Ms. Hen reviews THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

Through the Looking Glass

Lewis Carroll

Macmillan

1872

Ms. Hen is studying ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND,

since she is attempting

to write something similar.

She had read that book years before, but she had never

read the sequel, THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS, so she went to the Internet

and purchased it with aplomb, waiting anxiously for the parcel to arrive in the mail.

When it came, she read it when she was ready, and she dove into the fantastical

world of Alice falling into in her mirror.

These books are strange to Ms. Hen, and she is trying to figure out

what they are about; there is a myth they’re about

drugs, but she found out that’s not true, they’re just meant to entertain.

In this version of Alice’s tale she meets a Red Queen and a White Queen,

has an encounter with Humpty Dumpty, and the absurdity continues

with poetry and strange characters,

through the glass, similar to when she fell down the rabbit hole.

Ms. Hen thinks that the myriad of versions of these tales are about nothing but

children’s fanciful whimsical dreams, they are simply

tall tales told to spark the imagination,

to make us see the world in a precious way,

to help us hold onto childhood.

Ms. Hen thinks that people should not lose their sense of wonder,

even if they don’t like spending time around children,

they should hold onto the seed of what was once there,

but gets eaten away by the real world, the miserable, everyday, ordinary world

that kills us slowly and surely

by grinding us down to a pulp.

By reading about Alice, adults can try to remember what it’s like to have

a mind that’s free from clutter and drudgery.

We can become Alice and be like a bird hopping, preparing

for flight, ready to forget everything

and dance

like a rabid sea rabbit.