It was a hot summer day, Alice had absolutely nothing to entertain herself in her stuffy old living room. She had nothing, except her imagination, which is the greatest tool, you know.
Alice stared at the boring old chess set on the coffee table, and she squinted her eyes and concentrated very hard.
Suddenly, the black king's head popped out of the stone piece and became fleshy. That was quickly followed by his body, arms, and legs. He glanced around in confusion and noticed Alice.
"You there!" the Black King exclaimed. "What business have you going around and making perfectly good stone chess pieces turn into flesh?" He waved his fist indignantly.
"How am I supposed to command my army if I can no longer speak with them? I demand that you turn me back this instant!" he continued.
Alice was taken-aback. If she were stone, she reasoned, she would enjoy being made human. She didn't understand why the Black King had become all hot and bothered over the issue. Besides, she was bored, and she wanted someone to play with.
"No, I'm sorry, dear king. I shan't turn you back," Alice said matter-of-factually.
"Well, if you won't restore me to my regular state of being, then I absolutely insist that you bring all the rest of my comrades along with me!" the Black King declared. He straightened himself up to his full height.
Alice thought for a minute. She had turned the Black King into flesh and blood relatively easily. And having more chess pieces to play with did sound appealing.
"Alright," Alice agreed. "I'll try my best."
For the next hour, Alice glared and squinted and glowered and scowled. She looked cross-eyed and cock-eyed. She concentrated and fixated and meditated and pondered. Alice ruminated and scrutinized and contemplated. Until finally, every last chess piece on the board was running around and calling out to its friends.
(Image information: "Chessmen" by John Tenniel, 1871.)
Alice was quite delighted with herself, and now that all of the chess pieces were reunited together again, they were quite pleased as well. They whiled away the afternoon together in pleasurable companionship.
Alice and the chess pieces grew quite close throughout the afternoon, and Alice grew sad when darkness came and her little friends became stone again.
"Well, at least for once," Alice said, "my life wasn't quite so boring."
Author's Note: This story is inspired by the Chess Pieces part of Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carrol, 1871. With this retelling, I really wanted to play around with Carrol's writing style because I think it's so enchanting. His word choice really makes for enjoyable stories. So I tried my best to emulate that.
Alice,
ReplyDeleteI thought you did an awesome job with this retelling! I didn't do this reading unit, but it was in my last round of choices for what I would read this week. I really liked that you took on the writing style of someone else. That makes you work hard at being very intentional about word choice and inflection. Overall, I thought you did a great job!
Hi Alissa, I think that you did a very good job at retelling this unit. I think that you really put your touch on it. Well done. I myself, did not do this reading unit. But I kind of wish I had. I would really like to see how he wrote. I think you did a good job, I really enjoyed reading this story.
ReplyDeleteAlissa, I think you did a great job on this retelling! I didn’t read this unit, but I have read Lewis Carrol before. His writing has a certain almost floaty quality to it (if that makes any sense) and I think you captured that in the way you chose to retell this section. I thought your descriptive language was really nice as well!
ReplyDeleteHahah, your story was so funny Alissa. Like always, you do a great job at creating a story. Alice seems like just a normal bored kid with an incredible imagination. I can see her concentrating all hard on the chest pieces. Your story reminds me of a backwards Pinocchio story when the king was mad that he was turned into a human. Great job!
ReplyDeleteHi Alissa. I am definitely convinced everyone read the Alice in Wonderland unit except me. Anyways, I like that you loved the writer's style of writing and tried to incorporate that into your own writing. I think you did a great job of that but also added your own uniqueness to this. Great job on your storytelling this week!
ReplyDeleteAlissa,
ReplyDeleteYou did a really great job on your storytelling assignment this week! I liked the exciting imagination that Alice possesses in your story. I also thought her logic was funny; who wouldn't rather be human as opposed to being stone? It was a really fun, simple story. Alice was board, so she imagined her chess pieces were real to pass the day. Nothing too crazy, right?
Hey Alissa!
ReplyDeleteYour retelling of this story was so creative and fun! I liked the matter of factness when Alice was reasoning about turning the chess pieces into humans. Like she said, who would rather be an inanimate object of stone than a human being? I'm curious if all these happenings are just in Alice's head, or if they are really happening.
Alissa,
ReplyDeleteI really liked your retelling of this story! I didn't read this section, which I feel like I'm the only one who didn't haha, but I like that you wanted to emulate Lewis Carrol's style. I'm not really familiar with it, but I still think you did a good job and enjoyed reading your story!