The way that I interpreted "Down the Rabbit Hole" was as an investigative question -- the theme is asking us to explore why people are drawn to the all-consuming. In other words, what is it in human nature that makes us so attracted to the rabbit hole? If entering said hole is viewed as a conscious choice, then it becomes a question of self-destruction and ties in quite beautifully with our course theme.
As for what that hole represents, it's really opened ended and allows for the investigation of many aspects of the human psyche because if the rabbit hole becomes a kind of inescapable obsession, then that obsession can take many different forms. As for the obsession which draws humanity deeper into the rabbit hole, it ultimately comes from a place of greed: to love more, to know more, to lose more, to imagine more, you name it.
For my paper, I want to focus on the greed for knowledge and present the rabbit hole as humanity's unending search for a capital-T-Truth. What makes people keep asking questions and wanting to accumulate knowledge, knowing that they'll never attain such a truth? After all, TO's CORE 101 describes human beings as "knowledge seekers and meaning makers," and both knowledge and meaning can definitely be seen as a type of rabbit hole one could find oneself trapped in.
For the paper, I want to use my A3 (in which I wrote about Eugenides' critique of the empirical method through the flawed "investigation" put on by the narrators) as a springboard to look at the same question from a less epistemological and more psychoanalytic point of view. Using a text from my 102 class in which we discussed empiricism at length (either Freud, Nietzsche, or Bacon could definitely do the trick), I'd like to look at the more psychological perspective of my A3 argument and ask why the boys conduct their investigation and how their obsession with coming to know the Lisbon girls is representative of the human struggle to find knowledge and make meaning.
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