The White Rabbit is the spark of curiosity that activates Alice’s spiritual awakening. It is the White Rabbit who leads Alice down the rabbit hole. It is he who woke her up from her daze since the hot day had made her sleepy.
One notices how even though Alice was still a young child, the condescending world of adults was starting to affect her. She was starting to become an adult herself, and thus, would not question anything. Despite the fact she saw a talking rabbit run past her in human clothing, she found nothing too remarkable about it. It was only whenhe took out a pocket watch that she gave a start.
It is the White Rabbit which Alice runs after and searches for endlessly in Wonderland, a symbol of her quest for knowledge. Just when things seem rather desperate the rabbit appears yet again, and Alice drives on through. From Alice In Wonderland Philosophy – What Does It All Mean?
A friend of mine said that Trump had taken the GOP down the rabbit hole. This got me to thinking about the most famous rabbit hole in literature and one of the most memorable seven year olds in fiction.
Trump has often been likened to the Queen of Hearts so there’s nothing new to write about that.
Alice is a positive model of childhood inquisitiveness, courage, and in some ways she represents lost innocence. In the end she confronts the evil Queen and her Court revealing them to be all a pack of cards. She’s hardly an exemplar of the typical Trump sycophant.
Lewis Carroll’s rabbit hole is the entrance to a surreal world inhabited by creatures benign, amusing, wise, and malevolent. Wonderland differs from Trumpland in that the later is inhabited exclusively by malevolent beings. There’s no Chershire Cat there who despite his grin was a font of self-awareness and wisdom, for example:
“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
"Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad."
"How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t have come here.”
“Only a few find the way, some don’t recognize it when they do – some… don’t ever want to.”
If only there was a Cheshire Cat who could get into the heads of members of the Cult of Trump and persuade them that they had descended into a rabbit hole of madness.
