In this next adventure Alice meets up with Duchess again who greets her fondly. Alice thinks perhaps the pepper was the cause of her hot temperment when they first met in the Duchess’ kitchen. As they stroll along together conversing, Alice discovers that the duchess finds a moral in everything that is said. The duchess thinks so highly of her words and morals that she leaves them all to Alice as a present. (Though many of her morals seem nonsensical, in theory I find a great deal of truth to this as shouldn’t our words should bring life to those we present them to?).
Suddenly the queen appears and gives the duchess an ultimatum to leave or have her head cut off. She chooses to leave and the Queen tells Alice they should get on with the game of croquet. However the Queen quarrels constantly and demands so many heads to be cut off that soon there’s no one left to play the game but the Queen, the King and Alice. That’s when the Queen tells Alice that she must find the Mock Turtle and listen to his history.
Continue reading “Chapter IX Book Review on Alice”

What Alice found in the beautiful garden first were three gardeners. They were oblong and flat with the hands and feet at the corners and were numbered two, five and seven. They were painting a white rose tree red because they had mistakenly planted the wrong color and they feared the Queen of the garden might cut off their heads if she found out. Alice soon found out that they feared her for good reason. (Interesting that this Queen of Hearts was so heartless.) Almost anything and anyone could prompt her to scream, ‘Off with their heads!’ Why, even the Duchess was in jail awaiting execution for boxing the Queen’s ears. It’s a wonder there were any heads left at all. But Alice saw that they were only a pack of cards and felt she had nothing to be afraid of. The beauty of the garden, however, did seem overshadowed by the Queen’s anger and her subjects’ fear.
Continue reading “Part VIII Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”