Peter Pan

“[C]atch them trying to draw a map of a child’s mind, which is not only confused, but keeps going round all the time”

A child’s mind, according to this quote, is confused. Although the reader has not yet been introduced to the Neverland, the island encompasses a child’s confusion—combining pirates, Indians, and mermaids in a single wondrous place. John dreams of flamingos while Wendy dreams of wolf puppies. Peter embodies a child’s mind: confused because his mind keeps going all the time. He forgets. He recalls. And he creates a reality for himself.

“The loveliest tinkle as of golden bells answered him. It is the fairy language. You ordinary children can never hear it, but if you were to hear it you would know that you had heard it once before”

At once, the narrator suggests that the readers are ordinary and Peter is extraordinary. However, he concedes that even ordinary children would know they’d heard the fairy language once before. Why? Because every child dreams and every child has their own Neverland.

“‘Don’t go, Peter. I know such lots of stories’….Those were her precise words, so there can be no denying that it was she who first tempted him”

Peter’s Neverland might be considered a type of Eden, a place untouched by adults, a place for children to play as they please. In some ways, this passage alludes to Wendy’s similarity to Eve. The narrator wants to make sure it is on record: Wendy tempted Peter, not the other way around. Wendy is about to bring change to the Neverland. She will bring with her disruption and knowledge, something Peter does not anticipate.

“But Wendy noticed with gentle concern that Peter did not seem to know that this was rather an odd way of getting your bread and butter, nor even that there are other ways”

Before they arrive at the Neverland, Wendy has already noticed some disturbing things about Peter Pan. First, he thinks stealing food from birds is the best, and perhaps the only, way to get food. Wendy’s mind begins to spin; she is already considering the ways she can help Peter from a position of knowledge and experience. She is, after all, expected to be a mother.

“Thus sharply did the terrified three learn the difference between an island of make-believe and the same island come true”

Wendy and her brothers dreamed about their own versions of Neverland before Peter came. Their arrival begins with a bang: being shot at by the pirates. While make-believe can be fun, reality is terrifying, and the three understand that once they arrive at the island. The quote sets up their eventual return to reality and safety.

“‘I did it,’ he said, reflecting. ‘When ladies used to come to me in dreams, I said, “Pretty mother, pretty mother.” But when at last she really came, I shot her’”

The lost boys are devastated to discover they’ve shot Wendy out of the sky, particularly since it appears that the boys have all dreamt of having mothers. It is immediately apparent that these boys differ from Peter in their attitude to mothers: where they dream of mothers, Peter speaks against them.

“The difference between him and the other boys at such a time was that they knew it was make-believe, while to him make-believe and true were exactly the same thing”

Another difference between Peter and the lost boys is Peter’s inability to separate the imaginary from reality. In all likelihood, the statement alludes to Peter’s perpetual childhood, when reality and make-believe mesh into a single state of existence. It also suggests something crucial: the lost boys are not blinded by their Neverland adventures. They understand something separate exists from make-believe.

“Peter did not compete. For one thing he despised all mothers except Wendy, and for another he was the only boy on the island who could neither write nor spell; not the smallest word”

Further emphasizing the point that Wendy brings knowledge to the island, she has the boys compete to answer questions about their mothers. Peter doesn’t compete because he despises mothers. Furthermore, Peter cannot write. He lacks a basic education, one often begun by mothers.

“[S]he was a young mother and she did not know this [that it was bad to rest on a cold rock]; she thought you simply must stick to your rule about half an hour after the mid-day meal. So, though fear was upon her, and she longed to hear male voices, she would not waken them”

Wendy is, of course, young. She is a child herself. So why would she know not to rest on a cold rock? Like many of the statements in the novel, this one might strike the audience as unusual. Of particular note is that Peter has already made his case against mothers, and there are few women on the island, so when the passage reads, “she longed to hear male voices,” it suggests Wendy cannot hold her own and be courageous in the face of adversity. As readers have seen before and will continue to see, she is a damsel in distress, perhaps adding to Peter’s preconception that women, specifically mothers, are no good.

“Wendy was crying, for it was the first tragedy she had seen. Peter had seen many tragedies, but he had forgotten them all”

Wendy fears watching Tiger Lily drown before her eyes. However, Peter seems indifferent to the tragedy of the situation. He has seen it all before, and this tragedy is nothing special to him. On the one hand, readers witness Wendy losing her innocence; while on the other, we see a boy who, by all accounts, has long since lost his innocence and has become numb.

“Peter was not quite like other boys; but he was afraid at last. A tremor ran through him, like a shudder passing over the sea…. ‘To die will be an awfully big adventure.’”

This is one of a couple of times readers witness Peter’s fear, as he worries about death. However, death is not a means of growing up, so he conceives of it as a big adventure. It seems he has no regrets; he is innocent in his moment of fear.

