Childrens Novel Peter Pan - Essay Example

“Peter Pan:” The Neverland. “Peter Pan” is a children’s novel by J. M. Barrie. Written in the Victorian age, it a ic which continues to be enjoyed by adults and children alike. It narrates the encounter of the Darling siblings, Wendy, John and Michael, with the eternally young Peter Pan and the fairy Tinker Bell. Peter teaches the children to fly. He takes them to the ‘Neverland,’ where Peter is the head of a band of Lost Boys. The children meet various characters and take part in many thrilling adventures. At the climax, Peter leads them in a war against the pirates under the evil Captain Hook. After winning the war, the Darling children return home. “Peter Pan” is an appealing blend of magic, humor and perceptive comments about both children and adults. Barrie's concept of the Neverland is particularly effective as this setting highlights the action of the narrative. Barrie depicts the Neverland as a metaphor for a child’s mind, which reflects the child’s desires and fears, while also portraying adult values. The Neverland is an imaginary island which lives in the mind of every child. It is very real to them, as they “play at it by day with the chairs and table-cloth” (Barrie, Chapter 1). This play world takes on added life and detail at night when it becomes a part of the children’s dreams. The Neverland is a mix of the child’s imaginary and real-life experiences: princes and gnomes share the space with the child’s “first day at school, religion, fathers, the round pond, needle-work, murders, hangings, verbs that take the dative, chocolate pudding day” (Barrie, Chapter 1). As such, the Neverland is unique to each child, reflecting individual personalities and experiences, and varies to a significant degree. However, the basic features remain the same and each child’s Neverland resembles another’s, so that, “on the whole the Neverlands have a family resemblance” (1). As a part of the child’s active mind, the Neverland is not static. It is a place where “nothing will stand still” (1). As the Neverland is constructed by the children themselves, they all recognize it as soon as they glimpse it from the sky as “a familiar friend to whom they were returning home for the holidays” (4). Peter gives directions to the Neverland as “Second to the right, and straight on till morning” (4). This is very vague and is appropriate for an imaginary world. However, Barrie elaborates on the way to reach the magic island, saying that it can be reached only by those actively sought out by the island itself. As the Neverland can exist only in the minds of children, it reflects a child’s emotions. The Neverland mirrors a child’s desires and fears. Every child indulges in fantasies of adventure and magic. In tune with these make-belief experiences, the Neverland is filled with fantastic inhabitants. There are mermaids who play ball with rainbow-colored bubbles, a giant crocodile which has a ticking clock in its stomach and a Neverbird hatching its eggs in a floating nest. A little boy’s yearning for adventure is fulfilled by the presence of a cut-throat band of pirates and a tribe of Red Indians.  The darker side of a child’s mind is also represented by the Neverland. It represents not only a child’s sweet dreams, but also his dreadful nightmares: “Then unexplored patches arose in it and spread, black shadows moved about in them, the roar of the beasts of prey was quite different now, and above all, you lost the certainty that you would win” (4). This is no tame world of good magic. Captain Hook literally tears apart his victims; the lions and tigers are savage man-eaters; the Red Indians wear the scalps of boys – in short, the inhabitants “All wanted blood” (4). Even Peter Pan, the cocky hero of the story, has dreams that “were more painful than the dreams of other boys --- (and) wailed piteously in them” (13). Although the Neveland is exclusively a child’s domain, adult values are not far away. The Neverland reflects adult values. The only categorical rule on the island is the diktat on “growing up, which is against the rules” (5). However, in all their play, the children allow the adult world regular entry. Mr. Darling’s obsession with the expenses of child-rearing is echoed by Peter’s words that lost boys, “If they are not claimed in seven days (they) are sent far away to the Neverland to defray expenses” (3). Wendy’s rules as ‘Mother’ are acceded to by all the boys. Chapter 10 is a particularity satirical portrait of adult rules: no coughing at table, no speaking with full mouths, special treats allowed only on Saturday nights. Captain Hook’s obsessive “passion for good form” (14), and Tootles’ dignified threat, “the first who does not behave to Wendy like an English gentleman I will blood him severely” (11), show Barrie’s sarcastic dig at adult values, seen through the eyes of a child. However, the pervading adult motif of the story is maternal love. This is epitomized by the Neverbird, which refuses to forsake its eggs even in the face of mortal danger. Peter represents the child’s rebellion against adults, rejecting even maternal love and actively fighting adults: he is “so full of wrath against grown-ups” that he pants because of his belief “in the Neverland that, every time you breathe, a grown-up dies” (11). The Neverland is a place for children to vent their rebellion against the adult world. The Neverland is a special world constructed by and for children. As an extension of a child’s mind, adults are effectively cut off from its magic shore: “We too have been there; we can still hear the sound of the surf, though we shall land no more” (1). Barrie asserts that the Neverland is exclusively a child’s domain. The Neverland give expression to a child’s dreams, as well as to a child’s deepest fears. It satirizes adult values though a child’s eyes. Its revealing portrayal shows that a child’s mind is much more callous and complex than the universally accepted norm of childish innocence. However, in spite of its magic and appeal, the attraction of the Neverland on children’s minds finally loses out to the power of a mother’s love. Works Cited. Barrie, J. M. Peter Pan. City of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication. Medium of Publication. Read More