Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie: How It Affects Child's Imagination - Book Report/Review Example

Topic:  Effects of imagination on a child from the perspective of Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie Nature and Nurture of the Imagination of Peter Pan The imagination that a child uses to read Peter Pan today has only slightly changed since it was originally written in 1904. The imagination Peter Pan uses can be divided into two categories: imagining the nurturing he so desires ; and the good fun of imagining how he perceives the nature of life. The nurturing of imagination is universal and the imagination of the nature of life has evolved has evolved from the Victoria Era. As his life is a life of dreams, his real life only being in his imagination, the writer will show how he goes between the need of nurturing and the need of nature or his concept of reality. A conclusion will be made associating the need of Peter Pan in an adults society. We all wish to live in a wonderful perfect family with a strong mother figure. In chapter 7 Peter had saved the life of the Redskins who referred to him as "The great white father"." Secretly Wendy sympathised with them a little but she was far too loyal a housewife to listen to any complaints against father. "Father knows best", she always said..." Peter Pan served as a father figure to two groups, the set of Indians and the lost boys. He would never admit is as "it was only in Peters absence that the lost boys could speak of mothers" (chapter 2) In chapter 6, the Little House, the lost boys "went on their knees, and holding out their arms cried, "Oh Wendy lady, be our Mother." "There was a step above, and Wendy, you may be sure was the first to recognize it. "Children, I hear your fathers step. He likes you to meet him at the door." At end of the chapter, "Dear Peter, with such a large family, of course, I have now passed by best, but you dont want to change me do you?" "No Wendy... I was just think, it is only make-believe, isnt it, that I am their father. It would make me so old to be their real father." Wendy then asks."Peter what are your feelings for me? " "Those of a devoted son". The purpose was to illustrate the use of the imagination to nurture children who dont have the love of a mother and father figure. Peter Pan and Wendy formed a surrogate family for a short while. A wonderful transition from the imagination of nurture to the imagination of nature is the use of the clock. Hook was not angry to have lost his arm, he said "I want Peter Pan, who first gave the brut(the crocodile) its taste for me...by lucky chance it swallow a clock which goes tick tick inside. "When you want the time on the island was to find the crocodile, and hen stay near him till the clock struck" (chapter 10)He is afraid of the crocodile when he no longer can hear the tick tock of the clock, he will lose his life. This is a childs imagination of death (Chapter 5 ) . He can prevent himself from dieing. Another more playful side of childhood is to use the imagination to pretend that he can change the nature of time, events, school, people etc...."I shall pour my medicine into Nanas bowl, and she will drink it, think it is milk!" (chapter 3) Mr Darling is completely in the role of a child, the dog is in the role of a nanny, and the children are acting as though they were adults. The imagination of nature is the concept of what goes on in the present. Children think about the here and now. There is no concept of time for any of the children. "The boys on the island vary...when they seem to be growing up, which is against the rules, Peter thins them out". (chapter 5) ""He did this because there is a saying in the Neverland that, every time you breathe, a grown-up dies; and Peter was killing them off vindictively as fast as possible". (chapter 11) A childs imagination dreams of a world of being able to live without the constraints of adults. What fun to have control over all the grown-up world, not to have to take medicine, and not to have to do school work. To live in a place where one could play to his hearts content. These two concepts interchange in a childs head. Wendy dreams of her future. She is cherishing the idea of being considered a woman. She knows that every child must grow up. She is eventually concerned that she must go home. Death doesnt exist on the island so there is no end to life. Childrens fear of death is the imagination of nature because each time life is taken from the island, a child perceives how the world works. The imagination of nature is based on survival. Wendy was shot down without dying. The lost boys were responding to an order without thinking. Tinkerbell had played a trick on them. As a contrast, Tinkerbell nurtured Peter Pan when she took a cup of poison. "Why, Tink, how dare you drink my medicine?" (Chapter 13) A nurturing imagination shows feelings and emotions. Peter Pan only expresses desires and facts. In his imagination, his mother told him stories. Void of emotion, he differentiates between girls and boys by explaining that. "The lost boys are those who fell out of their perambulators and were not claimed in seven days." (chapter 3)" Girls were too smart to fall out of prams. "Boats, Baskets, and Houses made from trees." Peter Pan doesnt want to grow up. He imagines growing up with working in a bank. Peter Pan is changing back and forth from nurture to nature. At one point he talks about having cut off Hooks hand and then he makes a home for the children. A child goes back and forth between nature and nurture. Peter Pans fear of growing up is also a fear of dying. If he imagines his life boring and full of consequences, he is cold and stoical. When you see him reacting to Wendy when she falls from the sky; or to Tinkerbell when she drinks the poison, he is showing his nurture imagination. Growing up means taking on responsibility and having feelings.. It is also seeing your parents as individuals. This is one of the dichotomies of the story because, he is responsible for the lost boys as a father is of his children. Peter Pan has grown up in a nurturing sense but his imagination of being an adult is keeping him in Neverland: growing up means having to go to school, getting married, working in a bank. Todays child imagines Peter Pan as a fairy tale of good and bad. A child today imagines adult life as a scary place and does not want to grow up. He is not worried about the Victorian ideas of getting married, raising a family and getting a job. It is not a question of wanting to take responsibility as Peter Pan complained of not wanting to have a job. A child reading Peter Pan sees him as sad and lonely because he has a family. A child, who lives in a disrupted environment dreams of running away to Neverland as an escape. He imagines Neverland as a place where he will be protected/nurtured. As a child goes back and forth from nurture to nature, he imagines that Peter Pan should go back to child services instead of running away. The whole story represents dichotomies with todays values. To stay in the nurturing imagination of childhood would be a dream of comfort. The older we get, the less our childhood is protected and the less Peter Pan protects us from the pirates and the crocodile. TickTock how time flies. Neverland exists only in a small window of time, from about two to five years old. Memory of our childhoods and the desire of keeping the passage open between what was true and make believe leaves the window open for our returning to Neverland as an adult and for our children to be able to travel to and from. As Mrs Darling first made reference to all of us having our own private places or Neverlands, this has led to the magical elasticity of Peter Pan. How life would be if we could have a little perpetual youth. All those who remain young at heart can survive under any circumstances, invent and most important dream. Keeping your thoughts of nurture and of nature help to keep the window open to receive that small breeze of air called hope. A breadth of hope to give and to receive in any life situation are the result of reading Peter Pan with open imagination. Word Count: 1327 Read More