“Dear Peter…with such a large family, of course, I have now passed my best, but you don’t want to change me, do you?”

Wendy plays house with Peter. She represents the mother, while he represents the father. Her make-believe becomes real to her, and she imagines she has passed her prime. Of course, she is only a child, but she looks to Peter for approval anyway. The passage reveals her attachment to Peter. His opinion matters to her.

“Wendy, you are wrong about mothers”

Wendy tells a hopeful story to the lost boys about her parents leaving the window open in anticipation of her return. Despite the happy story, Peter must bring her back to his reality. His action can be seen as childish, but it also supports the idea that Peter has in some way been wronged by a mother, coloring his believe that Wendy is wrong and the window will not be open.

“But of course he cared very much; and he was full of wrath against grown-ups, who, as usual, were spoiling everything, that as soon as he got inside his tree he breathed intentionally quick short breaths at the rate of about five to a second”

Like a child, Peter throws a brief tantrum. He feels as if the grown-ups are ruining everything when, in fact, they haven’t ruined anything at all. Wendy decided, independently, to return home and so did the others. Despite their freedom, they feel something is missing: parents. This passage puts Peter in a better light; he cares deeply about the girl he brought to the Neverland as a mother. In that moment, Peter is not numb.

“Elation must have been in his heart, but his face did not reflect it: ever a dark and solitary enigma, he stood aloof from his followers in spirit as in substance”

The description describes Captain Hook, but it could easily describe Peter Pan as well. Hook, like Peter, is different from his followers. Hook has a history separate from his followers. He also has a soul different from his followers. Are Peter Pan and Captain Hook mirrors of one another?

“Sometimes, though not often, he had dreams, and they were more painful than the dreams of other boys”

Dreams are a place of fantasy and imagination. However, for Peter, they represent pain. For him, make-believe is real. Therefore, so are dreams. What does Peter dream about? It is a question the novel doesn’t answer.

“[T]hough a somewhat silly boy, he knew that mothers alone are always willing to be the buffer. All the children know this about mothers, and despise them for it, but make constant use of it”

Mothers are willing to be a buffer between their child and harm. The lost boys understand this and know that Wendy might try to walk the plank for all of them. Instead, one of them, Tootles, offers himself up as the first to walk the plank. In a moment of crisis, he uses his courage instead of using his mother.

“They were no longer able to hope that they would walk it manfully, for the capacity to think had gone from them; they could stare and shiver only”

Despite the lost boys’ initial bravado about walking the plank, they can’t stay courageous in the face of danger. They are children. They do not want to make-believe anymore, and what is happening to them is too real. This moment reinforced their desire to go home and have parents.

“‘I’m youth, I’m joy,’ Peter answered…‘I’m a little bird that has broken out of the egg’….This, of course, was nonsense; but it was proof to the unhappy Hook that Peter did not know in the least who or what he was, which is the very pinnacle of good form”

Peter doesn’t know who he is and Hook rejoices because he sees it as bad form. Hook feels he is better than Peter because he understand who and what he is, whereas Peter does not. Peter sees himself as an embodiment of youth. Unfortunately, Peter doesn’t understand his condition, and likely never will because he remains in a state of perpetual childhood.

“Misguided man though he was, we may be glad, without sympathising with him, that in the end he was true to the traditions of his race….James Hook, thou not wholly unheroic figure, farewell”

The narrator admits that Captain Hook is not wholly unheroic. Just as Tinker Bell is described as neither fully good nor fully evil, Captain Hook is a similarly complex character. Peter Pan can be described in much the same way. We do not need to sympathize with the characters, but we can appreciate their honor. Hook has honor, just as Peter does.

“So long as mothers are like this their children will take advantage of them; and they may lay to that”

Again, the narrator comments on a mother’s tendency to go out of their way for a child. It is unclear whether the moral of the story is aimed toward mothers or toward children. Mothers will be taken advantage of, according to the passage, and Wendy is a good example of a “mother” who is taken advantage of. Peter takes her away, just to forget about her after using her to play the role of someone he says he will always dislike.

“Thus Wendy and John and Michael found the window open for them after all, which of course was more than they deserved”

The window to the Darlings’ house is, as Wendy expected, open. However, the narrator’s tone is dripping with something close to disappointment. The children who flew away from their mother and father do not deserve to come back when they please. They do not understand the pain they have put their parents through. Their cruelty, however, is rewarded.

“He had ecstasies innumerable that other children can never know; but he was looking through the window at the one joy from which he must be for ever barred”

Despite Peter’s grand life of make-believe and eternal youth, he will never understand the love of family and the comfort of home. Why does Peter need to be barred forever? He is the barrier. He could join Wendy and the others but his beliefs demand that he remain youthful forever.