While sitting in a field listening to her sister’s lesson, Alice catches a glimpse of a white rabbit running by her.  This all seems very normal, but things take a turn when she hears the rabbit speak and realizes that he is wearing a waistcoat.  The next thing she knows, the rabbit jumps into a hole and disappears.  Sparked by curiosity, “down went Alice after [the rabbit], never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.” Alice unknowingly enters Wonderland, and her adventures there will be life changing.  To me, reading has always been like falling down the rabbit hole into Alice’s world of imagination.  Literature is a wonderland, where the reasonable can become nonsense yet still have a profound impact on reality.

Once you fall down the rabbit hole, you are transported into another time and place completely.  You are taken out of the world you know, and you enter into the world of nonsense and make-believe.  This world may seem insignificant because it is not real, yet it has the power to take us out of reality and suck us in to what we are reading.  We can become mentally and emotionally involved in what we read, to the point where the images in the story come to life in our imaginations.  We don’t have to be taught how to enter into Wonderland—it just happens.  Even children who are just learning how to read can become immersed in a story.  It is natural for us to fall into what we are reading—we want to feel what the characters feel and understand the world through their eyes.  All it takes is one step, the opening of one page, and you have entered another realm where your previous knowledge of life may be flipped on its head.

            Wonderland allows you to find yourself after you become lost in it.  “Who are you?” is the first thing that the caterpillar asks Alice, to which she has no answer.  In Wonderland, we are able to look inside ourselves and figure out who we are from the challenges we are presented with.  It challenges us by making us question our own lifestyle from learning about different ways of life from different characters.  We are able to explore ourselves and decide who we want to be from what we learn in Wonderland.  We can ask ourselves these questions we might not have thought of before, and we can decide what we believe and the opinions we want to form.  The words that we read call us to further contemplation of life, and it is up to us to accept the challenge in order to find out who we are and apply this knowledge to our lives.

             Falling through the rabbit hole has helped me develop as a person, and I have been able to learn more about myself and humanity from my time in Wonderland.  Although this time may seem like nonsense to others because it does not help me get a job or make more money, I am much more satisfied knowing that I have spent my time learning who I am and gaining insight from this experience.  Alice has taught me more than many professors have been able to, because she allowed me to enter in to Wonderland with her and find myself through the nonsense. 

Abbie Case
BookEnds Program Intern