A Comparison

In this essay I compared various themes and ideas contained in "Alice in Wonderland" and "The Little Prince". This was part of my Alice Project.

A main theme that is present in both “Alice in Wonderland” and “The Little Prince” is the innocence of childhood, and the wealth of imagination that is present in these years.

In their respective books, Alice and The Little Prince speak in the same manner. They both use language that is  rather unique and imaginative.

Both Alice and The Little Prince are very wise. For example, Alice says: “But if I’m not the same, the next question is, Who in the world am I? Ah, that’s the great puzzle!” (Carroll, Loc. 95). The children are also very inquisitive. One of Alice’s favorite praises is “Curiouser and curiouser!” and it seems without a doubt her favorite word is “Queer”. The Little Prince frequently asks questions, to the narrator. He also frequently gives answers.

Also, both of the children possess a large amount of imagination. In “Alice in Wonderland” this special gift of childhood is especially apparent: the whole story is based off the creativity of Alice’s mind. Imagination usually grows fainter as the child becomes older... the longer they live, the more they know, and the more things are set-in-stone in front of their eyes. They lose the quality to see into the special, magical kingdom of Wonderland.

What the authors meant to convey about all children (by giving the characters such characteristics)  is that they  naturally possess these traits... that is true. Children, young children especially, are predispositioned to possess a high level of curiosity. They frequently display this by asking questions. Many, many questions. The answers to the questions may seem obvious to adults, but children are new souls. Children want to find out as much as they can about the world, and if something doesn’t make sense to them- well, they’re not embarrassed to say so!

Children, also, are very innocent. This innocence brings with an innate wisdom, a wisdom not gained by experience... lost by experience. Children might not know a whole lot about the world, but they know about things pure and simple (because they are so). Their higher nature is much more visible and attainable than in adults. They seem to see the world  through different eyes. They always know what’s the right thing to do, and they have high moral values. This is because their life has not yet been tainted, tainted by experience and material knowledge which can cause one to think differently. The more you know, the more you worry... and the less you are able to imagine...

This theme of innocence is especially apparent in “The Little Prince”. The Little Prince travels to different planets, and at each one he meets a man. Every time the man he meets has a different fault, the fault being a problem that adults often have, for example greed. I think the author was trying to point out that children have none of these problems, and that the Little Prince is wise in knowing that these behaviors are wrong.

Another parallel  between the characters of Alice and the Little Prince is that they both have non-human characters that they care for, are very attached to, and talk about frequently. In Alice’s case, this character is her cat, Dinah. In the Little Prince’s case, the character is his rose.

These relationships are representative of the love that children have to give... Pure, selfless love. The children each feel responsibility for their plant or animal and they worry and talk about them constantly.

Adults often think that children don’t know what being responsible is, that they haven’t experienced it. That is not true! Children have a different type of responsibility than adults, the responsibility of love. They do better with their job than grown-ups ever did with theirs.

In the end, the Little Prince releases his soul to the stars in order to be with his flower again. An adult would never do so. Adults are usually very afraid of death, because they tend to only believe what they see. If an adult committed suicide, it would only be for selfish reasons.

But children aren’t afraid of death. Children are innocent. Children have faith, and children have love. Children have imagination: and so they can see past. This is the message that both “The Little Prince” and “Alice in Wonderland” intended to convey, though the former focused more on love and the latter on imagination.

Alice In Wonderland: Chapter Response Essays

I did a project on Alice in Wonderland. One of the parts was to pretend to write some letterd (in this case to Alice), addressing various prompts responding to different chapters. ;) Here they are...

Dear Alice,

I think the garden might represent the idea of Heaven for you, or maybe it’s the fulfillment of all your goals in life (is it the same thing?)... It seems like everyone has something they really want to accomplish, sort of like their dream.

Your encounter with the caterpillar represents, in terms of Jungian Archetypes , a mentor-pupil relationship because you ask the caterpillar a question, and the caterpillar is kind of trying to teach you.. The caterpillar isn’t really a very good mentor though, at least in my opinion. He could be a Friendly Beast, but I think that’s more like the Cheshire Cat.

Your ability to control your size is significant because it allows you to overcome many obstacles in Wonderland. I think this may represent your ability to navigate and control your thoughts and emotions... you  managed it with some difficulty.

I think the Cheshire Cat answers your question (about where to go) the way he does in order to represent that you can take whichever path you choose in your life and you’ll always end up somewhere. I think you’re  really kind of looking for your destiny, which road you should take...

