A Lesson in Maturity from J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan Essay

“Lost Girl” written by Kimberly Belflower, a student at the University of Texas in Austin from New York who writes plays with fresh emotions and beautiful language that inspect the relationship between young women’s internal and external lives. “Lost Girl” is a play about adult Wendy Darling, the girl who when younger ran away with the well known Peter Pan. More specifically the play is about Wendy dwelling on her past with Peter and past in Neverland. She is obsessed with him, the lost boy who took her flying and gave her the childhood adventure any child only dreams to be a part of. She clings to the memory in hopes that he will one day come back like he said he would, she even leaves her window open twenty- four seven in hopes that he will

In Peter Pan a significant symbol is that of the kiss and thimble. Wendy gives Peter a “kiss”, which is actually a thimble, out of her newfound affection for him. Peter, however, doesn’t realize the significance of it, and naturally gives her an acorn in return. This act of giving “kisses” is only seen as significant to Wendy at the time. Later, when the acorn saves Wendy’s life, Peter grasps the importance of it. This exchanging of “kisses” is also representing Wendy’s growing up. She has that yearning for romance that most young girls do, and has sought to find it in Peter.

Three plays, five movies, and two television shows. The story of Peter Pan has lived on for over one hundred years, dating back to the original play in 1906. Filled with mythical fairies, mermaids, and pirates, J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan is a beloved story centering around the adventures of Peter Pan, and the Darling Children. Wendy Darling, along with her two brothers fly to the island of Neverland, a place that had lived in their imagination for years, but the true story is unbenounced to most everyone who has read the text or seen the movie. How could such an innocent story have such a dark background?

Peter unveils how children encounter similar difficulties as adults do in society since children do live in a society where there is an organized hierarchy of injustice, struggle, and real-world issues. The rivalry between groups in Neverland is explicit when “the lost boys [are] out looking for Peter [and] the pirates [are] out looking for the lost boys” (Barrie 112). In Neverland this frenzy occurs as there is a mutual disdain between the pirates and the lost boys. The lost boys are playful and rambunctious with the presence of their leader Peter while the pirates are vexed by the boys’ attitudes, especially since “there [never has] been a cockier boy” than Peter (91). Captain Hook also seeks to kidnap the young girl Wendy from the lost boys so that Wendy “shall be [his] mother” and fill the gap of his traumatic past with his parents (146). This tension between the lost boys and the pirates represents the unsteadiness between conflicting social groups that naturally exist in the world of adults. This situation also does not represent typical, innocuous play and is rather a grave activity of fighting that the children in Neverland confidently participate in. The ubiquitous struggle for power commonly seen in the adult world when fighting a war or striving for new heights in a job position is mimicked as Captain Hook attempts to steal Wendy from Peter. Peter’s leadership role in being involved with the logistics of maintaining and striving for power

In the book by J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan, the character Wendy changes through the book in many ways. She changes because of the forces that surround her, from hanging out with Peter to helping Peter of the trapped island by herself. All of these forces are used to shape Wendy to help her achieve goals she never knew she could accomplish. These forces helped Wendy act the way she did to contribute to getting her family back home and also to be able to trust in herself and others.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world”-(Albert Einstein). Imagination is one of the varieties of themes that are introduced in Peter Pan. It is demonstrated in the novel in an assortment of ways from the children’s actions to Neverland itself. When you are a child imagination encircles the world like Albert Einstein said, and when you are young your imagination is more vibrant. It also configures as you start to matriculate and start realizing reality. In J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, the theme of Imagination is illustrated by characters, events, and symbols.

Furthermore, reading that the character Peter Pan was introduced by the author in his earlier novel in a story told to a young boy David by a bachelor wanting to lay with him. The realisation that this may indeed be written to 'fulfill adult desires ' grows.

Peter Pan is a timeless tale in which transcends time and culture through its’ underlying themes. Each of the characters fulfilled their roles tremendously, and was able to bring forth these themes in their own unique ways.

