Summary: What quirky images/ thoughts pop up in my head as I dive into each chapter of The Annotated Alice? Let’s see what happens when Alice gets a “Pig and Pepper”. (Chapter 6)
(Note: If you’re interested in these ideas, feel free to check out the previous posts on Ch. 1-5 under “First Thought? Of Course I Ought!“, too, if you want.)
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My first thoughts?
From the title I had no idea what was going to happen in this chapter. This scene did not happen in the Disney version, so that could not aid me in figuring out what would happen. Let’s see what I discovered!
One of the things I like about Carroll’s writing style is that he describes the scene in detail that allows the reader to picture the scenery and have a thought on how the voices of the characters are suppose to sound like. As Alice laughed at tone and actions of the Footmans, I too did chuckle when trying to picture these peculiar creatures.
The most interesting part of this whole chapter was the Duchess and the Cheshire-Cat.
As for the Duchess, her attitude is like none of the other characters Alice has encountered thus far. She is very opinioned, ugly, and very rude. I say she is ugly but the illustrations and annotations.
As you can see by John Tenniel’s illustration, the Duchess, the baby, and the cook are all quiet ugly. The Cheshire-Cat is either grinning because he thinks the whole situation is quiet funny or perhaps he was waiting for Alice and knew it was time to show her the way.
I also find it interesting the Duchess calls Alice a pig and moments later when Alice grabs the baby, it turns into a pig. Is there any importance to this?
The whole Cheshire Cat scene is just brilliant. From the “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to” and “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go” to “We’re all mad here.” The way that he tells Alice she will see him at the Queen’s crocket event, foreshadows that she will in fact be there too. Even though I love cats, especially my cat Max, the character development of the Cheshire Cat is my favorite out of all of the Alice Characters thus far.
Stay tuned for “First thought? Of Course I Ought!” (Ch. 7)
Image 1 can be found here. Max’s picture can be found here.
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The Alice Project #12 
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