"Oliver Twist" ---> "Through the Looking-Glass"

Reading both "Oliver Twist" by Charles Dickens and "Through the Looking-Glass" by Lewis Carroll brought back many thoughts and memories of the past. “Through the Looking-Glass” reminded me of its prequel “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and how a child’s imagination can take them to a whole other world. Reading “Oliver Twist” by Dickens reminded me very much of “Annie” and how a child was faced with abandonment and poverty.

Lewis Carroll’s writings of Alice has brought happiness and has inspired imagination in many people’s lives especially children. I can remember watching Disney’s creation of Alice in Wonderland as a child and have many thoughts to why there was such a story made of nonsense. The nonsense inspired by Carroll’s writing of Alice and all the people she meets along the way opens the mind of children. Children love the adventure and the ability to create their own picture of Alice’s world in their minds just as many adults may have that same feeling. This was not apparent to me until recently when having our discussion about “Through the Looking-Glass” in class. Through our discussion I realized there is so many thought provoking moments in Carroll’s writings that it opens the rabbit hole or looking-glass for adults as well.  

Reading Dickens’ writing of “Oliver Twist” reminded me so much of “Annie” and how I would watch the movie as a kid. Yes, these two stories are different but they both have similar themes and outcomes that make them easy to compare. The theme of poverty and a broken system are things that face people daily and relate back to our current world and the people in it.