Peter Pan Motherhood

care of your family by itself. This ultimately made the kids in the story, Peter and Wendy, replace

and play, assuring her that he will do his chores immediately upon arriving home. The mother

“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

Peter and Wendy are the children of George and Lydia Hadley. They obey technology more than their parents. They spend more time with technology than their own parents. The also kill their own parents which shows such a little to no respect for them. Unlike normal families, the family fears the children. The parents suffer “horrible tantrums that makes he and

As she would be quoted several times saying, “treats make trouble,” her parenting style was a detrimental stepping stone in cognitive development of Wendy. While Violet is not a role model for Wendy, taking a glimpse of her life and taking a walk in her shoes solidifies the lessons her mother instilled from a very young age.

Since Peter desperately wanted his freedom, he attempted to get it back through any means, rational or irrational; which his parents realize after he has done so: "'Wendy (Peter's sister) and Peter aren't in their rooms,' said his (George's, Peter's father) wife. 'No,' he said. 'They've broken into the

“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.

For instance, Peter states, “I don’t think you’d better consider it any more, Father.” This is a blatant use of foreshadowing as it shows what will happen later down the line. According to Gale,“They believe that it has caused Wendy and Peter to become spoiled and rather cold towards them” (Milne.) This rings true for the kids show no remorse after murdering their parents. Showing how disconnected from their family, they are is one of the ways the author relates the effect of technology on the family has overall corrupted them making the inconsiderate and heartless. Later in the story George says, “Those screams — they sound familiar.” This signals that later on the children will be responsible for their parents’ deaths. In the meantime they are not concerned by the danger lurking in their own home. By the end the reader knows why those screams were so recognizable. “Suddenly they realize why the screams coming from the nursery had always sounded so familiar. They had been their own screams” (Milne.) Both George and lydia are unaware of the danger that lives in their own house leaving them vulnerable to the foreseen attack by the

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.

The fact that J.M. Barrie decides on the nursery for being the location for both the beginning and the end of the novel is symbolic of the importance of family life and maternal care in the novel Peter Pan. After the Darling children return back home from their adventures in Neverland, they come back to the nursery to be taken care of again by their mother and father. Wendy, which

Since the parents used so much time in the technology, insight on the minds of the children are completely taken over by technology. Peter and Wendy against their parents because they believed the nursery was all they needed and killing them was right. Ray Bradbury points out several times that sometimes things people think may help actually have a negative impact on them. George believed that installing the nursery can help his children get

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.