The author of the novel is Lewis Carroll, but his most successful literary work to date is Alice in Wonderland. The theme of this story is finding yourself in a world full of followers. Carroll uses elements such as characterization and internal conflict to show readers the moral lesson he is trying to convey. Carroll is a great author because he writes with such imagery, almost as if he wants readers to feel like Alice in Wonderland. The use of his metaphors makes readers really dig deep and think about what is happening in Wonderland. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, later known as Lewis Carroll, was born on January 27, 1832 in Daresbury, Cheshire, England. Raised Catholic, Dodgson was the eldest son and third of eleven children. Dodgson's father was a rector of the Catholic Church and his mother stayed at home to care for the children. Throughout his childhood, he entertained his siblings by writing poetry or performing magic tricks (notable biographies). At the unusually late age of seventeen, he suffered a severe attack of whooping cough that left him with poor hearing in his right ear, which likely led to weakness in his chest or stuttering or, as he would call it, a “hesitation” (victorianweb). Dodgson moved to Rugby School in 1846, after leaving Rugby in 1849 he completed his matriculation at Christ Church, Oxford in 1850 and continued to study there gaining residency early in 1851 (poets). Dodgson left Rugby at the end of 1849 and, after an interval which remains unexplained, continued in January 1851 at Oxford: at his father's old college, Christ Church. Dodgson's mother died when he had only been at Oxford for two days, he did not let her death distract him from his goal of graduating, although Dodg...... in the middle paper...... dies, its use of language and literary style. A novelist named Henry Kingsley complimented Carroll by saying, “…Your versification is a gift I greatly envy.” Victorians praised Carroll for his play on words, others called his work "nonsense". Critics believed it had a sexual meaning, particularly psychoanalytic critics. For many years they were preoccupied with the details of Carroll's sex life and his obsession with young girls (eNotes). The first wave of criticism focused on the novel's sexual symbolism, which, according to the theory, reveals Carroll's repressed (Freudian) sexuality. The caterpillar fungus also has multiple symbolic meanings, some readers and critics view the caterpillar as a sexual threat, its phallic form a symbol of sexual virility. The caterpillar mushroom connects to this symbolic meaning (sparknotes).