Sincerely, Sierra Guequierre

Dear Alice,

No, I don’t think the mouse you meet in Chapter 7 was the same mouse as the you meet in Chapter 2. First of all, the second mouse you met (Ch-7) was referred to as “the Dormouse”. That’s not really a type of mouse anyways, but it is a rodent. Second of all, the Dormouse was always sleeping and the Hare and Hatter were putting their elbows on it and such. The other mouse was completely awake and quite feisty. So unless the mouse was bipolar (and bispecies)... no.

The cards in your story are all very inferior to the queen, and are pretty much her slaves. The queen is a tyrant. They act their part by being very afraid of the queen. For instance- “‘Get up!’ said the Queen, in a shrill, loud voice, and the three gardeners instantly jumped up, and began bowing to the Queen...” (Carroll, Loc. 619)*

The Cheshire Cat treats you  like a friend, and companion. All the other characters are quite mean to you. I think maybe the two of you are friends because he kind of has a higher degree of sanity than most of the other things of Wonderland.

Sincerely, Sierra Guequierre

Firsthand History: Edited Transcript

This is a Edited Transcript of my interview with Soroush Azadi for the website FirsthandHistory.net - please note, these are his own words.

"The Baha’i Faith is an independent religion that originated in Iran about a hundred and sixty years ago, very widespread; we believe in the equality of the human race, and trying to bring about peace, harmony.

I was born in Iran and I lived there until I was nine years old. I was born in 1977... Due to the religious persecution of many Baha’is in Iran, it’s not a very great lifestyle, you do not have many of the liberties that most of the non-Baha’is have, so it’s quite difficult to live in Iran now and it was quite difficult to live back then. Examples of that are very clear... You’re not allowed to continue your education past high school, you’re not allowed to hold any kind of government job; many of your liberties like even owning a business or a home, aren’t upheld by the courts.

My mom was fired from her job of many years, as a teacher; my brothers, who were in high school, were actually either beaten or followed home and threatened, many times; my father had to quit his job working for the government, and opened his own business.

I have two older brothers, and my parents valued education of their children at a high level, and my eldest brother, when he became of age, at 17 years old, my parents knew he would not be able to continue his education past high school; furthermore, at that time, Iran was in a war with Iraq, and Baha’is who at that point had to be drafted automatically into the military were sent to the front lines, to be killed. It was another way of trying to get rid of the Baha’is. My parents decided to send him out of the country, to get him to be able to be educated. A couple years passed by, and my middle brother was graduating high school and the same thing was occurring; my parents decided that instead of sending another child away they would uproot their entire lives and try to take a risk and see if they could allow their kids an opportunity to be educated...

You are not allowed, if you are Baha’i, (and they know it, because Baha’is proclaim that they are Baha’i, they do not try and hide that fact), to have a passport, and to leave the country for any reason. Therefore, we had to illegally leave the country, and we had to pay many people... It was a very arduous task, and it was very dangerous, it took multiple days, and even after you escaped you had to ask permission to be a refugee in another country...

The escape route at that point was too actually use the desert that is shared between Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, many of us escaped there... Essentially, we spent the first night getting very close to the border, and then they took us, brought us to the middle of the desert, and then we spent one night on the back of camels through the desert, then we spent the next two days being behind a pickup truck, driving through the desert, trying to finally get to a destination where we could actually enter into Pakistan. You could not enter into Afghanistan, they did not accept you as refugees, so you had to go to Pakistan.

There was a lot of policing of the desert, you had to constantly dodge left and right where the police checkpoints would be, many people did get caught, many people did die, not only because of the policing of the borders but also the harsh conditions.

My family and I, day 2 of our escape, we didn’t  have any water. Any water that they had for us was in a big jug that was previously filled with gasoline. Anytime anybody would drink the water, they would have to throw it up, because it was mixed with gasoline...

There were multiple occasions when we thought we were not gonna make it, there were occasions when we were caught inside of Pakistan, before we got to the U.N, when the police boarded our train and asked for identification, we didn’t have any, we had to try and bribe them; we did finally get to a safe haven at the U.N... but those stories are quite rare, it happens quite often that you get shot at by the police if you run away, so, you know, we were lucky to make it.

We were in Pakistan for eighteen months. The entire time we lived in one room, me and my brother, and my parents, we had one bathroom, and so we lived a very modest life as you have to, since you cannot work because you are a refugee... so my parents used all the savings they had... Pakistan did not have any persecution of Baha’is, and we were lucky from that standpoint, and there were multiple Baha’is who are Pakistani who would basically put us under their care... We tried to keep a low profile, stay to ourselves, stay with the Baha’i community. We tried to engage as much as we could with the community as possible.

