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Making sense in a nonsensical world
In Lewis Carroll‘s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Norton Juster‘s The Phantom
Tollbooth, the protagonists navigate nonsensical worlds meant as metaphors for the frightening
and confusing world as it looks to a child. Each child enters their strange world alone and must
learn to traverse it without the help of friends, parents or any other adult figure. In this way, these
worlds force the protagonists of both novels to be independent, to make their own choices, to
make sense of the nonsense of existence. Alice and Milo must learn to navigate their worlds on
their way to self realization and a more mature outlook on life. The characters go through stages
of bewilderment, understanding and acceptance, and eventual active participation and assertion
of their sense of self in the nonsense worlds. It is only when they have attained self-actualization
that they leave their nonsensical worlds and return to their normal worlds as changed individuals.
Alice‘s entry into the rabbit hole signifies the first step in her journey toward maturation.
She leaves her safe and predictable child life at home and leaps into a frightening black hole,
meant to signify the search for self. In her article ―Portnoy‘s Complaint,‖ Eileen Z. Cohen calls
this self-evident step in the maturity process a necessary, but scary phase, reminiscent of a
nightmare: ―The going to hell, in the black hole, the world of nightmare, the place so frightening
that a man can barely apprehend is also a very significant motif in much of the literature of the
discovery of self‖ (162). The hole itself is long and dark and gives her time for self reflection
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during which she begins to think of herself as brave for having taken the leap: ―How brave
they‘ll all think me at home!‘‖ (Carroll 18) and during which she begins to use larger and more
adult words such as Latitude and Longitude: ―Alice had no idea what Latitude was, or
Longitude, either, but thought they were nice grand words to say‖ (19). This is an indication that
she is planting the first seeds of self confidence and maturity, testing out more adult ways of
acting and thinking. But her leap also shows her child-like sensibilities. Her curiosity and faith in
the sanity of the world, for example, is shown in the unhesitating way she jumps into the rabbit
hole: ―In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she
was to get out again‖ (Carroll 18), and in her reaction to her long, dark and strange fall. Instead
of responding to it with fear, she reacts to her new world with naive inquisitive delight: ―She had
plenty of time as she went down to look about her, and to wonder what was going to happen
next‖ (18). But as she soon discovers, this new world is nothing like her child world back home
and navigating it on her own, as well as forming an independent identity within it, requires a
shift from innocent naiveté to strong, assertive maturity.
When she lands at the bottom of the rabbit hole in the new world, she is confronted with
new and interesting temptations meant to pique her curiosity and expand her mind while at the
same time signifying the potential danger of such alluring offerings. First, she comes upon a
bottle which invites her to ―Drink Me‖ (22). Her action of drinking the liquid in the ―Drink Me‖
bottle is one of a series of samplings of food and drinks that she indulges in and which set off a
series of size changes for her. One minute, she‘s small: ―she was now only ten inches high,‖ (22)
and the next minute, she‘s shooting up like a telescope: ―‘now I‘m opening out like the largest
telescope that ever was!‘‖ (24) These physical body changes could be metaphors for puberty
during which adolescents experience confusion over their suddenly changing bodies. It also
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mimics the confusion inherent in the search for identity where a person‘s persona seems to shift
and change with each new independent action and decision.
Her next unusual encounter is with a White Rabbit who actually talks and who, upon
seeing her, runs away. Her interaction with him leaves her feeling completely befuddled,
partially because a talking rabbit is so unusual and partially because when he sees her he
becomes afraid and runs off. She feels so out of place she begins to question her sense of self:
―‘How queer everything is today! … I wonder if I‘ve been changed in the night? Let me think:
was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little
different. But if I‘m not the same, the next question is, Who in the world am I?‘‖ (Carroll 26)
This shows her awareness of her shifting identity and her subsequent confusion as a result of it.
She begins to think she may be someone else altogether: ―‘I must have been changed for
Mabel!‘‖ (27). This frightening feeling of dissociation leads to feelings of isolation: ―‘I am so
very tired of being all alone here!‘‖ (28) The uncomfortable feeling of loneliness is indicative of
the search for self process. It is a necessarily solitary, confusing and scary experience. To
solidify her sense of self in the world, Alice must stand on her own two feet and assert herself,
but this is a risky proposition and one for which Alice at this point in the novel is still not quite
ready.
