Some people argue that the knowledge people attain in school also known, as a liberal education is nonfunctional. Liberal education is rather pointless due to the fact, that it can rarely be used in the real world. Often times intelligence causes people to be unhappy and has a tendency to get people into trouble, because after all ignorance really is bliss. In Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll satirizes the Victorian educational system to expose the uselessness of a liberal education, illustrate the beauty of ignorance, and the influence of nature in a pubescent age.

Throughout her adventures, Alice attempts to apply her knowledge to the laws of Wonderland, which inevitably fails. As Alice is falling down the rabbit hole she states “I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth . . . that would be four thousand miles down I think’ (for you see, Alice had learnt several things of this sort in her lessons in the school room . . .) “ (8). Alice’s attempts to apply the knowledge she learns in school to wonderland fails because wonderland is a world built upon nonsense. Wonderland represents more than just a fantasy it symbolizes actual society as a whole. Society and life itself holds no significant answers deeming Artificial / liberal, education valueless because it’s essentially a constant search for answers. “A man’s ignorance is not only useful, but beautiful, while his knowledge, so called, is oftentimes worse than useless beside being ugly” (Thoreau). If Alice had followed Thoreau’s idea that ignorance is useful and beautiful her journey would have been much easier and even far less confusing. Although wonderland seems to be a mystical fairytale land it is extremely similar to the world Alice actually lives in making the lessons she learns, such as the beauty of ignorance, not only applicable to her current situation, in wonderland, but to her future life in England.

Life is essentially a game of chess that we all play “ The chessboard is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature” (Huxley). Nature and our surroundings control every aspect of our lives. We live immersed in nature’s beauty and learn crucial life lessons form it from the day we are born to the day we die. Alice learns how to manipulate her situation, specifically her size based upon her surroundings. The Caterpillar says to Alice “one side (of the mushroom) will make you grow taller, and the other side will make you grow shorter” (42). Though at first it takes her a while to reach the correct size she figures out how to use her fluctuating size to her advantage when facing the queen of hearts. “Off with her head!’ the queen shouted . . . ([Alice] had grown to her full size by this time) ‘you’re nothing but a pack of cards!” (103). Alice’s realization of her ability to use nature to her advantage at the end of the novel shows that she did not only grow to her full physical size but to her full evolutionary potential.

Nature does not only influence ones immediate situation but it influences their future in its entirety. “While breeders can select variations that are beneficial for them, omniscient nature has the power to develop and select