Search for Identity in Alices Adventures in Wonderland...

Alice from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Oliver from Oliver Twist represent the characteristic Victorian children who are naturally good and appeal to the sentiments of the reader when facing difficult situations that aid in finding who they are. The children are required to decide between two conflicting ideas such as childhood and adulthood in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and even good versus evil in Oliver Twist while they search to find where they belong in the natural order of society. Death and horrible outcomes hover around Alice and Oliver as they are shoved into different social situations without their approval. Alice and Oliver’s identity crisis, while they are at a stage of limbo, are evident in the obstacles they†¦show more content†¦Alice is forced to take control in Wonderland when she provides the teaching role in the adult-child relationship evident when Alice says â€Å"’Don’t grunt†, said Alice; â€Å"t hat’s not at all a proper way of expressing yourself’† (Carroll 47) to the Duchess. Alice seeks to find order in Wonderland by using her knowledge from home to navigate through the secondary world when she recalls book related advice such as, â€Å"if you drink from a bottle marked â€Å"poison†, it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later†(11). This advice has no relevance, and her book knowledge is not applicable in a savage place such as Wonderland. Alice is automatically belittled by the narrator and portrays an unintelligent child. Alice is playing the role of an adult and child because she is in a transitory phase of life where she is maintaining good Victorian ideals distinct among adults yet still living in the imaginary childish fantasy of Wonderland where her adult maturity is often deflated, as well. In Oliver Twist, Oliver continues to be the epitome of good in the criminal underworld of London. The criminal world mirrors middle class society in its structure and similarly, in values of hard work and industry. This parody of the middle class life represented in the immoral world is seen where Fagin would be the father of the corrupt family, Bates and Artful Dodger as the obedient children that follow Fagin’s rules while