In Phantom Tollbooth, Milo goes through a similar confusing leap into a chaotic world
through the use of the magic tollbooth. Milo begins his journey toward identity formation and
maturation in a literal city of the Doldrums, meant to signify his current lethargic state of mind
and his as yet undeveloped identity: ―The Doldrums, my young friend, are where nothing ever
happens and nothing ever changes‘‖ (Juster 23). This signifies that in the beginning, Milo is in a
state of character stagnation. He doesn‘t know who he is. In her dissertation, ―Entry into
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Imaginary Space: Transit Metaphors in Adult Psychotherapy,‖ Monica A. Grandy says this
listless state is a common response to a lack of personal identity: ―The doldrums are the result of
feeling the futile crisis of not having a self to which to be true‖ (164). Milo discovers that the
way to get out of the Doldrums is to begin thinking, which indicates his first step toward selfactualization: ―Milo continued to think of all sorts of things; of the many detours and wrong
turns that were so easy to take, of how fine it was to be moving along, and, most of all, of how
much could be accomplished with just a little thought‖ (31). This literal new way of thinking
takes him into a foreign world where nothing seems to make sense, a metaphorical world meant
to signify the confusing and scary process of identity formation. As with Alice‘s confrontations
with the Caterpillar, the Cheshire Cat and the Mad Hatter, adults in Milo‘s world give him
unsolicited advice along his journey. For example, at the Word Market, where people literally
buy and sell words harvested from word trees, the Count of Connotation tells him, ―‘You must
pick your words very carefully and be sure to say just what you intend to say‘‖ (44). While this is
good advice, it means little to Milo at this stage in his journey. He does not yet know what he
wants to say. He has not found his voice. What he needs is someone to explain how the world
works so that he can navigate it and make sense of it. This accurate and appropriate
representation of adults giving children pieces of often incoherent, unsolicited or misguided
advice under the guise of guiding them toward maturity, again shows that these nonsense worlds
are metaphors for the real world as seen through the eyes of the child. What Milo must learn is to
sift through the advice or outright reject it and make his own decisions. But, he has not yet
reached that stage in his maturity process.
After her initial confusion and frustration in her new world of Wonderland, Alice begins
to find her own way of navigating this new world without rules. First, she discovers that she can
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control her size variations by eating bites of the mushroom on which the Caterpillar sits: ―She
began nibbling at the right-hand bit again, and did not venture to go near the house till she had
brought herself down to nine inches high‖ (Carroll 58). This ability to create a sense of control in
a seemingly uncontrollable world is her first step toward maturity and self identity. It shows her
that she is in charge of her surroundings and gives her a sense of confidence. Once she has
achieved her desired height, she approaches the Duchess‘s house and uses her newfound poise
effectively in her dealings with the Duchess and the Duchess‘s servants. When the Duchess‘s
frog footman will not let Alice into the house, for example, Alice refuses to let him rattle her.
Instead, she simply disregards his incoherent mutterings and proceeds to do what she likes:
―‘He‘s perfectly idiotic!‘ And she opened the door and went in‖ (61). This firm and decided way
of acting is a confirmation of her growing independence, confidence, sense of self and maturity.
This leads to an even more grown-up decision in the ensuing scene. Inside the Duchess‘
house, Alice finds a world of chaos. The Duchess‘ cook is throwing dishware at the Duchess and
her baby, and the Duchess herself is violently shaking and tossing the baby up and down. Alice
here comes to the mature realization that she must do something to protect the baby from the
harm and danger of the situation (this is a particularly acute example of maturity because the act
of protecting a child is of a mothering nature): ―‘If I don‘t take this child away with me,‘ thought
Alice, ‗they‘re sure to kill it in a day or two: wouldn‘t it be murder to leave it behind?‘‖ (65) But,
when she takes it from the house, she realizes that it is not a baby at all, but a pig, and so she
releases it into the wild where it ought to have been in the first place. Interestingly, when the
Cheshire Cat asks her about it, she considers it perfectly normal: ―‘It turned into a pig,‘ Alice
answered very quietly‖ (68). This shows that she has begun to feel comfortable in this strange
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world, that she is able to accept the world‘s chaotic ways and that she is no longer intimidated by
it. This indicates her growing sense of maturity and sense of self.
