One of the most well-known dialogs of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is Alice’s meeting with the Caterpillar. The Caterpillar’s iconic line of “who are you?” is a heavy question of identity. According to Merriam Webster’s Dictionary, identity is defined as “the condition of being the same with something described or asserted;” identity is purely derived from comparing two subjects. Attempting to describe one's self through comparisons is a difficult task; as no two people are identical. As shown through Alice in Wonderland, language cannot effectively describe an individual's identity. Alice’s identity is questioned and doubted, especially with the physical changes she experiences throughout the book. At the beginning of the story, Alice is an aloof schoolgirl who often acts without thinking of the consequences. This lack of foresight leads Alice into situations where she becomes uncertain of her own identity. Alice falls down the rabbit hole, “never once considering how in the world she was to get out again (Carroll 16).” Alice is confident in …show more content…
Alice just adds to the pigeons certainty by saying “little girls eat eggs quite as much as serpents do (Carroll 56).” The Pigeon is able to define Alice through philosophical logic. In philosophical logic, the attribute of a subject comes after the "to be" verb of the sentence; the attribute is then a reference to the subject. In practice it would appear in this format: A is B, and B is A; Someone who teaches is a teacher, a teacher is someone who teaches. However, when it comes to an individual identity, as shown in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, this concept from philosophy doesn’t always work. While Alice does portray some attributes of a serpent, she isn’t