In my opinion there is a foreshadowing going on. I think later on in the story Alice will meat someone that wont stand for Alice temper such as the queen. This is also why Alice needs to find out who she is. She doesn’t know who she is because keeps changing form but she doesn’t realize that just because you keep changing form don’t mean your mind changes. Such as what you think, believe in, and thoughts are. This is why she eats the mushroom so she can try to get back to her normal form.

This story is kind of old and is based back in the medieval days. Just that the characters are animals and things. So back in those days wise people with lots of wisdom or wizards would smoke like that. So I think that the caterpillar is representing a wise person that is giving knowledge to Alice.