I don’t like how this story ends.
Alice has just gone through so much in Wonderland. She’s seen and met many amazing creatures that could only exist in her dreams. And that’s that. She saw them she met them. And it was all a dream. Why do authors do that? Why do they take a big exciting fun adventure and turn it into something that could never be. I mean we all know that we will never meet talking animals, or have a conversation with a hookah smoking caterpillar but it’s fun just to imagine it for a while. But no, Carroll comes and crushes our dreams with his own dream that he’s written.
What was the purpose of all that? To make such a fascinating story and then end it so blandly. I haven’t read the book, and didn’t remember the movie, and even expected it to all be a dream. It’s just what seems expected from authors.
And what has Alice taken from all this?
We don’t know. All we see is her get up and run off to go get tea. Did she learn from it? Does she have more dreams like this one? Does she mature from her experiences? This ending is kind of like the one from Lord of the Flies. We don’t even know if the boys got off the island. Does Alice ever actually escape her dreamland? I guess that’s what sequels are for.
Darcy S.
Connor S.
Devon H.
Morgan P.
Scott Mitchell
Alice's Pack of Cards 
lol…I was just going to recommend you read Kyle’s post, and he posted here. Nice interaction guys!
That sort of ending can feel sort of like a cliche, but maybe it’s a common frame work, like fair tales beginning with “Once Upon a Time” that grounds us in the fantasy.
Another reason I think so many people disliked the ending was because the story was a means to escape reality. Readers (us) knew the book was a work of fiction and most of us guessed that it was just a dream, but we buried that in the deep recesses of our minds. It’s almost like nobody wanted to leave Wonderland. I myselft wanted to stay a bit longer and share another story with Mock Turtle and hear more ‘tails’ from a mouse.
I detest the ending. Authors spend so much time building a unique fantasy world. Once the world is created, they add crazy characters. They then put the main character in the fantasy world. The main character engages in captivating conversations and heart-pounding action. They then build up tension and right when it reaches the breaking point, they pull the plug. The story then reverts to the normal world and he main character is left wondering if the events that unfolded were real or not.
This type of ending cheapens the story (just like you said).
I definitely shared these EXACT same sentiments upon initially finishing the story…but ultimately, I couldn’t disagree more. I think the ending is brilliant; just because Wonderland is a dream doesn’t mean that Alice learned nothing from it. In fact, quite the opposite; at the very end, when it’s talking about her sister’s dream, it appears to be implied that Alice will carry the “simple sorrows and simple joys” of Wonderland with her to the grave. Still, you’ve offered a reasonable (and I suspect common) perspective.
“I guess that’s what sequels are for.” Indeed…