What prize does the Dodo give after the Caucus race?

The Dodo gives Alice a thimble as the prize after the Caucus race. In Chapter 3 of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the race has no fixed course, starting signal, finish line, or clear winner, so the Dodo declares that everyone has won.

Alice then distributes comfits—small sweet treats—to the other participants, but she has no prize left for herself. The Dodo asks what else she has in her pocket. Alice produces a thimble, which the Dodo ceremoniously presents back to her as the race’s prize.

The scene parodies the formal rituals of competitions while making the reward completely useless as a sporting trophy. It also introduces one of the book’s recurring themes: Wonderland characters apply elaborate rules to situations that are fundamentally arbitrary.

The Dodo has an extra biographical joke behind him. He is widely interpreted as a caricature of Lewis Carroll, whose real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Carroll’s reported stammer may have inspired the traditional explanation for the name “Dodo,” though that connection is not proven.