http://www.tbs.com/video/index.jsp?oid=124282
A lot of you gave examples of your own difficulty in dealing with diversity. Let’s discuss some of that, if anyone wants to volunteer…
Katherine: Like Alice, we have all been put into situations where there are many different types of people, and at times we don’t know how to react. College is a perfect example. There are so many different types of people here. People with different interests, different opinions, backgrounds, religions....the list can go on and on.
Helen: In this way, Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland relates in so many ways to our college experience. Just like Alice, we’re thrown into this strange, new world. All of our previous ideas and habits do not apply in this entirely different world called college. More importantly, we must learn to deal with the good and bad of diversity.
Jade: In particular, in this World Literature class, we have studied a plethora of cultures and issues. From studying books and movies to participating in experiential learning with the Pow Wow, Navratri, and more, we can learn to understand and better appreciate the wonderful diversity on the UT campus.
Molly: Alice’s adventures mirror our own experiences as students of a large university. In my seven months here at UT, I’ve met a more diverse group of people in one place than ever before in my life. And though I’ve been fortunate enough not to have to constantly adjust my comments and actions to animal sensibilities, my experiences have certainly made me more conscientious.
Alex: Until I moved to the United States, I had never met a black person, an Indian, a Chinese, a white person, or whatever. I had difficult time adjusting to the diversity, as in cultural diversity. Americans, regardless of race, thought and acted differently.
Jose: Here in Austin, where our campus is located in such a diverse and interesting part of town, I have learned to accept all walks of life. I have learned to walk past the residents of the drag without being scare for my safety, I have learned to accept the gay couple holding hands in front of me, and I have learned to appreciate the fact that there are vast numbers of foreigners and minorities that dot our campus (St. John's was a pretty homogeneous school.
Emily: We have trouble accepting what we don’t know. For me, I had trouble accepting the concept of ahimsa.
Do you think Alice’s missteps with the creatures are functions of her innocence, age, ignorance or all three? Were her attempts at recovery admirable or was it "too little too late"? Did you think Alice was making all the mistakes alone or did you think some of the animals' demands were unreasonable?
Alice: I don’t blame Alice for getting flustered by this treatment. When she first meets the caterpillar he is very bossy and condescending to her, and she is just lost and confused. He is extremely reactionary and causes Alice to wish “the creatures wouldn’t be so easily offended! (53)”
Molly: Most of the time, problems arise simply from a failure to think before speaking. Alice, for instance, has never had to tiptoe around the subject of cats around humans, so she doesn’t even think about the effects that the subject could have on her beaked or furred acquaintances
Helen: Her ability to withstand such oddities is certainly admirable. She meets the March Hare, the Hatter, and the Dormouse. She deals with their strange tea party, view of Time, and habit of asking riddles with no answers.
Jose: A good majority of the inhabitants are anthropomorphic creatures, and Alice, while a little shocked by their existence, essentially treats them with respect and kindness in the same way she would treat a fellow human being.
Alice: Generally, the wonderland creatures are more intolerant of Alice then she is of them, though she may make a few faux-pas simply by way of being ignorant of the strange social conditions of wonderland.
What did Alice's adventures teach you about how best to approach issues of diversity?
Helen: In learning others’ perspectives, it is important that we assess what we have learned and gain greater understanding and truth from it.
Lauren: I don't think it's a bad thing to be uncomfortable with diversity when you first see it, as long as you learn to accept it and, beyond that...
Chris: Dealing with diversity necessitates two states of mind. One, a person must be “innocent” or free from prejudice. Second, a person must understand the background of such diversity
Helen: Just as much as the diversity of Wonderland teaches us to keep an open mind and learn from others, Alice’s encounters also remind us to be cautious in our acceptance of others’ beliefs.
We all agreed that Alice made some serious faux-pas when interacting with the Wonderland and Looking Glass creatures around her. By the end of both novels, do you think she had improved her skills with dealing with diversity or continued to make the same mistakes?
Jade: Gradually, Alice learns how to deal with diversity better by understanding the world from their perspective and by listening to them. She accepts the strange world of Wonderland, inquisitively exploring her surroundings with her curious nature
Alice: it is true that she slowly learns to be more comfortable in her new and strange environment and thus more accepting of the creatures there. By the end of Through the Looking Glass, when characters are morphing all around her, “at any other time, Alice would have felt surprised at this, but she was far too much excited to be surprised at anything now (266).” By the end, Alice has become acclimated to the constantly shifting and new world she’s in, and is no longer afraid or in contempt of the things she doesn’t understand.
Katherine: Gradually, however, Alice’s responses to the bizarre situations she encounters beyond the looking glass become less awkward and she makes fewer mistakes. She begins to treat the animals and people of wonderland like we would expect her to treat her friends and acquaintances back home, caring for the white king and the white knight and responding to situations with careful attention to what the consequences of her speech will be
Alex: Alice never really seems to cope with diversity in Alice in Wonderland. Even at the end of the book, she offends the cards, which brings her demise in the dream: "'Who cares for you?' said Alice (she had grown to her full size by this time). 'You're nothing but a pack of cards!'"
Lauren: However, I must ask myself: at the end of the looking glass, how much has Alice really grown? Is she REALLY that much more accepting of diversity? I think that she has grown, but not as much as I'd like her to.
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