Week 9 Story Planning: Advice From a Caterpillar

Notes
I chose to read "Advice from a Caterpillar" as one of my extra credit reading assignments. I will use this story for my next story planning.

In this story, Alice comes across a Caterpillar. The Caterpillar wants to know who she is, and Alice is still shaken up from all of her adventures and confused about who she is, too. She tells the Caterpillar she feels different, but he does not understand. The Caterpillar was irritated with Alice not answering his questions, so Alice tried to leave. But the Caterpillar lured her back in by telling her there was something important he had to say. In the continued story, the Caterpillar begins a poem and Alice finishes it. She knew the entire dialogue. Once she finished, the Caterpillar criticized her and told her it was not said right. Alice acknowledges that there are some changes, but he still believes it's all wrong. The Caterpillar asked Alice what size she wanted to be, in which she answered 3 inches. She was rapidly shrinking, and the Caterpillar offered her a mushroom that one side would make her grow, and the other would make her shrink. She was afraid as she kept getting smaller. Alice had been altered and realized she had no shoulders. She could move her neck very easily, and it was explained that she looked like a serpent. A Pigeon called Alice a serpent, and she replied that she was not one. The Pigeon did not like Serpents, because they stole all the eggs. However, Alice still had a head - just a rather long, squirmy body now. She tries to avoid making the Pigeon mad, who obviously doesn't believe that she is actually a girl. Alice kept nibbling the mushrooms, not knowing which was which, and eventually went back to her normal height. This still didn't feel right, and Alice knew she'd frighten others if they saw her. She kept eating the mushrooms until she brought herself back to a normal height.

Research
Absolem
I can picture the looks of the Caterpillar from the Alice in Wonderland movies, but I wanted to do a little more research on the Caterpillar's character in these stories. According to Wikipedia, the Caterpillar's name is Absolem and he becomes a butterfly. I remember the butterfly being present at various times. Wikipedia also told me the Caterpillar "led Alice to the looking-glass portal to Underland." This was something I had forgotten. The Caterpillar is often remembered for smoking hookah. I think my next story will be about a run in between Alice and the Caterpillar. To add PR to this story, I plan to help the Caterpillar's bad reputation. According to Wikipedia, this explains the caterpillar:
He is seen as a very violent character as he yells at Alice quite often during the scenes in which they both appear. He blows smoke in Alice's face and when she needs assistance he ignores her. He is a quite mean character providing little to no assistance to Alice and ends up confusing her more while she is trapped in Wonderland. He then ignores her and turns into a butterfly and flutters away not caring whether or not Alice makes it out alive. He also instructs her to eat a mushroom but does not say what it does thus putting her into possible danger. He reappears one final time during the ending chase, still in butterfly form but once again smoking on his hookah, and again ignoring Alice when she asks for his help escaping the Queen of Hearts.
Clearly, the Caterpillar's bad attitude could cause him to find himself in a very bad reputation situation. Alice will help him, though he's always rude to her, because she is good at "fixing" bad situations.

Underland
After looking up Absolem, I was reminded of Underland. I researched Underland on Wikipedia. I had not remembered another country besides Wonderland. That is because another name for Wonderland is Underland! Lewis Carroll explains that the rabbit hole leads to Wonderland, which is far under the earth Alice once knew. Wikipedia told me lots about Wonderland, such as its inhabitants, its ruler (Queen of Hearts), and more. I did not know I could refer to Wonderland as Underland, so this gives me an option for future stories.

Advice from a Caterpillar + WikiQuote
I used Wikipedia to find out how the original story that I read is described according to Lewis Carroll. In this description, they explain Alice is having an identity crisis when she encounters the Caterpillar, which is a good point. WikiQuote then explained the rudeness of the Caterpillar, and how his common known phrase is "Who are you?" This would be important to include in my story.

Image
I like this picture because it depicts the Caterpillar's attitude, Alice's body language and the hookah the Caterpillar always has. Additionally, the letters coming from the smoke are included when he constantly asks Alice who she is. Photo can be found here.


Bibliography
Advice from a CaterpillarAlice's Adventures in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll, 1865.
Advice From a Caterpillar (cont.)Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll, 1865.
Advice from a Caterpillar (end)Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll, 1865.

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