he got up this morning, but she seems to think shes changed several times since then (Carroll 50). Obviously, Wonderland is beginning to take its toll on Alice. Alice realizes her lack of control in this situation and complains three inches is such a wretched height to be (Carroll 56). This results in Alice once again changing her size. She is now a giant, towering above all the trees, described as a serpent by the Pigeon. Alice of course claims she is a little girl. The reader of course knows she is both. The big question here is which one will she leave Wonderland as, knowing her stay is temporary. It is in fact, the final climatic chapters where Alice is introduced to the King and Queen of Hearts. It is at the trial of the Knave of Hearts that Alice decides she has been ultimately defeated by the nonsense of the characters throughout the book and ends her journey with the classic line, Youre nothing but a pack of cards! (Carroll 147). It is precisely this breaking of tension between her expectations and the actuality of Wonderland and her regressing back into Alice the child that the book is all about (Kelly 82). Thus, the underlying message of Alice is the rejection of adult authority and the vindication of the rights of a child.Finally, analyzing several of his works leads the reader to believe the search for identity is actually a common theme Carroll uses in order to parody the Victorian Era. The Victorian Era was a time in which proper etiquette meant everything. The Victorians, however, had certain expectations of childrens literature ; Carroll choose not to follow the established pattern of childrens books. (Kelly 80)2. Thus much of his humor for most of his life is based upon social protocol. One of his earliest attempts is a hilarious parody of the sort of copy-book maxim that every Victorian child would be familiar with entitled Rules and Regulations3 . Carrolls use of social parody continued with his Alice...
