1.6 Caterpillar
The hookah-smoking sage who asks the only question that matters
Introduction
The Caterpillar sits on a mushroom, smokes a hookah, and asks Alice “Who are you?” — which she finds she cannot quite answer, having changed size several times that morning. He is unimpressed by her difficulty, recites poetry at her, and eventually offers practical advice: one side of the mushroom makes her grow, the other makes her shrink. He does not say which is which. He is a creature about to undergo a complete transformation, and he seems entirely calm about it.