Alice and Diversity

Alice has a keen interest in the characters she meets. She tries to be nice; she tries to be civil. She's a peculiar character to everyone she meets and they are the same to her. It's interesting to notice how Alice tells the group of birds about Dinah (her cat that eats birds); she, at first, is oblivious to the relationship between birds and cats. Another interesting part is when Alice discovers all of the flowers that talk; they critique Alice, but she's not too fond of this concept. Diversity is a practical experience that Alice goes through. At first, she inflicts emotional harm upon others, and then, karma catches up with her; the experiences, no doubt, make her wiser as she ends up as queen!

Birds & Mouse


Let's consider the events one at a time to examine how exactly Alice deals with diversity. Before telling the birds about Dinah, Alice is caught in the pool with the mouse and runs the Caucus Race. Through both of these incidences, Alice wishes that the creatures she meets "wouldn't be so easily offended" (Dodgson, ). Alice isn't her normal size, so she might be in a different mind-set, but still, she disregards the creatures and is only concerned with her own issues. When people are in an environment that's uncomfortable, it's common for them to get concerned with their own issues, but we musn't follow Alice's example. Alice is caught up with the emotional distress caused by her feelings for Dinah. tells the birds about her (Dodgson, 35):

Dinah's our cat. And she's such a capital one for catching mice, you ca'n't think! And oh, I wish you could see her after the irds! Why, she'll eat a little bird as soon as look at it!

Obviously this causes great distress amongst the birds, but Alice failed to be aware of her surroundings. She was lost in her own wonderland within wonderland, and if you can relate to that, then you know what not to do.

You might know this song; feel free to sing along


Carroll also portrays the opposite end of this situation. Alice is back her normal size at the start of the looking glass, and she stumbles into a garden of live flowers. Soon enough, she begins to engage the flowers in conversation, but only the Tiger-lily seems to be of any help. This is similar to when people enter new social environments; most of the people try to engage the new members in conversation, but end up having a discussion amongst themselves, completely disregarding the individual whom they intended to engage in conversation. To illustrate, consider the first speech of the rose (Dodgson, 157):

"It isn't manners for us to begin, you know," said the Rose, " and I really was wondering when you'd speak! Said I to myself, 'her face has got some sense in it, though it's not a clever one!' Still, you're the right colour, and that goes a long way."
"I don't care about the colour," the Tiger-Lily remarked. "If only her petals curled up a little more, she'd be all right."
Alice didn't like being criticized...

So everything was going kind of fine and dandy, but then, for a brief instant, Tiger-lily and Rose engage in their own side-conversation, leaving Alice out of the loop, and end up criticizing the poor girl. True that Alice herself is guilty of doing this to other creatures (consider the birds and the mouse), but with increased diversity, there comes an aspect of a wide difference in perspectives.

No need to Judge


And that must always be taken into account because your words and intentions that easily articulates your point to someone with the same values might have a completely different effect within people who don't share your perspective. Alice scares the birds to death, and the beautiful flowers, no doubt, make poor Alice feel bad about herself! This is Alice's two cent story on diversity, and it can be applied to anyone. Always consider your audience as the message is meaningless if no one is willing to listen.