Diversity in Alice

Back in Korea, I never had to deal with diversity. Korea, being ethnically homogeneous, provided an environment without much diversity (I could count the number of encounters with a foreigner with my fingers). Until I moved to the United States, I had never met a black person, an Indian, a Chinese, a white person, or whatever. I had difficult time adjusting to the diversity, as in cultural diversity. Americans, regardless of race, thought and acted differently. Main contrast between the two cultures was the emphasis on "I" over "we," and I had the worst time getting used to that.

Unless you're near an American military base, it's really hard to spot a foreigner in Korea

Similarly, when Alice arrives in Wonderland, she faces the same problem. Wonderland introduces her to a different kind of diversity. Instead of new races, she encounters different species and monsters. At first, she does not know how to deal with the challenge. Not knowing that the animals think differently, Alice talks to them as she would to a person and unintentionally offends them. One such example is when she offends the Mouse, and she pleads, "'I didn't mean it!' [...] 'But you're so easily offended you know!'" (35).

Alice's experience with different animals parallels my experience with different races

Similar things happened to me when I first had to face diversity. I would do things and say things as I would to a Korean person, and my American friends were offended. Lucky for me, my friends, unlike the Mouse, were understanding of the cultural differences and easily forgave me. They taught me American ways of doing things, and thanks to them, I improved quickly.

Alice too finds ways to deal with diversity. Alice never really seems to cope with diversity in Alice in Wonderland. Even at the end of the book, she offends the cards, which brings her demise in the dream: "'Who cares for you?' said Alice (she had grown to her full size by this time). 'You're nothing but a pack of cards!'" (124). However, in her second trip, Through the Looking Glass, shows changes in her. Although she finds many things that these creatures do ridiculous, she still does them. For example, the Unicorn tells Alice to hand the cake around first and then cut it afterward to serve, and Alice thinks that "sounded nonsense, but Alice very obediently got up, and carried the dish round, and the cake divided itself into three pieces as she did so" (231). Likewise, I found some American ways of doing things to be rather nonsensical at times, but as they say, "when in Rome, do as Romans do."

Who cares if it seems ridiculous as long as it solves the problem, right?