Milo goes through a similar maturing process in his world. After going through a series
of frustrating encounters with random characters and ambiguous rules, he decides to take matters
into his own hands. He first expresses his frustration over the world‘s chaotic ways to King
Azaz: ―‘I don‘t know which side of anything to look at,‘ protested Milo. ‗Everything is so
confusing and all your words only make things worse‘‖ (Juster 95). He then proposes a solution:
―‘Perhaps you might allow Rhyme and Reason to return‘‖ (95). This proposal is both practical
and literal. What this world lacks is a sense of reason to make it comprehensible. Milo meets
with opposition to his plan, however, from both the king and the Humbug: ―‘Much too difficult,‘
replied the king‖ (96) ―‘Of course,‘ emphasized the bug, ‗much too difficult‘‖ (96). But, Milo
refuses to be swayed: ―‘You could if you really wanted to‘ insisted Milo‖ (96). Here, Milo stands
up to authority and cynicism, staking his own ground in the world, a sign of his growing maturity
and sense of self. The Humbug tries to dissuade Milo by telling him how difficult the journey
will be: ―‘It‘s a simple matter of entering the Mountains of Ignorance, full of perilous pitfalls and
ominous overtones—a land to which many venture but few return, and whose evil demons slither
slowly from peak to peak in search of prey‖ (97). The reference to the Mountains of Ignorance
and the ―perilous pitfalls‖ here shows that reaching maturity involves conscious thought, in
particular about the self, and that this journey is fraught with danger. Milo‘s confidence starts to
wane when he realizes how hard the journey will be. But despite his misgivings, Milo doesn‘t
give up. This indicates his growing sense of self and increased maturity.
Alice continues to gain in confidence and maturity along the way in her journey, as well.
In fact, her growing self-assurance, combined with her mounting frustration with the chaos of her
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new world, leads her to assert herself in increasingly forceful ways, thereby strengthening her
sense of self. When the Mad Hatter, for example, tells Alice she should cut her hair, she retorts,
―‘You shouldn‘t make personal remarks … it‘s very rude‘‖ (Carroll 71). This signifies her
growing maturity and refusal to be treated as a subordinate child. She is no longer afraid of
adults and will not be pushed around or mistreated by them.
Her defiant remarks toward the Mad Hatter foreshadow her final gesture of self
realization: her denunciation of the Queen of Hearts. In his 1966 article ―Alice‘s Journey to the
End of Night,‖ Donald Rackin suggests that her lack of fear in this confrontation comes from her
realization that the Queen and cards are only inanimate objects and that they cannot hurt her:
―She need not be afraid because, ‗after all,‘ she is dealing with a mere pack of cards‖ (322). This
realization that she has nothing to fear from this world, that though many of the characters may
seem to be or act threatening, in reality they are not, is the final confirmation that she has reached
a state of maturation. She is no longer a helpless child. Alice makes this realization clear by
calling a spade a spade – she exposes the Queen and the cards for what they truly are: ―‘Who
cares for you?‘ said Alice, (she had grown to her full size by this time), ‗You‘re nothing but a
pack of cards!‘‖ (Carroll 121). The Queen of Hearts is the most powerful character in
Wonderland, so by defying her, Alice shows her fearlessness and ability to stand up for herself.
This is further shown in the fact that she grows to her full size, a metaphor for her growth as a
person and for her taking the power from the Queen.