As far as the waiting period, we did not plan, originally, to come to the United States... we were trying to meet my brother who had left earlier from Iran on his own, he was at that that point in Belgium. So we tried to get to Belgium, but they would not allow immigration at that time; we tried to go to Germany, they were not open to immigration either, so the only country that at that point was allowing immigration was the United States, and we thought that would be the best opportunity for us to go somewhere; Living in Pakistan was not very easy, there were lots of diseases that could easily be transmitted as their sanitation was not very good; we were ready to get out as soon as possible, and we were fortunate to be able to get out at the time that we did.

Our route to the US was actually much better than anything else, we came in legally, we got on a plane, and got to the US; we were fortunate that a Baha’i family in Washington DC had sponsored us and through their sponsorship they paid for our plane tickets, and they even housed us for up to a week until we were able to get our ID.

We were lucky enough that we did have some relatives in Texas, who were able to help us out also, essentially after we came to the states we came to Texas because we had some relatives there who were able to help us with finding jobs, and housing us for a long period of time.

My parents did not speak English at all. I did not speak English, I just started off at seventh grade just without knowing anything. My brother did study some English, so he was the one who was the most proficient in speaking it and he actually- well, he was the first one in our family to get a job, he supported us, continuing his education, before we could get on our feet. He was a big factor in us being where we are today.

Transitioning from Iran to the US is difficult to explain to someone unless you’ve experienced it, it’s a cultural shock, there’s the whole language barrier, there’s all these traditions; not only that you’re unfamiliar with but ,you don’t how to interact with people; so those first sixth to eight months, I would say, for me, were really difficult, to try to get acclimated to the environment; I think for my parents it was much more difficult, because they’d spent 45 years of their life in a culture where, well, in culture there’s not many similarities between the Iranian culture and the American culture. So for them, it was by far the most difficult and even today there’s still some cultural things that they still struggle with. They’ve done a great job, but, you know, it’s difficult to adapt to that as an adult.

We were very blessed to have great friends in the Baha’i community, since the beginning, and through them, we’ve been able to get on our feet. We started just like anyone else you would think that was in this country as immigrants, we started off with food stamps, housing that was made specially for us, we worked very hard, my parents worked very hard and we slowly moved our way up in the socio-economic status to where we are today.

There are still Baha’is coming in from Iran, some of them my family members. The situation in Iran has definitely worsened since we left. Everything that I told you about from education, and jobs, is still the same, yet now, the entire country is under great economic stress. The government in Iran finds multiple new ways to try and oppress the Baha’is and try to eradicate them out of their homeland. This problem is not going to go away, with the current regime of Iranian government."

Firsthand History: Introductory Profile

One of my recent projects has been on documenting somebody's story in relation to social justice- see Firsthand History.net for more info.

I interviewed Soroush Azadi. In this interview, Soroush tells the story of his troubles in Iran as a victim of religious persecution, and the hardships him and his family faced on their escape from Iran, journeying to the US. 

Soroush Azadi is tall, with a shaven head and a black beard. He’s funny, and nice to be around. You can’t tell that English was his second language, he speaks very clearly. He was born in Iran in the 1970’s, and he has lived in the US since around twelve years of age. He works as an optometrist, with a wife and two small children.

Soroush is clear, sincere and composed throughout the interview, as he describes his childhood and journey, as he describes how this problem hasn’t stopped and more refugees are coming every day. As this interview was taking place, and I heard Soroush’s story, I felt frustrated, I wanted to help solve these problems in Iran. And my hope is, maybe this story will help, you can all hear it too.

My Autobiography: In Spanish

I know what you're thinking: This is for Spanish, and it's supposed to be for English. Well, once you get past the part that it's in a different language (it just makes it more interesting!) it's a really good description of my life right now, and if you don't know me... Well, here it is. It describes many different, important attributes of my everyday life. (if you can't read spanish, plug it into google translate) ;)\

Yo soy Sierra Guequierre. Tengo doce anos. Yo naci 15 de febrero de 2000. Soy americana y soy de Austin, Tejas. Soy una alumna en una escuela “Kealing”.

Yo soy bastante linda. Mi pelo es de color cafe Mis ojos son azul. Yo soy una deportista. Soy una estudiante ambicioso. Estudio mucho. Yo soy comico, sociable y inteligente. He leído un montón.

Me gusta macarron con queso muy mucho. Me gusta una merienda de chocolate con granadas. Tambien me gusta patatas al horno. Mi fruta favorita es una manzana y mi verdura preferida es tomates. Son delicioso!

En mi casa me conoce como una chica que es un poco perezoso, pero por lo general muy trabajadora. Estoy bien pero a veces sarcasticos, aunque siempre me encanta mi familia.

Mis amigos de Kealing crees que soy estudiosa, agradable y un poco tímido. Mis otros amigos crees que soy locuaz, amable, y un poco de mal y loca. Yo soy un poco en el medio.  

