Alice in Wonderland

P: How does the perspective from which the book is told effect the reader's relationship with the book's content?

R: The perspective from which the novel is told is a third person account of Alice's encounter's with this Wonderland she has created. Carroll brilliantly presents each of Alice's thoughts as if they are really coming directly out of a young girl's head. It's incredible that a male author could so convincingly create thoughts and spoken words for an imaginary young girl. Throughout the novel readers get to experience the back-and-fourth conversation Alice maintains with herself in situations that confuse her. She'll debate with herself the words to an old poem or even, in one odd situation, wether or not she was still herself or maybe, in fact, she had become one of her school mates, Ada or Mabel. I just find it very interesting that Carroll is able to write an entire novel not using his own perspective but from the perspective of someone seemingly worlds different than himself. Also, his commentary in response to Alice's, generally incorrect, remarks on history or literature brings a level of comedy to the reading as he furthers her insight on a particular thought. "I wonder what Latitude of Longitude I've got to? (Alice had not the slightest idea what Latitude was or Longitude either, but she thought they were nice grand words to say.)" (p.4). Character traits of Alice become present early on in the novel and, through her perspective, Carroll remains true to these traits throughout making the story out to be a humorous and enjoyable read.