Need your help guys!!

[Yaya]

Okay so i have a 2500 word essay for my ENG class to write but I'm STUCK. The essay question is Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Winnie-the-Pooh depict significantly different fantasy worlds. Construct an argument about the role of fantasy in these two works. i need your help guys please and thank you for your time.

[Pompey Bum]

Welcome Yaya. You're going to have to do your own homework, including reading and thinking carefully about the books. But here is a suggestion that may head you in a good direction. Look at the kinds of fantasy worlds these works present in terms of childhood safety. Isn't one of them a lot more hostile than the other? What does that tell you about the experience of children in their respective social environments? So figure out when each was written, make an argument about the works reflecting the level of childhood safety during those particular times, and find a bunch of examples from the texts to show that you are right. Is that obvious enough? If not, then here's a hint: Alice's world is much less safe than that of Christopher Robin and Pooh. Good luck! :)

[108 fountains]

It's an interesting essay topic. I agree with Pompey Bum's idea/suggestion. You could make it even broader in that the entire fantasy environment in Alice is hostile and threatening. It's been a while since I read Wonderland, but I can't recall offhand that there were any caring or loving relationships between any of the characters in Wonderland. It is not a good place for children or anyone else, and may reflect a realistic, natural, survival-of-the-fittest world-view in Fantasy. In Winnie-the-Pooh, however, the entire environment is welcoming and safe, and caring, loving relationships are found among all the characters in the fantasy world. This may reflect more of an optimistic, idealistic world-view.

[Pompey Bum]

It's an interesting essay topic. I agree with Pompey Bum's idea/suggestion. You could make it even broader in that the entire fantasy environment in Alice is hostile and threatening. It's been a while since I read Wonderland, but I can't recall offhand that there were any caring or loving relationships between any of the characters in Wonderland. It is not a good place for children or anyone else, and may reflect a realistic, natural, survival-of-the-fittest world-view in Fantasy. In Winnie-the-Pooh, however, the entire environment is welcoming and safe, and caring, loving relationships are found among all the characters in the fantasy world. This may reflect more of an optimistic, idealistic world-view.

Alice is caught up in an alluring nightmare. I'm not sure Carroll/Dodgson would have been thinking in terms of survival of the fittest just yet, but he was (in my opinion) reflecting the de facto Darwinian-Huxlian world of 19th century capitalism. It's alluring because Caroll was presenting it to his protege Alice Liddell when she was around 11; Liddell looked up to Carroll, and Carroll seems (to me anyway) to have been trying to show her the world as a place of freaky wonders--dazzling but dangerous. That world might have been seen as an enticing place to a pre-teenage Victorian child, who would no doubt have been anticipating joining the adventure soon as a young woman.

Milne is in a different century and a different (post-WWI) world. I have to admit, though, that the last time I spent much time at The House on Pooh Corner was when my mother read it to me, so I don't really know what I'm talking about. It seems to me, though, that the Pooh stories were intended for younger children than Alice Liddell, so it is not too surprising that their fantasy world would be a more gentle place than Wonderland. If you are still there, Yaya, you will want to moderate the conclusion of your essay with that concession. Still, as 101 points out, the lack of anything like a warm and loving relationship in Wonderland is telling in terms of a Victorian child's experience in the wider world. It would have been a colder and more dangerous place than Christopher Robin & Co would have experienced. It also seems to me that the world of Winnie the Pooh is somewhat nostalgic: Milne is looking backward to a happy time when a child shared an adventurous but safe world with beloved stuffed animals. Carroll is doing just the opposite: taking Alice down the hole into Wonderland--ready or not.

[Yaya]

You are amazing!!! Thats what i needed just someone to steer me in the right direction! You are a blessing!!! Thank you for taking the time to reply!

[Yaya]

Thank you for replying i really appreciate it!

[Pompey Bum]

You are very welcome, Yaya. Good luck on your essay. :)

[Yaya]

Thank you

[Calidore]

I have to admit, though, that the last time I spent much time at The House on Pooh Corner was when my mother read it to me, so I don't really know what I'm talking about.

From experience, I can highly recommend rereading them as an adult. Much of Eeyore's humor, especially, went right over my head as a kid.

I think the feel of the Pooh stories in general is kind of like Peanuts when Charles Schultz was in his zone--deceptively simple, but with plenty underneath to chew on.