Tengo una casa de un piso. La casa tiene un gran patio. Hay tres dormitorios, pero sólo un baño. Mi casa tiene bonitos suelos de madera y es muy cómodo y acogedor. Mi dormitorio está pintado de amarillo y rosa, y tengo una buena cama de tamaño doble. Hay un montón de estanterías y una alfombra en el suelo.

Tengo siete mascotas. Tengo tres perros, tres lagartos y una tortuga gigante. Sus nombres son Bogie, Cormac, Toki, Larry, Mo, Curly y Donk. Todos son muy lindos en sus propias maneras extrañas.

Mi mejor amiga es Mia Fitzpatrick. Mia va a la escuela media Fulmore. Mia y yo hemos sido mejores amigas desde la guarderia. A pesar de que van a escuelas diferentes, Mia y yo vemos casi todos los días y hacer cosas divertidas juntos, como dormir fuera de casa y TCTA.

Inner/Outer Circle Discussion Questions

We had a circle discussion on the basic ideas of the third sixth weeks (the stories that we had read and their main concepts). Any of us students could contribute at any point, but we had to keep the discussion going and sort on on-topic. Everybody had to come up with five discussion questions... and so, here are mine. They make more since if you've seen/read what I'm talking about, so do, I would recommend anyone of these books/movies. :)

1. In both Life of Pi and Big Fish, the main protagonists go on “life-changing journeys”. Though Pi did not choose to go on the journey and Edward Bloom did, it cannot be denied that they both sort of “found themselves” during their adventures. Do you think these journeys  (whether or not they were true) were the character’s way of growing up and maturing? In Pi’s case, how did his attitude change from the beginning to the end of the book?
2. One of the most emotional parts in The Little Prince is the scene in which the Little Prince departs this world, having been willfully bitten by the poisonous snake. The author was very much sorrowed by T.L.P’s departure of soul from body, and feared that he has lost him forever. However, the Little Prince assured him that all was well, and though he was afraid he was sure he would be with his flower once more. The wisdom of the child kept him strong while the grown-up’s prevailing fear of death brought  him sorrow. Why do the child and adult think differently? What changes does age bring to our way of thought?
3. In the beginning of the poem “Reading the Brothers Grimm to Jenny (by Lisel Mueller)” it states “Jenny, your mind commands kingdoms of black and white, you shoulder the crow on your left, the snowbird on your right”. The crow is a black bird generally associated with evil, while a snowbird is white and pure. What effect does this theme of “grey” have upon the poem? What do you think it means?
4. One of main themes in “Big Fish” is the “love of family”. The father/son relationship between Edward/Will had always been strained because of Edward’s love of tall tales, and they didn’t speak to each other  for three years. Why did this “love of tall tales” lead to their estrangement? Do similar relationships exist in real life?
5. Possibly the main theme in all of these works is the theme of storytelling, and the concept of believing “the better  story”. In Big Fish, Edward Bloom embellishes his life stories with tales of fantastical adventures, and in the end immortalizes himself through them. In Life of Pi, many people feel that the first version of the story is “the better story” and choose to believe it. What does this theme of  “the better story” have to do with fairy tales, and the poem “Reading the Brothers Grimm to Jenny”?

Therese Carter: Just A Housewife (Second Post)

This is another component of of my Monologue project (as described in "Therese Carter: Just a Housewife" First Post). It is basically my character analysis of Therese Carter... what I view her to be.

Sierra Guequierre

11-6-12

A2

Therese Carter: Initial Character Analysis

All throughout this interview, Therese Carter expresses different opinions on what it means to be a housewife. First she acts ironic, talking about how she’s “just” a housewife and talking about how lazy she is and how anybody could do the work she does.  But her true point of view is eventually revealed, everybody puts down housewives when they’re actually really important. She loves being a housewife.

Therese Carter has a funny, sarcastic personality. She loves to relax in the house, and drawls about her schedule in depth, especially about the books she’s read. She loves to read. She doesn’t really do any art except cooking, and occasionally painting the house. She prides herself on that small achievement.

Despite her sarcastic demeanor, Therese Carter really loves her family. She talks a lot about them- what they’re reading, where they work, what books they’re reading. She has a husband, Bob the foreman, and three children, two boys 21 and 14 years old and one girl 18 years old.

Therese Carter talks a lot about what she’s going to do when her children leave and start their own families. “I’ll never say I’m really a good mother until I see the way they all turn out. So  far they’ve done fine.” (Carter, 397).  She’s looking forward to having more time to herself, she wants it to be a “happy kind of time”. She’s the sort of person who likes to have fun and relax, but isn’t lazy either. She doesn’t see housework as a chore, she sees it as a pleasure. She know’s she’s needed, and she thinks it’s the greatest satisfaction in the world to know she’s pleased somebody.