Adults historically love to glorify the idealism and emotionality of childhood through storytelling. From Mark Twain’s perennial wild boy Huckleberry Finn, who befriends a runaway slave despite the prejudices of adult society, to Hiccup of the 2010 film How to Train Your Dragon, the only one of his village who recognizes that dragons are not evil but actually kind animals, American media has no shortage of children who are somehow able to see more than their adult counterparts. Patricia Read Russell’s 1983 essay “Parallel Romantic Fantasies: Barrie's Peter Pan and Spielberg's E.T.: The Extraterrestrial” traces the echos of the 1904 play Peter Pan in Spielberg's then recent film, E.T. and one of the parallels she highlights is this very concept. Russell borrows from Wordsworth in her essay to concisely describe the trope of a child’s ability to see more clearly than adults, referring to it as the “visionary gleam”. Russell’s essay underlines the presence of this trope in E. T.’s protagonist, a ten-year-old boy named Elliot, and in his bond with the title character, a friendly lost alien. Over twenty-five years later, the same trope is explored in Disney’s parody film Enchanted but through the lense of a young girl. The concept of the “visionary gleam” of childhood perpetuated by Spielberg’s film and Enchanted reflects an inherent desire of adults to return to a simpler, more emotionally driven period of their lives which may or may not have actually existed, and this

The idea of motherhood is a major theme portrayed in this novel. Motherhood is having a child of your on and raising tht child to become the best they can be. Being there to support and love them when ever they need you to. J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan is a children’s story about a boy who never wants to grow up and become an adult.

This is concept of not wanting to grow up is proved throughout the play multiple times. For instance, he talks with Wendy explaining that he ran away from home saying, “I want always to be a little boy and to have fun” (Barrie 15). At the end of the play Peter is terrified to even pretend to be the boy’s father. He says, “It is only pretend, isn’t is, that I am their father?” (Barrie 43). Then in the lines proceeding he still was questioning Wendy to make sure his role was just pretending because he does not want any characteristics or responsibilities a grown person has. Wendy, on-the-other hand, was not afraid to take on the motherly role of the children. She awakes in the house and the boys ask her to take on the mother role and she replies, “Very well then, I will do my best” (Barrie 32). The concepts of the play follow the relation that exists between children and adults where their worlds are exclusive mutually as they complement each other (Barrie and Alton 7). There exists a higher association between Wendy and adulthood which helps show her transformation.  This proves Barrie’s play was created to showcase the bond between children as well as adults. This transformation for Wendy is interesting because she took on a mother role in a child-fantasy land that is supposed to be free of responsibility.

J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan tells the story of “the boy who never grew up.” Barrie paints Peter as an extraordinary character living in a mystical world called Neverland, flying through the air, and fighting villainous pirates. He is also the boy who takes a young girl named Wendy from England back to Neverland with him. The interaction and interdependence of Barrie’s two characters, Peter and Wendy, symbolize and spread cultural gender stereotypes by mirroring the stereotypes embodied by the adult characters in the story—Mr. and Mrs. Darling—and by reflecting the ideas of gender roles of the time and foreshadowing the children’s understanding of reality and expectations, as well as their eventual maturation.

Peter Pan–the child who refused to grow up–has been portrayed numerous times in books, movies, on stage, on TV, and his story has multiple adaptations, spin-offs, prequels and sequels. One of the more well-known versions of the story is Peter Pan, the musical adapted from J.M. Barrie’s play Peter Pan, in which the boy, Peter, brings three children–Wendy, John and Michael Darling–to his island home (Neverland) for a joyful adventure which comes to an end when Peter defeats his story’s villain, Captain Hook. The only significant change between the original stage play and the musical version was the addition of songs and dances, which increased the fun-loving aspects of Peter Pan’s character and made the show itself more light and

In Peter Pan, by J.M. Barrie, Wendy, John, and Michael Darling fly off to Neverland with Peter Pan, the boy who never grows up. Peter brought Wendy to Neverland to be a motherly figure toward the Lost Boys, his group of boys who fell out of their perambulators at a young age and were separated from their families. While in Neverland, Wendy takes care of the boys, and she cares for them in the same way her mother cared for her.

Every night, after a long, tiresome day in second grade, I would curl up in bed and beg my Mother to read me one of my favorite books, Peter Pan. There was something always magical about Peter Pan that helped me escape the daily events of the real world. Whether it was his capability to fly, difficulty to find his shadow, or ability to never grow old, the story of Peter Pan has stuck with me and has helped shaped me into who I am today.