Children Performing Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures In Wonderland And Understanding 'Absurdism'.

“Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle.” 

― Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

“In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion."

― Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays.

Children have always enjoyed nonsense poems and nonsense books. Children enjoy absurdism. This tends to go with age, but children very much enjoy seeing adults engage in the absurd because it is simply so out of character for 'them' as adults where it is quite natural for children.

We have been planning a play production of Alice's Adventures In Wonderland for a while now. The text was read to the children last year as a bit of light relief from their Victorian topic. The children's favourite parts were always the tongue twisting and nonsensical moments.  

I guess this is due to the fact we want our children to grow up quicker now than they have ever done. We want them to conform to a basic understanding of the world as quickly as possible. This ensures smooth transition to adulthood with the least amount of resistance.

Some people believe that philosophy's task is to search for the meaning of life. Albert Camus thought that philosophy should recognise instead that life is inherently meaningless. While this may seem a depressing view to some, children believe that only by embracing this idea are we capable of living as fully as possible. 

What is fascinating in children is their appetite to follow Alice and watch her attempts to find meaning and purpose everywhere in Wonderland. They seem to accept that the universe as a whole has no meaning and 'just is' in this magical world. This seems to provide children with an incredible amount of scope to therefore manipulate and be creative within their realities, and well, 'be silly'! 

I've felt that my class currently have maybe lost a bit of this. They have older siblings and often want to grow up quickly. There is alot of being-for-others and not wanting to stand out as odd or different. I feel that the telling of the story of Alice has ensured I can squeeze and little bit more absurdity out of them before the pressures of society come knocking.

Scenes from the book the children have particularly enjoyed include; 

• The fall down the rabbit hole - First example of irrationality; Challenging logic.
• 'Drink me' - Curiosity overrides social etiquette.
• A caucus race - No intellectual meaning what-so-ever.
• Advice from The Caterpillar - complete violates children's understand of social conventions.
• The Mad Hatter's tea party - 'Time' becomes non-existent and becomes a source of puns and comic relief.
• The March Hare & Mad Hatter - Are rude and go against everything children are taught as being polite.
• The croquet game - The game is rigged and there is no way Alice can win.
• Off with their heads! - Death is real and often comically inevitable.
• The Cheshire Cat - Talking about the sequences of cutting a head off if one has no head in the first place.
• The Trial - Laws are ultimately arbitrary
• You're nothing but a pack of cards! - Alice realises her power and responsibilities and rejects Wonderland's authority.

The 1951 Disney film Alice In Wonderland is a great way to demonstrate the philosophical view of Existentialism. Our life is a path, which paths we take are up to us and any consequences that come along with our choice/non-choice is our responsibility and we alone create our meaning from it.