Chapter 2:The Pool of Tears
Summary:
Alice thinks that the cake has no effect on her but suddenly her tall rises to nine feet tall. All parts of her body grow enormously and that frightens her, so she begins to cry and her enormous tears fall beside her feet. Meanwhile, the White Rabbit reappears and Alice tries to talk to him but, he runs away, leaving his gloves and fan behind. Alice holds the fan and she fans herself to a small size in order to pass into the garden. Unfortunately, Alice forgets to take the key with her again suddenly she finds herself swimming into a pool of saltwater; she discovers then that she is swimming in her own enormous tears. Alice isn`t the only one in this pool; she meets a Mouse while swimming and he asks for assistance. In the beginning, the Mouse swims far away from Alice because she talks about cats and dogs who frighten the Mouse but then he comes back when Alice promises to stop talking about cats and dogs. Alice and the Mouse are now swimming to shore with the help of numerous other creatures such as a Duck, a Dodo, a Lory, and an Eaglet.
Analysis:
This chapter depicts clearly the changes that the adolescent goes through when he/she moves from childhood to adolescence. One of these changes is the sudden physical change of growing up quickly and that is apparent after Alice eats the cake which makes her grows up quickly. Another change that happens during the adolescence is the affective change of feeling alone same as Alice is in the well by herself with no one from her family. As Alice grows enormously, she starts to think of her identity; she feels she is no longer Alice since she can't recall her own lessons. Then she puts an assumption that if she is not Alice, she must be someone she recognizes; therefore, she starts comparing her situation to others and eventually she chooses Mabel, one of her classmates, because her low level in the class resembles Alice when she couldn`t remember her own lessons. Even though she's unsure of her own identity, she knows she needs to get out of the hole and return to the ground.
