Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll has long been deemed one of the most chaotic and whimsical texts in literature. However, Carroll intended Wonderland to possess juxtaposing degrees of both chaos and order. Carroll, true name Charles Dodgson, was actually a celebrated Oxford mathematician and wrote Wonderland as a rejection of the introduction of new radical theories to the Carroll’s strict and calculated world of Victorian mathematics.

The story of Alice’s journey through Wonderland seems to be confusing where up is down and down is up. The shape, according to Kurt Vonnegut’s suggestions could be construed as “Which Way is Up?” where “this story has lifeless ambiguity that keeps us from knowing if new developments are good or bad.” However, as Carroll wrote “no wise fish would go anywhere without a porpoise” and he would not abandon Alice to a literary life without one.

Alice’s journey is much like Vonnegut’s “Boy Meets Girl” scenario where she gains knowledge of this mystical realm of Wonderland yet finds that being an intelligent child in a world of perpetual whimsy is not all it seemed to be, serving for her own self-discovery that she can function in the real world while maintaining her childish dreams.

I believe the greatest attribute that Alice in Wonderland possesses is that it is a misleading tale. It does not give you exactly what you think it will. It does not conform to any planned scenario but rather marches to the beat of a very unsavory and unsteady drum.