Peter Pan

Classic children’s novel where children don’t grow up

This book hardly needs an introduction. “Peter Pan” has been adapted so many times into so many mediums, but most particularly film. There has been films that are animated and live action, a sequel to and a prequel to the book. Even though I had never read the book before, I had seen so many adaptations of the story that I was very familiar with the plot and themes. I can’t recall where I found this beautiful edition, but I’m not surprised that I bought it. Part of the Puffin Chalk collection, the book has a beautiful chalk-inspired design on the front and back cover and has deckle edges.

I must have spent about an hour looking for the chalk I knew I had somewhere in the house to draw a hopscotch “court”. On the plus side, while looking for it I found a lost set of keys. 

“Peter Pan” by J. M. Barrie is a classic children’s novel about three children called Wendy, John and Michael Darling who meet a boy called Peter Pan who teaches them to fly. Peter takes them to Neverland, an island only able to be accessed by air. The Darling children join Peter and the Lost Boys in fighting pirates, play-fighting with the Native American tribe, listening to mermaids, watching fairies and hunting the many beasts that live in Neverland. Peter and Wendy play at being mother and father to the young boys, but before long, Wendy realises that they are forgetting their own parents. However, before she can make for home, she is kidnapped by the nefarious Captain Hook who is seeking revenge for Peter cutting off his hand and feeding it to a crocodile.

It was a really interesting experience finally reading this book that has inspired so many films and concepts. I think every adaptation I’ve seen has drawn quite faithfully on elements from the story, and the themes of Peter Pan have filtered so completely into pop culture, so when I did read it, almost every phrase and every event was familiar to me. The book is jammed full of ideas of love, adulthood and motherhood and what you potentially lose by gaining immortality.

Barrie has quite a primal way of writing, depicting children as almost feral creatures who are often selfish and ruled by instinct. When the children first fly to Neverland, they fly for days, stealing fish from birds and unphased by the unknown. In fact, Barrie’s style reminded me a lot of Joan Lindsay’s “Picnic at Hanging Rock“; dark, with quite a lot of allusions to death and violence, and bodies being things that are malleable and even disposable. The result is a book that while magical, often evokes a sense of unease rather than a sense of wonder. Peter himself is irreverent and unsentimental, with no qualms about using violence including (Barrie hints) against his own Lost Boys. The contradiction between Peter’s rejection of his own mother, playing father to Wendy as mother but yet refusing to grow up is the heart of this novel.

Originally a play, the novelisation was published in 1911 so it is unsurprising that there are elements of this story that have not aged well. If I were reading this book to a child, there would be a lot of points upon which I would have stop and discuss – not least of which Barrie’s depiction of the people indigenous to Neverland. This book deals directly and indirectly with death, which is also hardly surprising given the character of Peter Pan was inspired by Barrie’s own brother who died in childhood. The book also has quite entrenched gender roles, with Wendy moving straight from her nursery into becoming the mother for the lost boys, later returning to Neverland to do Peter’s spring cleaning.

I think this book will remain a classic because growing up is a timeless and universal theme for all children. However, it is a book that I think needs to be read with a critical eye and with an understanding of the context in which it was written.