ANALYSIS

"Alice in Flatland" is a poem composed of eight parts. This is a difficult text. Although Jim Andrews try to catch the people’s attention putting the base, the popular poem "Alice in Wonderland" to make the reading easier. We have to read between the lines to understand what the author wants to say since it’s a mathematical text.

From my point of view, basing a mathematical poem in a famous story that everybody knows, it’s a resort in order to catch more people and to make it more entertaining. Not everybody would read this mathematical text voluntarily, although the author takes "Alice in Wonderland" because it’s more interesting for the people.

The poem begins with a girl, Alice, who arrives throughout a circle to a world which is completely new for her. She realises that there is no sky neither height in that strange world. In her stay in Flatland, she meets with a five-red-eyed-tree which will help Alice and will answer Alice’s questions.

I’m going to name some verses to analyse "Alice in Flatland".

I shrink by half each step I take
toward the edge so cannot make

the end of this strange world.

This verse explains to us the Alice’s steps. Bit by bit, Alice became more little. That means she will never arrive to the end of the circle.

there is no sky

and all the world looks like a line
in front, beside me and behind

.

As I’ve said before, the new world hasn’t got sky. All seems level. Furthermore, apart from she is decreased and all thing also turn into little things, Alice can’t see the change.

that this world's small but does not end:

shrink or grow, I cannot see it.
This world's width could be infinite(...)

I came here from a world beyond.
I once knew height but now it's gone

Although the world is little, it hasn’t got end and the width seems to be infinite. She is in a level world and there’s no height, only two dimensions: the width and length as the tree explains to Alice.

Here we have just 'length' and 'width'.
And live inside a radius.

But in your world there's 'up' and 'down'
and Trees that grow into the ground

There, they live around the circle, that’s to say, inside the circle. In Alice’s world there’s no up neither down and trees grow,all the contrary in Flatland, because it’s a level world.

It gives me willies. It makes it look
like we're inside some kind of book.

(...)

Alice gasped. Hadn't heard the style.
Glimpsed in horror she was on file

on some 386 some place with
Word for Windows deep in cyberspace

The tree thinks that they are in a book and Alice realises that she is inside a computer archive.

Jim Andrews want to transmit to us there is different ways of observing things. We believe that Alice’s universe is finite but for her who is inside it is infinite.What it changes it’s the point of view and one example of that can be the tree with its five eyes.

Andrews want to show us to see the world throughout his eyes.