A reader's diversity allows for a multitude of different interpretations of a text. While the author may use techniques to try to control the tone, the reader will create their own meaning. In the poem, The Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll, the author creates a whimsical theme with the use of unique dialect. Carroll tells a story of a horrible beast that terrorizes a village and a story of the hero that slays the beast and frees the creatures from the terror. Carroll connects the reader to this reality with the use of a story that we can understand but is still unique to remain interested.

In the beginning of the poem Carroll uses the lines "`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves-Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:-All mimsy were the borogoves,-And the mome raths outgrabe"(1). Not only does Carroll use this as the first stanza, but it also reappears as the final stanza. Carroll uses this repetition to set the stage of his story. The reader enters the poems understanding the theme of the story and they leave it with the same feeling. 

Another point to the first stanza is his use of his own style of words called portmanteau which is the blending and slurring of two words to create a new one. Carroll wants the reader to start the reading with the knowledge of its uniqueness. This also allows the reader to understand that in the story creatures are made-up but they can still be imagined because of their realistic connections. The use of made-up words is understood to create an unreal story but Carroll allows the readers to remain connected to the story by blending these words and adding many descriptions. Carroll gives a personality to each new character in the poem with a short description, "The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame" (Carroll 1). This assures that the reader can follow along to the reading and know who each character is and they can create an image of the story.

The contrast that Carroll uses in his writing is seen between the hero and the Jabberwocky. The hero is seen as a character who takes his knowledge of the beast to defeat it. He is warned of its terrors, "And stood awhile in thought". (1). While in contrast we are given the descriptions of this terrible beast that seems to have no thoughts or feelings, that "Came whiffling through the tulgey wood" (1). The image created by the author is that the hero is good and he thinks about what is best while the Jabberwocky is to be feared for its mindless terrorizing. 

Another way Carroll allows the readers to understand that the Jabberwocky is bad is by using words that create a sense of fear and describe its terror. The author uses "Claws that catch", "Eyes of flame" and "Jaws that snatch" to assure that we fear this creature and we are given the knowledge that it should be feared (1).

Carroll also uses words to describe the hero in this story that allows us to know that he is in fact the hero of the story. The use of "Vorpal sword" and "Foe he sought". These create the image that he is the good against the bad. Carroll also allows the audience to understand that the possible villagers of the land are happy that the Jabberwocky is now dead. This is seen in the second to last stanza "And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?-Come to my arms, my beamish boy!-O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'-He chortled in his joy" (1).  If this was replaced with no celebration that would give the sense that the Jabberwocky was actually wanted in the land or that the hero was alone and there was no one to celebrate the victory.

Carroll uses many descriptions in actions and characters to create interesting imagery. Carroll assures that his readers know exactly who each character is and what their purpose is to the story. The reader can understand the story by linking together different stanzas to get context clues if they want to understand strange words or characters that they might not understand on their own.

In the second stanza Carroll uses the line "Beware the Jabberwock, my son!" (1). In a direct meaning this would mean that the hero is the advice givers son by birth and the advice giver is a father. Most readers would believe this to be true the first few times that they are to read the poem. After understanding the actual theme of the story it becomes understood that this idea that the hero is the advice giver's son is incorrect. The author's point of "my son" is actually to create a contrast between the two characters. The point is to make the advice giver an older reliable source for information and to show that the hero is a young man that looks up to the advice giver and will take the warning about the Jabberwocky from the old man.

In the beginning Carroll uses the line "shun-The frumious Bandersnatch!" (1). Literally telling the boy to avoid and reject the Jabberwocky. Although this is what Carroll says, he does not want the readers to think that the hero is going to be walking alway from the Jabberwocky. The hero is not going to just ignore the Jabberwocky so that he goes away and stops terrorizing the land and the villagers. The point is to let the reader understand in the beginning to the story that the Jabberwocky is bad and that you cannot make peace with it. 

The depictions that Carroll uses are the images of the story that is being told. There is a land where there are many different creature that live in fear of a beast that is terrorizing them. Carroll adds in a story teller to allow the readers to understand that the beast has been terrorizing this land for a very long time and that it is possible that this terror is all the land knows. He then moves on to the solution, the young hero. The author gives this hero a young description to show that this hero is a possible newcomer there to change the terror of the beast. The hero is there to fight the brute terror with his intelligence and courageousness. The hero slays the beast with the illusion of little effort and the beast is no longer able to terrorize the land. We are given this depiction in the lines "He left it dead, and with its head-He went galumphing back" (1). In the end everyone is happy and the land will now be able to move on from the terror of the Jabberwocky.

Lewis Carroll's use of whimsical language and descriptions gives his story its own theme that when read over can create discussion and better understanding of his purpose in his story. He allows the creativity of the readers mind to wander and imagine the world that he has described but does not wander off his point so far that the readers cannot understand the purpose of the text.

