Alice in Wonderland

The scene in which the Miniver family is huddled together in their bomb shelter during an air raid and Mrs. Miniver (Greer Garson) reads young Toby and Judy to sleep with Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, is one of the movie's most powerful. The contrast between the story's words and the bombs whistling around outside, rocking the shelter as they fall, is one of the film's most poignant and memorable images. Below is the text which Mrs. Miniver goes back and rereads aloud to herself and her husband (Walter Pidgeon) after the children are asleep.

CHAPTER 12:

"... and how she would keep, through all her riper years, the simple and loving heart of a child; and how she would gather about her other little children, and make their eyes bright and eager with many a strange tale, perhaps even with the dream of Wonderland of long ago; and how she would feel with all their simple sorrows, and find a pleasure in all their simple joys, remembering her own child-life, and the happy summer days."

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