But, Alice‘s denunciation of the Queen shows something else, as well. It shows her
rejection of this fantasy world. Though she handled the world better than most adults might be
able to (perhaps this is a satirical comment by Carroll, as well) and gained a sense of confidence
and sense of self, Alice is still young and not ready to navigate the adult world completely on her
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own. Her venture into the world of maturity, though interesting, is still frightening for a girl her
age. So, she rejects the world and awakens from her dream, happy to be back in her child world:
―Alice got up and ran off thinking while she ran, as well she might, what a wonderful dream it
had been‖ (121). This relief at having returned to her comfortable world back home is common
in the maturity process. The act of wavering between independence and self assertion to
dependence and safety is a part of growing up. Eventually, the periods of self assertion become
longer and the periods of dependence become shorter until, in the end, the sense of self is
complete. Alice, in her navigation of Wonderland, has just had her first lesson in maturity.
Milo has a different reaction. He, too, experiences a growing sense of confidence based
on his adventures in his nonsense world, but rather than reject this world, he embraces it. The
first example of this is when Milo thinks of a way to return sound to the Silent Valley. He traps
the word ―But‖ in his mouth, deposits it into a cannon and shoots it into the air: ―The vaults burst
open, spilling the sounds of history into the wind‖ (Juster 161). Here, Milo takes action and
makes a difference in the world. Also, the fact that it is his word that paves the way, is a
metaphor for him finding his own voice. It is also the first time that he defies an adult. He
releases the sounds that the Soundkeeper has been keeping locked up for years and years.
The success of this endeavor gives Milo the confidence he needs to overcome the demons
who are trying to prevent him from rescuing Rhyme and Reason, or metaphorically, of finding
his true self. The demons are literal representations of obstacles all people face when searching
for their identity. One is a man with a completely blank face who tries to seduce Milo into doing
meaningless work that diverts him from the path of his true calling: ―Why, if you stay here,
you‘ll never have to think again – and with a little practice you can become a monster of habit,
too‖ (213-14). Another demon he encounters is the demon of insincerity, who tries to distract
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him with bad advice: ―Most people who believe what I tell them go the wrong way, and stay
there‖ (217). Lastly, he encounters the Gelatinous Giant, who is afraid to stand out and forge his
own way: ―‘I have no shape of my own, so I try to be just like whatever I‘m near … I just hate to
be conspicuous; it‘s really not safe, you know‘‖ (219). But, Milo rejects each demon and as he
does, he gains new knowledge and a growing sense of self: ―Now that he knew what lay behind,
he ran ahead with renewed enthusiasm‖ (223). This enthusiasm gives him the courage to rescue
Rhyme and Reason. Once he rescues them, much like in Alice, he is transported back to his own
world because he has reached full self realization. Now, armed with his new sense of self, new
knowledge and a new way of looking at the world, his life is enhanced: ―His thoughts darted
eagerly about as everything looked new – and worth trying‖ (256). He is no longer listless. He
knows who he is and what he wants and this gives him renewed excitement about how to take on
the world.
Alice and Milo‘s leap into foreign nonsensical worlds are metaphors for the discovery of
self and the subsequent maturation process. While neither matures completely, their journeys
take them miles down that path. At first, this leap is frightening, as it takes them from their
predictable world of childhood and propels them into worlds without discernible rules. Lost in
these foreign worlds, the protagonists learn to create their own rules within the chaos, to stand
their ground, to actively participate in the navigation of these worlds and ultimately to find their
sense of self and a much more mature outlook on life. Though Alice rejects her fantasy world
and returns to the more predictable world of her childhood, she is a changed person because of
her journey. Milo, too, has come a long way in his journey toward ultimate maturation, but
unlike Alice, he embraces his new identity, taking on the real world with a new sense of
enthusiasm that can only come from knowing who you truly are and what you want from life.
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Works Cited
Carroll, Lewis. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass. 1865. London:
Wordsworth, 1993. Print.
Cohen, Eileen Z. ―Portnoy‘s Complaint.‖ Twentieth Century Literature. 17:3 (1971 July),
161-168. Print.
Grandy, Monica A. ―Entry Into Imaginary Space: Transit Metaphors in Adult Psychotherapy.‖
Dissertation Abstracts International, Section B: The Sciences and Engineering, 66:3
(2005 Sept), 1717. Print.
Juster, Norton. The Phantom Tollbooth. 1961. New York: Random House, 2005. Print.
Rackin, Donald. ―Alice‘s Journey to the End of the Night.‖ PMLA, 81:5 (1966 October),
313-326. Print.