114 pages • 3 hours read
Frank BeddorThe Looking Glass Wars
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2004A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
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BetaSymbols & Motifs
The Heart Crystal
The Heart Crystal of Wonderland is a massive crystal structure spanning 33 feet in height and is “the power source for all creation” (12). The Heart Crystal comes to represent both the power Alyss must wield and her devotion to a larger cause. The Heart Crystal is somewhat removed from the rest of Wonderland; the caterpillars of the Valley of Mushrooms serve the crystal itself, only making themselves useful to the throne of Wonderland inasmuch as it concerns the Heart Crystal, marking the Crystal as something that extends beyond, or perhaps defines, the ordinary structures of Wonderland. The Heart Crystal possesses the power of influencing reality in other worlds, as anything that passes through the crystal will manifest in the imaginations of people in other worlds; its power is the ultimate source of imagination, and it represents something greater than any individual.
Alyss’s scepter, the prize of the Looking Glass Maze, is an extension of this symbol. The scepter is “topped with a white heart crystal” (305), referring to the Heart Crystal by virtue of its design; the fact that Alyss’s powers strengthen when she is near the Heart Crystal reinforces this relationship. The scepter represents Alyss’s maturity in overcoming the Looking Glass Maze and accepting her role and responsibilities as queen. The crux of this responsibility is to accept that she wields power not for her own sake but in service of White Imagination. At the end of the book, Alyss’s goal is not to defeat Redd but to protect the Heart Crystal, signaling Alyss’s awareness of the larger cause that the Heart Crystal represents.
Looking Glasses
Looking glasses serve multiple functions in Wonderland. Beyond their function as mirrors, looking glasses act as access points to the Crystal Continuum, a major means of travel in Wonderland. The Alyssians also use looking glasses to disguise their camp from outside eyes. The looking glasses’ function as portals is a callback to Carroll’s original text, Alice Through the Looking-Glass, in which Alice stumbles into a fantastical world by passing through a looking glass in the same way the characters in Beddor’s reimagining enter the Crystal Continuum.
During many key moments of Alyss’s character arc, there is a looking glass present. Just before Alyss makes her transformation into Alice Liddell, her mother appears to her in a mirror and implores her to “never forget who you are, Alyss” (150). Likewise, just before her wedding to Prince Leopold, Alyss examines her reflection in a mirror as she begins to question whether her memories of Wonderland might be real after all, foreshadowing the deconstruction of her world as Alice Liddell. The looking glass also symbolizes Alyss’s fear of becoming like Redd. When Dodge takes Alyss to Heart Palace after she returns to Wonderland, Redd’s reflection appears in a looking glass just as Alyss is pondering her own reflection, foreshadowing the moment in the Looking Glass Maze when Alyss sees her reflection become Redd’s after Alyss uses Black Imagination.
The Looking Glass Maze, as per its name, is constructed entirely of looking glasses “as tall as forever” (300) and as a whole represents Alyss’s exploration into her subconscious. Within the Looking Glass Maze, Alyss is confronted with reflection upon reflection of herself; one such reflection becomes her seven-year-old self, dressed in the same outfit Alyss wore on the day of the South Dining Hall attack. The appearance of her younger self represents an identity that Alyss had sealed off from herself; she stated earlier that “Redd did away with two generations of Heart rulers that horrific afternoon” (236), indicating that Alyss feels that her identity as Alyss Heart, Queen of Wonderland, is completely lost to her. Alyss’s experiences in the Maze also reflect the moment in which she confronts her worst memories and finds the inner strength to develop her imaginative powers, leading her to reclaim her identity as Queen of Wonderland. The looking glasses symbolize endless reflections of all the paths Alyss has taken, and must take, in order to know herself completely and achieve the balance and wisdom to defeat Redd.
Imagination
Imagination is the central governing force of Wonderland. It empowers its users to manifest items from their imagination or to picture places and events happening outside their ordinary knowledge. Imagination has both creative and destructive potential, and without proper control, it can be dangerous. Redd and Alyss are the primary users of imagination in the book, and each represents one side of its duality—Redd its destructive side, and Alyss its creative side.
Imagination represents the two ideologies that struggle for influence over Wonderland. White Imagination is associated with societal concord, while Black Imagination breeds corruption, violence, and animosity among Wonderlanders. There are glimpses of this conflict from the beginning, when Queen Genevieve discusses Black Imagination societies in Wonderland with the Lady of Clubs and the Lady of Spades. When Redd is in power, the Black Imagination societies thrive, and the few remaining White Imagination organizations are persecuted and forced underground. Citizens can report each other for not adhering to Black Imagination principles, and children who are dissatisfied with their parents “because [the children] didn’t get a Black Imagination starter’s kit for their birthday” (144) can also report their parents for treason. This recalls real historical examples of fascism or dictatorships, making clear that Black Imagination, as an ideology, is unquestionably evil and inherently harmful, reinforcing that White Imagination is inherently good and constructive.
Imagination’s influence transcends Wonderland. The Heart Crystal itself possesses the power to transmit thoughts and inspirations to the imaginations of other worlds, indicating that imagination has an influence in other planes of existence; the Heart Crystal’s connection implies that imagination may be a unifying force between all worlds. While Hatter looks for Alyss on Earth, he decides whom to trust based on which people are “suffused with the luminescent glow of imagination” (82). Although it appears that on Earth one cannot manifest from their imagination, the imagination still exists as an external force on Earth; Charles Dodgson is said in narration to have the “brightest glow of anyone Hatter had ever seen” (174).
Imagination is powered by an unshakeable belief in self. When Alyss is in England, she immediately discovers that it is more difficult to use her imagination than it was in Wonderland; it takes much more effort, and she can’t manifest things exactly as she intended. The longer this continues, the more Alyss doubts herself; in a vicious cycle, the greater her doubts, the lesser her imaginative powers. Alyss’s time on Earth is marked by experiences that damage her inner world: She feels abandonment after her parents’ deaths and being separated from Hatter in an unfamiliar world, and she has her first experiences of shame, embarrassment, and inadequacy. As her sense of faith in herself sustains more damage, so does her imagination. Imagination becomes a potent symbol of emotional balance and self-belief for Alyss, and, and, as a motif, it structures how the reader is meant to perceive characters and their emotional states.
