Caucus Concoction

In chapter Three just after Alice’s first interaction with the mouse, we find ourselves amongst an assorted group of animals.

From extinct avians to rodents, this group has nearly every animal imaginable. Since they were swimming in the pool of tears, they needed a solution to get dry. The mouse tried reading from a piece of “dry” literature but to no avail. It was then that the Dodo suggested a “caucus-race”. It is at this moment that the silliness of this scene is revealed for it’s true self. This entire scene is a crack at governments. The caucus-race where all the animals run around randomly until there objective is some how accomplished, and then demanding prizes for their efforts is obviously a reference to the British leadership at the time. The reading of the “dry” paper shows the ignorance of how things truly work.

Another thing I noticed was at the end of the caucus race once everyone was dry, the Dodo suggested that, “Everyone won and therefore everyone gets prizes”. Was this a reference towards socialism? Alice was even handed back her own thimble she thought the entire idea was “absurd”. You see another hint at this during the second half of the handing out of gifts. You see the “birds” complaining about there portions. The big birds complained (to who they were complaining to they never said) that they could not taste theirs, while the small often choked on their over sized portions. So what do you think was the caucus race, a reference to Britain’s government at this time? Or was the title merely a coincidence?