The White Rabbit

You’ve all heard of the White Rabbit, I’m sure. He is the first Wonderland character Alice sees. She is sitting on the banks of the river with her sister, and not paying any attention to the book she is reading her, when “suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her”. Notice the capitalization of White Rabbit. It’s a name, not just a description of character guys. :]

Alice doesn’t find anything odd about the White Rabbit, even when he shouts to himself “Oh dear, oh dear! I shall be too late!”. She doesn’t see anything strange about a talking animal, and only becomes interested in him when he takes out his pocket watch from his waistcoat pocket. She is interested first because she has never seen a rabbit with a pocket watch or a waistcoat to keep it in.

You may have read the book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and never noticed that Alice didn’t get curious about the rabbit until he takes out his watch. We would’ve been interested in him right when we heard him speak, after all, who here has ever heard an animal talk? This makes many people wonder. Why didn’t Alice jump to her feet and begin following the White Rabbit when she heard him talk? That’s what any of us would’ve done. But she doesn’t seem to care that he spoke, and neither does she doubt what she heard (as any of us would’ve done). Instead, she is very passive about the fact that he can speak, almost as if hearing animals talk is normal to her. Is it? She is a six or seven year old girl, after all. It could’ve been that she is used to pretending things, and could’ve been convinced that she only imagined the rabbit talked, as she might’ve done before with other animals back at home. This could mean that she only grew interested in him because she hadn’t imagined any of her animal friends with a waistcoat or a pocket watch.

My second question to you is, why is she so obsessed with this rabbit? Could he represent something more? Is he a symbol of dreams, perhaps? Something interesting that we follow around on some wild goose chase that many of us can never find? Alice often looses sight of the White Rabbit on her journey through Wonderland, and is always looking for him. Perhaps he is a representation of her childhood that is slowly slipping away.

Either way, the White Rabbit is an interesting character. He is always shouting that he is late, though he never says what he is late for (despite the fact the first Alice in Wonderland Disney movie says that he is late for a very important date, which he does not say in the books mind you). People in this day and age are always in a hurry, I think, and the White Rabbit reminds me  of them. :]