Lewis Carroll, the pseudonym of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was born on January 27, 1832, in Daresbury England. He was the oldest boy in a family of eleven children of Reverend Charles Dodgson and his wife, Francis Jane Lutwidge. The childhood of Lewis Carroll was relatively pleasant, full of ideas and hobbies that contributed to his future creative works. Carroll's life at Daresbury was rather secluded, and his playmates were mostly his brothers and sisters (Green 18). Interacting with mostly his sisters, h

Alice's identity crisis in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland reoccurs many times throughout the novel and is one of the main themes that are portrayed. Certain aspects of religion come into play throughout this young girl's journey, a journey symbolic of universal growth and self-discovery. As Alice learns a great deal about herself with each new encounter in Wonderland, she begins to realize that these experiences weaken and even distort her previously stable self-image. The caterpillar is one character who cannot accept Alice's lack of self-awareness, or at least what he considers self-awareness to indicate. When he asks Alice "Who are you?", she is unable to respond with a clear answer. Alice is struggling to find herself, which is an import part of religious life, connecting with your inner self. Carroll was influenced heavily by his father's teachings of religious faith and Carroll incorporates the importance of it into the novel.

Reverend Charles Dodgson, Carroll's father, had a big impact on his life. When Carroll was 36 years old, his father passed away and he called this the "saddest blow he has known". His father was an honorable minister of Christ Church and the Christ Church of England. His father mounted Carroll's religious devotion and a "belief in earnest endeavor strong enough to make Carroll sometimes feel slack in his work and tardy in his progress." Those who knew Reverend Dodgson would probably think he was a pious and gloomy man, almost devoid of any sense of humor. Yet, in his letters to his son, there evidence of a remarkable sense of fun. For example, in one letter he writes: "I will have a file and a screwdriver, and a ring, and if they are not brought directly, in forty seconds, I will leave nothing but one small cat alive in the whole town of Leeds..." (DLB v.18 46). However, Lewis Carroll's mother was the essence of the Victorian gentlewoman. His mother was "sweet, loveable, and much loved". But the letters written by Carroll in The Life and Letters by Lewis Carroll, mention his father more so than his mother (45).

The most obvious parallel between Carroll's life and his writing of Alice is the cherished relationship between him and Alice Liddell. She was the inspiration for his writing and for the sequel to the novel, Through the Looking Glass. A closer analysis of the character of Alice in the novel is her fluctuating sense of self. This is introduced in the first chapter when she is decided whether to drink the bottle which makes her small or eat the cake, which makes her big. Alice, meant to be a girl of about eleven or so, is on the cusp of adolescence. But what does she want to be? If she shrinks to a child-like size to get through the doorway into what seems to be the garden of childhood, then she is too small to reach the key to open that door. She is trapped in a kind of paradox. Throughout the chapter Alice is "trying on" her adult self. She speaks in a learned manner, even when she isn't quite sure what she is speaking about, and she often creates in her own mind an adult personality to check her childish impulses. This split personality may be a parallel to Lewis Carroll again. In his life he had two selves: Charles Dodgson; being a proper and serious Victorian gentleman and then Lew

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Approximate Word count = 2208
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)