Through The Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
Chapter 1-6
Written by Katlyn

Summary

Alice is at home and realizes that one of her cats (a black kitten) has strewn her nicely rolled ball of yarn around the room. She scolded the cat while she rolled the ball neatly together again. Her thoughts wandered to a chess game she was playing. She tried to make the kitten look like the Red Queen, but since its arms did not cross properly she decided to punish it by threatening to put it in the Looking-Glass House. She begins to tell the kitten about the looking-glass where everything is the same but backwards. She imagines what it is like to live there and then the glass turns soft and Alice climbs through. The chess pieces are alive and are talking and walking. One of the pieces is crying so Alice tries to help by putting the White Queen next to her. She also picks up the White King and dusts him off. They cannot see her so the pieces are very surprised at their sudden movements. Alice picks up a book and all the words are backwards, she brings it to the mirror to flip the words and it is a strange poem called ‘Jabberwocky’. She realizes there isn’t a lot of time before she has to get back so she wants to explore the rest of the house. She gracefully glides downstairs to the garden.

Alice tries to get to the garden from the paths but she always ends up back at the house. She eventually arrives at a flower bed where the flowers are speaking. Alice is curious and asks questions about the different flowers and why she has never seen other flowers speak before. The tell her that there is another flower that looks like her. They point to the Red Queen who has grown to be taller than Alice. They begin talking and Alice realizes that the country is a giant chessboard, and she asks the Queen if she could be a Pawn. The Queen tells her she can take the place of Lily as the White Pawn. Alice and the Queen run two times as fast as normal to get to the first square. She tells Alice when she gets to the eighth square she will be a Queen. The Red Queen then disappears.

Questions for consideration

Why do you think everything is not exactly the same in the Looking-Glass House? Is this foreshadowing for the good or bad?

Why do you think the Red Queen helps Alice? Do you think the Red Queen expects Alice to become a Queen?

What do you think is the significance of the “jumps” to different places?

Why do you think the Fawn was so afraid of Alice after realizing she was human?

Do you think that Tweedledee and Tweedledum are telling the truth about Alice being a figment of the Red Kings dream?

Would you enjoy backwards memory?

Why do you think everything Alice wants is out of her reach?

Do you think humans are looked down upon my most of the creatures in the Looking-Glass world?

What was your favorite quote(s) from these chapters?

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