After reading ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ I found that the main plot point that interested me was the open reference to drugs throughout the novel. This caught my attention due to the fact that this book is intended for a young adult age range but references drugs in almost every chapter. I found this quite odd especially since, as teens, we are heavily warned against drugs today.

The first reference to drugs I found was in the title of the first chapter “Down the Rabbit Hole” which is what used to be a common name for taking drugs but has since departed. This made me feel slightly uneasy but as soon as I started reading I felt that it was nothing more than a coincidence when Alice actually travels down a rabbit hole.

However the second reference to drugs I found was when Alice grew in size and then decreased. I felt that this was not only an indication of taking uppers and downers but also seems to suggest that Alice goes on a journey from childhood to adulthood. Alice enters her teen years where her hormones make her feel on top of the world one minute and depressed the next which seems to reflect the change in height.

The final reference to drugs was the caterpillar smoking a hookah which is the way many people take drugs in the Middle East but has become more and more popular over here in recent years.

In conclusion I found it very ironic but yet laughable that teenagers have a tremendous amount of pressure on us not to take drugs but Lewis Carroll has written a book where the world seems like one big dream induced by drugs.