Leadership and Ethics in Alice

Most people seem to think that Alice has good qualities of a leader. I disagree; I believe that she fails as a leader. I want to discuss Alice's ability as a leader, other characters' abilities as leaders, and other ethical dilemma presented in the book.

ALICE

Actually, I believe the Alice illustrated in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a terrible leadership material. She is ruthless and inconsiderate of others; she talks about her cat to the Mouse: "...Dinah's such a capital one for catching mice..." (26). Of course, the Mouse is offended, but Alice does not understand why he is upset. She obviously lacks the essential skill of a leader to put oneself in other person's position.

Furthermore, she cannot keep cool. She is easily offended and constantly talks back to authority figures. While talking to the Caterpillar, Alice gets offended and leaves. The Caterpillar calls her back and gives her an important message: "Keep your temper" (49). However, she never learns to do that, which results in her demise in the Wonderland; she yells, "You're nothing but a pack of cards" (124), and whole pack of cards attack her, which causes her to wake up from her dream. Even in Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, Alice's temper is not fixed. She constantly talks back to the queens that the Red Queen says that Alice has, "A nasty, vicious temper" (252). A leader must possess the ability to keep calm, but Alice fails to do so.

Then again, the Caterpillar IS annoying with his questions.

However, she is relatively levelheaded. While other characters in the book are saying weird things and making careless decisions, Alice tries to reason with them. Nevertheless, her seemingly logical state of mind is all relative. She only appears to be logical because the rest of the creatures in the Wonderland is mad and irrational. If you think about it, her logic is that of a seven year old; hence, it is not so advanced.

Honestly, if you think about it, she is just a seven year old girl! You cannot expect her to be a great leader at such age. She acts a bit mature for her age, but, in the end, she is a little girl exploring in her dream.

OTHER CHARACTERS

The Mouse and Dodo have some qualities to be leaders. The Mouse has the ability to gather people and deliver speeches. The Mouse called out and "[The animals] all sat down at once, in a large ring, with the Mouse in the middle" (30). The Dodo ironically has the ability to think critically. He plans the Caucus-race and solves the situation with the prizes. The Mouse and Dodo display some leadership abilities by leading the animals.

It is ironic that Dodo is the one that comes up with logical solutions,
for they are known for being dumb.

The Queen of Hearts leads her people with fear and authority. She yells, "Off with their heads!" (83), to everyone who screws up. She rules with absolute terror. No one dares to oppose her demands, for they don't want their heads chopped off. This sort of ruling is partially effective in the sense that the followers will fulfill the leader's demand, but they will not remain loyal. When the absolute ruler is absent, the followers will slack off: "The other guests had taken advantage of the Queen's absence, and were resting in the shade" (93). This form of leadership from fear is adequate way to lead people but is not the best way to be a leader.

The Queen of Hearts closely resembles Queen Victoria.

ETHICS

The most prevalent ethical issue is eating animals, which is shown throughout the book. For Alice, cats and dogs killing and eating mice are normal, and humans eating lobsters is normal. However, for the animals in the Wonderland, such act is abhorrent and despicable. What is ethical and what is not seemingly depends on the environment, which the person grew up in. The definition of what is ethical changes depending on the conditioning--the same reason why slavery seemed ethical at the time.