Waking Up: The Conclusion of The Into the Rabbit Hole Series

Alice, at the end of her story, wakes up and realizes it was all a dream. That is how I feel at the end of my Modernism studies. It all seemed so real to me at the time I was reading it, but the details and the understanding became hazy for me at times.

I don’t believe I’ll ever completely understand the magical Wonderland that is the world of Modernist Literature, but I do think that I’ve come away from reading works like Ford Maddox Ford’s The Good Soldier and Rebecca West’s The Return of a Soldier with greater knowledge about the world these characters, and tons of real people like them, lived in.

All of it, the confusion, the frustration, the deception that I experienced when reading about these people was all going on in London at the time of these writings. Modernism is totally a way to bring readers minds away from the idea of a Victorian novel: one that is all wrapped up in the end with happiness and marriage. These novels show us how life really was in twentieth century England.

After Alice woke up from her dream, she realized that she had taken for granted the world around her, and looked at things in a new light; her life was forever changed because of her journey into Wonderland, and my reading style and skills will be forever changed because of this journey deep into the world of Modernism.

“High dive hungry mother”, Licensed as Public Domain

If, for some reason, you dare to take the jump from the high dive into the deep, deep water of modernism, I have some advice for you:

1. Don’t trust ANYONE! I’m stressing this! Many characters will deceive you, whether they plan to or not.
2. Keep your eyes open and pay attention: Details in these stories are easy to miss if you don’t know what you’re looking for!
3. Don’t expect a happy ending; most of these stories are, like Ford’s tale, incredibly sad. If you expect a happy, Victorian novel ending in marriage and childbirth, this genre ain’t for you!
4. Watch out for the quiet characters: they usually have something going on under the surface.
5. Most importantly, have fun! Don’t worry if you don’t get everything that’s going on the first time you read something. Modernist literature is hard, and sometimes you need a hand to figure everything out, so don’t be afraid to ask for help from your peers when reading!

Reading is an escape into the most awesome, dazzling, and adventurous of wonderlands. I bid you all good luck as you continue on into new and changing lands, but remember, always, to watch out along your way…