Alice in Wonderland is one of those few children’s books which appeals to adults as much as it appeals to children. Why does this novel attract so many older readers? I would like to aver that the answer to this question is that the novel reminds its older readers what it is like to experience the world as a child. There are three ways in which the novel achieves this: Firstly it allows the reader to realize that one should live in the present and not worry about the future, live for life itself without need for an over-arching purpose. Secondly, Lewis Carroll exemplifies how one can observe the world without preconception. Thirdly the novel shows how one can act without worrying about the consequences.

 This remarkable novel enchants the reader by demonstrating how one can live in the present without anxiety for what may happen in the future. It explicates that one can live for the actual moment without having to give a significant reason for doing so. Alice has the attitude of “The journey isn’t where you get to, it’s where you are now.” This can be seen when Alice is falling down the rabbit hole without seeming to come to terms that she just might die when she reaches the bottom. On her fall down the rabbit hole, the first thing Alice thinks about is not what will happen to her when she reaches the bottom, but rather how brave everyone will think she is being at home: “Well,” thought Alice to herself. “After such a fall like this, I shall think nothing of tumbling down-stairs! How brave they’ll all think me at home!” (10) Just before her fall ends, she is busy playing word games: “And here Alice began to get rather sleepy, and went on saying to herself, in a dreamy sort of way, “Do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats?” and sometimes, “do bats eat cats?” (11) The fact that Alice nearly falls asleep here only emphasizes her insouciant attitude towards her current predicament. By having that ambivalent attitude towards her potentially lethal situation, Alice demonstrates that life is more amusing if one lives for the moment, instead of worrying about the future.

 Viewing the world without presumption is a quality Alice expresses for the duration of her exhilarating journey. She accepts things for the way they are rather than judging them according to her pre-existing prejudices about how the world should be. This can be demonstrated when Alice does not grasp that a talking rabbit is out of the ordinary, but rather accepts it as if it was normal. “There was nothing so very remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so very much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, “Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!”(10) The innocence of this way of thinking; of accepting things as they happen, reflects the carefree attitude of the child. This attitude can also be noted if one re-reads the section in which Alice decides to follow the rabbit down the rabbit hole:

 But when the rabbit actually took a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out if it, and, burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit hole under the hedge.  (10)

 Lewis Carroll allows the reader to experience this innocent way of perceiving the world in the child-like manner which Alice expresses and in the way she is able to observe the world in a diverse way without preconceptions.

Throughout this adventure, Alice demonstrates how one can act freely without worrying about the corollary. The childlike nature which Alice displays comes to reason that she does not think about the future and what the consequences of her actions may be. This can be made evident when Alice acts with sympathy towards the queen’s baby at first: “If I don’t take this child away with me,” thought Alice, “they’re sure to kill it in a day or two. Wouldn’t it be murder to leave it behind?”(page 55) After some minutes Alice observes the baby more and comes to the conclusion that it is indeed a pig after all:

 This time there could be no mistake about it: it was neither more nor less than a pig, and she felt that it would be quite absurd for her to carry it any further. So she set the little creature down, and felt quite relieved to see it trot away quietly into the wood. (page 55)

 Alice’s feelings towards the baby turned from pity and kindness to annoyance and unimportance within minutes rather than thinking about the issue first. Throughout the novel it is made apparent that Alice proceeds without thinking about the effect it could have on her or others subsequently.

 Lewis Carrol allows the reader to experience various ways in which a child may feel, act or think in hope to bring the childlike nature back to ones’ imagination. He does this by showing how a child lives for the moment and not for the future; the innocence of a child’s mind in the idea that children do not have a fixed idea about the world and how it should be and also and also how children are willing to act without trepidation for the consequences. This proves that child-like features make the novel immensely captivating for both young and old.