Female Stereotypes The Cause Of Women 's Oppression

“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

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

The parents were so absent in the children’s lives that they had no clue to what kinds of things the children could see. “Mr. and Mrs. Hadley screamed. And suddenly they realized why those other screams had sounded familiar” (Bradbury 13). At the end of the story Peter and Wendy tricked their parents into running into the nursery and locked them inside of it to be eaten alive by lions. They realized that the screams were their own, being watched repeatedly by their children in the nursery. Wendy and Peter had seen death a number of times, so they were no longer innocent children anymore. As a result, the children watched as the lions brutally killed their parents countless times. A child repeatedly watching their parents death will undoubtedly cause them to lose their innocence.

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.

The two children are named Wendy and Peter. The use of the names Wendy and Peter are referencing to Peter Pan and how their parents were never around or shown in the movie. Because of the parents not being around, it caused them to be able to do whatever they want. Wendy and Peter felt as if their parents were not there because they spent so much time in the nursery. However, the more time they spent in the nursery, the more detached they became from their family. This expresses why the parents have a responsibility because if they are not there for their children, like how Lydia and George were not there for Peter and Wendy, they will begin to assume they can do whatever they want. Instead, parents need to take control, leading to a positive role in their children’s

The most apparent, from the beginning, is the emphasis of youthfulness. Peter is the main embodiment of this theme, given he does not physically age. From the beginning, his role was that to entice Wendy and her siblings to journey with him to Never-never land.

Finally, the insanity that trickled into their minds, so strong an addiction to a virtual world, made such sweet Peter and Wendy psychotic. They easily manipulated and controlled there parents, telling them they would stay later, or that they aren't hungry, statements that were completely disobedient to their parents wishes. What makes this story more disturbing is the fact that it is so close to reality today. Drug Addictions cause mass murders, Gamblers bet their lives, and Shopaholics go broke. Addiction is what can lead you to do things that you will forever regret, and the fact that a simple robotic nursery could do this is just frightening.

You can see this in the story when the mother says this. “They were awfully young, Wendy and Peter, for death thoughts. Or, no, you were never too young, really. Long before you knew what death was you were wishing it on someone else.” The mother says this when she discovered how scary the nursery was. She felt surprised

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.

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.

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.

Barrie expresses the core of his argument through the actions of the children and Peter himself. Throughout the play, the reader observes many instances of the children playing "grown-up." When Peter first brings Wendy to Never Land, we see Slightly, one of the Lost Boys, playing doctor (69-70). This shows a fundamental need to grow up and find your purpose or profession. In many of the different acts the reader also sees the children pretending to have a family. The best example of this is in pages 98-118. The Lost Boys and Wendy's creation of a family reflects not only the children's need for a family, but their need to grow up and create families of their own. In this scene, one of the Lost Boys, Michael, states his wish to grow up when he says "Wendy, I am too big for a cradle" (101). Even Peter, who claims he wants to "always be a little boy and to have fun" reveals that he once wanted to return to reality as well (113). On page 110, Peter says that after some time in