Alice and Diversity

What struck me the most in regards to Alice and her relations with those she meets upon her adventures, is the ease with which she takes into stride how strange the world she has been placed in seems to be. There are multitudinous creatures Alice comes into contact with along the way, included a White Queen that evidently lives backwards, a pair of twin brothers that seem to make it their mission to befuddle her, and a mad hatter whom is stuck at one specific time of day. "Alice thought it would never do to have an argument at the very beginning of their conversation, so she smiled and said 'If your Majesty will only tell me the right way to begin, I'll do it as well as I can.'"(195-195) Alice, rather than forcing her preconceived ideas of the way things are and should be upon the people that she comes into contact with, as many adults do, she simply learns to see things from those she meets' point of view. This tactic, this ability of Alice's to at least attempt to see other's ideas as true in their own respect, is a quality that we all could emulate more often. As adults, even as teenagers, we seem to develop a tendency to believe we already know "all there is to know", and that as such any of point of view or lifestyle presented to us is "wrong". However, I believe one of the goals of Alice, and coincidentally one of the major goals of the University of Texas, is to force us to allow other ways of life to seep into our own, to open our minds to all the possibilities surrounding us, and as a result become more enlightened and well-rounded individuals. Then, like Alice, we will come upon those as different to us as a backwards living White Queen, and easily find a way to relate.