The Cheshire Cat

The Cheshire in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll, has a very prominent role in Alice's time spent in Wonderland. The picture above displays one scene in the book where Alice and the Cat have a very pivotal conversation for Alice. At first Alice seems to be wondering around Wonderland, not really sure what to do. It is the Cat who tells her that if she doesn't know where she wants to go, then she will end up anywhere. It kind of reminds me of the quote, "If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything". If you don't have a goal, or something to work toward or believe in, then you are just wandering around aimlessly without a purpose. I believe that Alice through this encounter Alice realizes that she must go through Wonderland with a purpose, and she starts searching to understand what is going on around her there. The Cheshire cat also changes her perspective on the definition of mad in another conversation that goes like this:

 "But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.

"Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: "We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."

"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.

"You must be," said the Cat, "otherwise you wouldn't have come here."

Alice didn't think that proved it at all: however she went on. "And how do you know that you're mad?"

"To begin with," said the Cat, "a dog's not mad. You grant that?"

"I suppose so," said Alicel

"Well, then," the Cat went on, "you see a dog growls when it's angry, and wags its tail when it's pleased. Now I growl when I'm pleased, and wag my tail when I'm angry. Therefore I'm mad."

"I call it purring, not growling," said Alice.

"Call it what you like," said the Cat.

In the Tim Burton movie, this is translated to Alice's father's lesson to her that everyone is mad and the best people are mad, along with the theory that you should think up ten impossible things before breakfast, so obviously the idea of being mad is a very important theme. The whole idea of Wonderland is that yes, everyone is mad, but it is important that we all accept who we are and realize that we should accept others too. At least, that's what I got from it. I'm sure Alice did have some sort of affect on the Cat (because everyone seems to have some sort of an affect on others in this world), but I think the Cat's lesson to Alice is the most important thing in their talks. I think Alice just gave the Cat a chance to relay his wisdom and what he knew on someone who would actually listen. In my opinion, Alice running into the Cat and having conversations with him is what created a way for Alice to actually learn life lessons from her experience in Wonderland.