Power of Dreams

            Whenever I saw for my next journal entry that I would have to read a book, I was quite unhappy. I knew I was going to have to do it anyway, so I went ahead and went to the website to pick out a book. I scanned down the list and my mouth dropped when I saw “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland” by Lewis Caroll. I absolutely loved this story! I have never actually read the book, but I have seen a few different versions of it. I knew I could interpret parts of the book in countless ways.

            At the exact moment that I read the title of this book, it took me back to when I was five years old where I always had some fairy tale or a story line that I got from my dreams to act out as play during my childhood. More specifically, this book triggered my favorite dream which I always called Pegasus Land. It usually started by an enormous tree, and I found a path of hoof prints close by my feet leading to this tree. I followed the dirt path and walked through the door that kept me on the outside. I sprinted up to the spiral trail that climbed up the center of the oak tree. When I got to the top, I was greeted by a jet black Friesian stallion, Spaz. He spoke, welcomed me, and said they have been waiting for me. Spaz gave me a tour of the rest of the place. When we reached the tree top, an unbelievable amount of Pegasus were in their nests and were flying all around. Eventually I got used to it the place, and obtained my own Pegasus, Mocha. Once I got used to flying and attacking, we headed out to save the rest of the herds that the humans had captured. When I first had this dream I started going outside with my horse and would pretend the whole thing happened in real life!

            For Alice, Wonderland happened in her dream where the characters and reality of the real world combined with the unconscious state of Alice. To show, Alice heard the soft sweet bellowing of the cattle and took place of the Mock Turtle’s cries, and the voice of the shepherd boy to the place of the Queen’s disturbing whine. Sometimes an environment can influence your dreams. For instance, when you fall asleep in a place where there is an abundance of noise, those sounds can seep into your dreams. Alice lived on a farm so all of the noises she heard in her sleep could easily overlap into her dreams.

            The cause and effect that happened to Alice showed the things that you will have to adjust to while you get older and loose your childhood innocence. In Chapter One, she dealt with either being too big or too small to enter the garden. Alice lost control over her body when her neck grows to an uncontrollable length in Chapter Five. When Alice drastically changed physically, she was scared and unsure in discomfort. Those are some issues she would have conflict with while maturing.

             Curiosity could have been Alice’s last thought because she ate, drank, and went into random places all because of the rushed white rabbit. Wonderland is a great fiction story for kids to learn that curiosity can have a bad outcome and some things that the future has in store.