Don Quixote Vs. Peter Pan

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?

The protagonist, Don Quixote's obsessive reading of books of chivalry plays a major role in defining his character; his inspiration for his travels as a knight errant comes from the literature about chivalry that he reads, the literature that causes him to lose his mind and go mad. Everything that he usually experiences in his journey, first happened in the books that inspired his travels. The character, Dulcinea’s role as Quixote’s lady-love becomes equivalent with the position a king might hold in a true and honorable knight’s life.

Characters from one story to another may have different names, but their characteristics are often repeated. Applying Archetypal Theory to a text allows readers to recognize universal symbols, motifs, and patterns that appear in literature, myths, dreams, oral traditions, songs, and religions. Archetypal critics believe certain images, characters, and character types recur in literature, and all plots and characters are based on common myths, images, dreams, fairy tales, and legends (Davidson). Common character types are revealed when applying Archetypal Theory to Julia Alvarez’s novel, In the Time of the Butterflies, helping readers understand each character’s motivations. Particularly, common character types of the rebel, the ruler, and

“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.

Peter was highly fulfilled with his great accomplishments, he had the ability to use his understanding from different ideas of people to come up with a solution. He didn't only see the importance in himself to look good, as he was leading he also saw the importance of his country years past him, as in he saw how great his country truly is, and didn't just aspire to make it good within the time of his rain. He aspired to make an environment where young minds and pupils can come and grow his friendly demeanor and strong willed attitude was a vital reason why we have many things we still

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.

Although the concept of having a mother is symbolized throughout Peter Pan, it is motherhood itself that prevents Peter Pan and others from maturing into responsible adulthood. Peter Pan wants a mother, but at the same time Peter does not trust mothers because he believes that his birth mother betrayed him. Peter also believes that mothers turn children into adults.

Peter Pan began wearing many of the Captain's clothing. In Neverland, when you wore somebody's clothing you became them, so Peter was slowly turning into his worst enemy,

In the beginning of this novel, Peter acts immaturely just like a little boy compared to the action he does at the end of the novel, which would look more like an adult. This happens because he developed the ability to think before acting. For example in the

The dynamic of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza is one of the ways Cervantes entices his readers. He creates a stark contrast between these two characters right off the bat and creates a rapport that leaves readers laughing. He establishes the contrast in stature and mental state and creates two characters that, in time, learn to love and complement each other greatly.

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.

“At the heart of Don Quixote is the discrepancy between external appearance and internal perception.” says Wirfs-Brock (2). In that respect, Don Quixote is depicted as a character who is guided merely by his internal perceptions, disregarding external appearances. Most of the time, he is deluded, depended on his faculty of imagination, stuck in his make-believe world through the guidance of chivalric books he is obsessed with and “everything he read in his books took possession of his imagination” (1/1 p.27). He takes everything he reads in those books for real as if they were parts of history and decides to join this glorious history by making a knight errant of him. In order to put all he has read into practice, he puts on a rusty armor, devises a heroic name for himself which is ‘Don Quixote de la Mancha’ and for his horse which is ‘Rocinante’. Additionally, since “a knight errant without a lady-love is a tree without leaves or fruit, a body without a soul” (1/1 p.29) he finds “a good-looking peasant girl” called Aldonza Lorenzo and decides to call her ‘Dulcinea del Toboso’. So this peasant girl becomes a princess, the most beautiful lady in the world for him to whom he may serve “as if he really were in love” (1/1 p.31).

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.

J M. Barrie's Peter Pan is a poignant tale about the magic of childhood. The main character, Peter Pan, is a magical boy who wishes never to fall into the banality of adulthood, but to have an adventure every moment and remain forever young. The play details Peter's relationship with a young girl, Wendy, who is on the cusp of young adulthood. Peter's gang, the Lost Boys, wish for a mother to read them stories. Peter goes and retrieves Wendy to be their new mother. Their adventures reveal much about the nature of childhood and Barrie's thoughts on the bittersweet necessity of growing up.

Growth is inevitable and the most anticipated quest of man. It is a never-ending quest to evolve, fuelled by the constant hope for survival. Once natural growth halts, man’s focus shifts to the growth within. The coming of age, associates itself with this transformation from child to man, the step of letting go of childish ways and moving on to more mature things. The need for such a dramatic transformation is questioned by Miguel de Cervantes and Lewis Carroll in their texts, Don Quixote and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. While the texts follow two contrasting characters, they are brought together by the theme of fantasy. Cervantes’ Don Quixote is an old gentleman of noble lineage who becomes tired of the monotony and the lack of