In Alice in Wonderland, the primary message is one of everlasting childhood and embracing the whimsy of youth; the final idea the reader is left with is that of maintaining the “simple and loving heart of… childhood” (104). What requires a little more emphasis and depth in the reading of Alice is her representation as a colonial force, invading and changing the foreign environment she finds herself in. I see this definitely as a trippy commentary on British colonialism; Alice was published in 1865, and the 19th century was characterized by British imperialism particularly in the largely unknown regions of Africa and Asia.
The section in Alice that seems to represent most clearly the idea of colonial force is the tea party. Alice approaches a table, and, seeing that there are a large number of seats, sits right down without asking permission. I see this as the British furthering their interests, primarily in the example of South Africa, when they settled despite the interests both of the Africans and the Dutch Boers who had settled themselves (also being colonists). I thought it was particularly well stated when the March Hare offers Alice wine, and she states that “it wasn’t very civil… to offer it” and the Hare then responds, casually, “it wasn’t very civil of you to sit down without being invited” (53). So, Carroll, I inferred, finds imperialism and colonialism to be quite uncivil.
Alice in Wonderland is a story of a girl who lands in a new world, asserts herself as being infallible, makes derogatory comments about the new land (on page 48, “if you’re going to turn into a pig, I’ll have nothing more to do with you”, on page 56, “is that how you manage?”, and on page 102, “who cares for you… you’re nothing but a pack of cards!”) and changes many of the things she encounters. Alice herself is a tiny colonizing force, dropping into a place with the mentality that she owns it, and changing it to reflect her own knowledge and beliefs. She takes what she sees (the food and beverage which make her size change) and she even alters their political realm by literally destroying the Queen. She essentially overthrew a government; that’s a colonizing force if ever I saw one.