Fantasy: "Alice in Wonderland" and "Wizard of Oz"

Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass and Wizard of Oz are great works of fantasy. Each novel incorporates aspects that can help the reader understand more about a child's way of thinking and his/her journey to adulthood. Also elements from Bettelheim, Freud and Jung can be applied in analyzing each work.

In both Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass and Wizard of Oz , the authors delineate essential components to show how the main characters, Alice and Dorothy, mature from childhood to adulthood. This concept of growth into adulthood is an essential theme in both novels. In the first book, Alice is very unsure of herself and is even depicted in one point, to be having an identity crisis. With each character she was introduced to, she found her own self-image deteriorating, questioning her previously stable self-image. But in Through the Looking Glass her maturity and new reassurance in herself is present.

English: Diagram prefacing Through the Looking-Gla...

Ashanti as Dorothy Gale in The Muppets' Wizard of ...

Dorothy Gale

We can see this by the way each individual she encounters does not horribly affect her and how she even finds herself helping the other characters in the looking glass. Alice also finds her true self and place in society throughout the novel as she learns to deal with her situations. For instance, when she underwent the series of physical changes (when she ate the mushroom, or the cake) she began to perceive the world from many different aspects. Eventually she came to the conclusion that she could tamper with life's preordained course. By speaking out against the court and its rulings, Alice takes on a more assertive role, which signals her rite of passage into adulthood.

In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy also undergoes a drastic change that helps her understand her worth as a young adult and her place in society. Throughout her adventure in...