Chapter 1: Down the Rabbit Hole

In this chapter, Alice is starting to doze off as her sister reads a book when she sees a rabbit run by, flipping out that he is going to be to be late, checking his pocket watch and running off. Alice immediately had started to follow the rabbit, coming across a rabbit hole. She falls down the hole, and keeps falling for quite a period of time and falls into a hallway with many doors, a table and a key. She takes the key to try and get into a door, but the only door that the key fits is a tiny door that she can't get through. She soon then finds a bottle that reads "Drink me". As she drinks it, she shrinks to the size that she would be able to fit through the door, but she left the key on the table. She then finds a cake that says "Eat me". She eats the whole cake a grows quite a great deal, so she would be able to reach the key.

In the beginning of the chapter, it says that she is dozing off while her sister is reading to her.  That tells me that the author finds that books with no fun or exciting adventures really appeal to him, like Alice.  The rabbit running off, fearing he is going to be late makes me think of how people are today.  Always rushing off and completely stressed out because there are so many things to do in one day.  Now, since the book was published in 1865, I have no idea what the adult life was like back then, but I can imagine that the rabbit was possibly symbolizing human beings and their tendencies to stress themselves out.
The rabbit hole symbolizes the depth of a child's imagination.  When I was little, my imagination stretched out far and wide, always pretending and having fun.  The fact that children can pretty much make a game out of anything is pretty fascinating to me.  The rabbit hole seems to go one forever and ever, seeing cupboards, china, and even groceries (Orange Marmalade).  No adult, young or old, really imagines anything like that. Typically, they want facts, not fiction.  It goes back to the rabbit, adults don't have time to imagine things, nor do they want to.  They overstress themselves, as children smile and have fun with their imagination.