming sense of nostalgia paired up with a dash of melancholy. Watching the movie again, I was surprised at how little I remembered it. Although I repeatedly watched it as a kid, I only remembered a few characters and scenes from the cacophony of details the animation pushed into my head. Perhaps my brain decided to block out what was not "logical" to me as I grew up, maybe repressing the movie's chaos that was not usually encountered in my conscious reality—but, behind this chaos, was the artistic movement that many famous paintings and artists were born from: Surrealism.

"Who Are You?"

Now, the Caterpillar is introduced to Alice further along in her adventures. He sits on a mushroom, surrounded by other mushrooms and ferns. He takes a puff of questionable smoke from a pipe, blowing out smoke in shapes of letters, and before Alice can ask any more questions, the Caterpillar returns her inquiries with his own—"Who are you?" They ask one another who the other are, and then the Caterpillar asks Alice to "recite" (some poem or text), but when she tries, he deems it as incorrect. When Alice walks off in frustration, he calls her back to admonish her temper, proclaiming that she should "curb her temper."

The Caterpillar represents an education's (or mentor/teacher) role in socializing children for the adult world. Putting aside the heavy drug connotations for now, the one piece of evidence for this stance is the Caterpillar’s demand for Alice to "recite" and the smokey letters he blows towards Alice. Very much paralleling the demeanor of a teacher or a tutor, he also criticizes the Alice's child-like behavior and gives her advice on how to grow taller and shorter. But the biggest factor was his question "Who are you?". Of course, Alice responds with "I don't know." And why would she know; what might take some of us years to figure out is suddenly prompted by the Caterpillar for Alice to answer in a couple of seconds. But just like the Caterpillar, many adults (especially teachers or mentors) ask children a similar type of question. Just like Alice, many children will not have the answer yet. There is probably a point in every child's life where someone asked them, "Hey, what do you want to do in life?" or "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Usually, once question becomes raised, children who are old enough to start thinking about the future—about school, jobs, and their social clock. Additionally, the Caterpillar's for Alice to "curb her temper" may also signify the socialization of gendered hegemonic ideals. For girls, they have to appear demure and proper, and negative emotions should be restrained. Feelings like anger and frustration are deemed "unladylike" or "improper" within society's eyes. This is further elaborated in the previous scene before Alice meets the Caterpillar, when she meets garden flowers who judge her based on appearance and "genus." They ultimately label her a weed and kick her out of the garden, telling her that she has no place with the beautiful flowers.

Although not explicitly stated, it is heavily implied that the Caterpillar is taking some kind of drug. If the mushrooms don't give it away, then perhaps the bong, his strange behavior, or the psychedelic colors might have been a bigger indication. But it probably would not have been all too surprising for Surrealists to witness this scene. For them, using drugs was a way to alter their consciousness and look into their psyche, to experience a world different from reality. Lewis Carroll did take medicine containing drugs like opium, but there is no concrete evidence that has shown he actually did drugs recreationally. Either way, the concept between Surrealists and drugs can be applied similarly to the Caterpillar. At the end of their exchange, the Caterpillar cocoons himself in the smoke and transforms into a butterfly, perhaps his "true", uncensored form. Which means that doing these drugs could have led him to finding his unaltered form—the epitome of his "human," or animal, psyche.

Happily Ever After?

By the end of the movie, Alice learns to move on from her "nonsense" (and by extension, her child-like view of the world) once she proclaims that she is done chasing the White Rabbit and wants to go home. Since her experience was just a dream she created, she explores her own psyche to resolve this internal conflict, learning how to grow up through the mental manifestations of these animals and characters. In this sense, her experiences hold a similar role to her development as with Max's dream in "Where the Wild Things Are." Similar to Prof. Amiran's analysis, Alice could also be rectifying any problems and issues she is facing as a child through her own dreams by re-enacting them out. Surrealism helped to shift the real to something nonsensical and irrational, allowing Alice to explore who she is without the bounds of reality.

Now, I find myself relating more to Alice's experiences—the fears and struggles of adulthood and being lost in the forest of life—and I am sure everyone else has experienced it as well. I am definitely not as invested with the movie like how my younger self was but revisiting the movie did have me a bigger appreciation for the time that has already passed. My experiences growing up may vary with children from the 1950s and even the experiences from children today, but there are some fundamental similarities that we all go through as we advanced toward adulthood, and this movie remains relevant to many people after so many years due to these shared experiences. Even though I am considered an "adult" (legally, but perhaps better defined as "emerging adulthood" developmentally), I am still struggling with the idea of becoming one. But even then, when do we truly become an adult? When we turn 18 or finally move out of our parents’ house? When we start our careers or graduate from college? But hopefully, when that time comes, I can watch Alice in Wonderland again and look back at my childhood and adolescence with a new perspective.