Some people have blogged about food and drink, and how it plays a major part of the book, they are correct.
Alice would not be able to go on her journeys without shrinking or growing bigger due to the effect of a food or drink. For example, after kicking the lizard named bill out of the chimney, a crowd of animals throw cake at her, which causes her to shrink. Then due to being small she meets the Caterpillar and continues the rest of her journey. Carroll uses food to change Alice’s size, which transitions her to other parts of her journey.
Why is food and drink so important in Alice in Wonderland?
Maybe because Carroll liked food or the real Alice personalities may have been influenced by food. Another scene in the book where food plays an interesting part is the part where Alice goes to the duchess’s house and she is in a bad mood because of the pepper. Later on after she meets the duchess in the house, she meets her again, and the duchess is nice not mean like she was while the pepper was around.
I think Carroll is playing around with the idea that sometimes food can influence personality. People’s personalities can easily be influenced by the smell of good or bad food. If something smells bad people will most likely act worse and usually when the food smells good people act better then if there was no smell or the food smelled bad.
Lewis Carroll uses the Duchess as an example of the personality change due to food. It also seems strange that Carroll showed the duchess changing due to the presence of pepper, but she doesn’t show Alice’s personality change due to a change in the food and drink that she consumes or is around.
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Maybe Carroll took the phrase “you are what you eat” a bit literally in Pig and Pepper? I agree that food and drink do influence personality, but I’m not sure where Carroll got the growing and shrinking idea. The Duchess really is a bitter character the first time we meet her, but later on she becomes nice when the pepper is gone. I did notice as Alice grew and shrank, her personalities slightly changed, as when she was bigger she was a little more aggressive and reckless. Some situations you can see this in are the trial when Alice grows and when Alice kicks Bill without thinking. Disney captured the personality changing aspect perfectly in their version of the trial when Alice grew, if you ask me. The point Carroll was trying to get at with the properties of food still alludes me, though.