Caterpillar character description
The Caterpillar is mentioned in chapter 4 and 5 of the book “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”. He is sitting on a mushroom while smoking a hookah, when Alice first meets him. Although he is rather strict and not very friendly, and corrects Alice’s recitation of a poem, he does help her by advising her to eat from the mushroom if she wants to change her size. In the end, he crawles away. In Disney’s cartoon movie, however, he changes into a butterfly.
The Caterpillar actually teaches Alice how to cope with the difficulties she encounters in Wonderland. He teaches her how to change size by eating the mushroom and thereby to adapt to her environment when needed.
Although the original illustrations are black-and-white, in the text the Caterpiller is described as being blue (‘a large blue caterpillar’).
When you take a close look at the picture of the Caterpillar, you’ll see that his nose and chin are really two of its legs!
The Caterpillar doesn’t actually have a name; he is just being referred to as ‘the caterpillar’. In Tim Burton’s 2010 movie, he has been named Absolem.
Because the Caterpillar is smoking a hookah, and advises Alice to eat from a mushroom, he is the main reason why many people think that the story of Alice in Wonderland contains hidden meanings to drug use, or that the author was on drugs when writing the book. Read why this isn’t true
Famous Caterpillar quote:
“`Who are YOU?'”