Pig/Boy

In chapter 6 Alice first meets the Duchess. I found this scene to be very interesting.

The biggest thing that caught my attention was the baby. Alice sees that the Duchess is holding a baby. She is shocked by how crazy things are in the kitchen. The cook was throwing plates and dishes around the room. The Duchess and the baby were hit several times. The Duchess then throws the baby at Alice.

Alice knew that she must take the baby in order to save it. Soon Alice notices the baby’s weird behavior and odd features. Alice says to the baby, “don’t grunt, that is not at all a proper way of expressing yourself.”

It seems to me that this was a very mature act for Alice. For the character of a seven year old girl, she handles the situation pretty maturely.

The baby soon begins to grow a snout. Alice realized the baby was turning into a pig! Alice then let the pig go.

As we know, Carroll did not like boys. He is using the baby turning into a pig as symbolism for what he thought was true.

Alice was happy to save the baby, but as soon as it turned into a pig she let it go. I think Carroll was trying to teach her a lesson about boys. Showing that boys turn into pigs and you don’t want anything to do with them. This was probably very critical of Carroll, but it did add humor to the story!

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