If Peter Pan Is about Growing Up - Essay Example

Task Discuss If Peter Pan Is About Growing Up Introduction Peter Pan is a personality that is known for vanity. He expresses and highlights things that never were and if they happen to exist, then they only exist in his own world of imaginations. However, his real intentions have been to reach out to other like-minded characters who believe in the supernatural and diversity for fun to make them his true friends. Peter Pan is ever “young” and does not plan to alter this fact. In her opinion, Yeoman describes Peter Pan as a perfectly genderless character (Yeoman, 1998, p15). He would not prefer to be recognized as either boy or girl. He would not understand why boys are scolded at when they have behaved in a girlish manner whereas girls are given accolades upon behaving or taking up boyish roles. In reality, he is a “young boy” who would prefer to drop the other numerical figure on his age. He would be comfortable to say that he is only five and a half years even if he is fifty-six. Peter Pan is about finding solace and the inner most peace in doing what one loves doing best. It does not stop at this; it further goes to helping those in the society through the best of talents one has been endowed with (Yeoman, 1998, p37). Peter Pan the character as depicted by Barry J.M This character has been portrayed as one that takes childhood fantasies to greater heights and even to the old age. He is put in a manner to bring to our attention that even if one is old, child memories should live on. The author uses fiction, fantasy as well as comedy to take us to adventurous life of Peter Pan. He finds a break through into Mr. & Mrs. Darling’s house. The first time Peter Pan is introduced into this family is when Mrs. Darling has a dream about Neverland (Barrie & Robert, 2004, p36). She saw a boy broke from it and while this was happening the nursery’s window opened, and there he was. She could still remember him and wished he could be found in the faces of all mothers. This indicates to us that even though Mrs. Darling is now a grown up and a mother of three, childhood memoirs have not left her. We can see her cry because of this kind of nostalgia. The second time he comes again into the picture, he gets into the house when these parents have gone out into the streets and their children John, Michael and Wendy are all alone except for Nana the dog who has been tied and locked up. This is a supernatural shadow. Before it was another ghostly shadow, Tinker Bell, which by now could not be traced. When Peter Pan in this form and character enters the room, he finds Tinker Bell with whom they get into hearty conversation leading to loud sobs that awakes Wendy who was not asleep. She can detect that someone is in the house and she is not alarmed that an outsider is weeping in the nursery base. She wakes up pleasantly interested to find out who and why this boy is crying. They do the formal introduction and even before Peter could identify himself fully Wendy was already sure it was he. This illustrates that she had known something about Peter through childhood fantasies. This interests her more and pushes her to inquire too much from him. Throughout their conversation, Peter Pan put up the incense of a baby and proves to be extremely ignorant of quite a number of things. Wendy notices that his shadow was dragged and needed to be sewn back to him. She offered to do this and Peter promised not to cry, a character that deviated from his childish behavior. As their chat progresses we find to learn a lot from Peter Pan. He gives a picture of himself as one who does not even know about things like kissing. Even so, we later on see him kissing Wendy an indication of some grown up qualities. Wendy afterwards wanted to know how old Peter Pan was. This was in accordance with their customary that dictated that an introduction be complete with age factor. This was not an interesting question to Peter who uneasily answered that he did not know his age though he knew that he was quite young. He said he knew nothing about his age and in some sort of venture retorted that he ran away the day he was born. Explaining that this was because he overheard his parents discuss what he was to become when he grew up to be a man. He never liked the idea of being a man and shunning the joy of being a child. So he escaped and lived far away in Kensington Gardens. She had admirations on him because of this. On his side, he knew that this was fairies. He went on to illustrate that if good- nurtured, there should be a fairy to every boy and girl born. Wendy had grown in some kind of an environment that it was hard to fathom what fairies were. He defended his opinion by asserting that when the first child laughed in the beginning, his laughter was broken into pieces and this brought about the onset of fairies. He still deem that fairies drop and disappear whenever a child said that he or she did not believed in them. According to Peter Pan, this has led to extinction of fairies leading children to lose their identity as children and on the contrary carrying themselves as grown ups. He therefore declares that he will never grow up. He was also against the idea of girls being treated as lesser human beings in various aspects of life. He goes to kick John although he is asleep just because Wendy has mentioned that John despises girls. This is all about childhood fantasies; Wendy is carried away by it to the extent that she does not want Peter to leave. She would do whatever thing to make him stay by her side. However, Peter Pan is reminding her that even in her sleep they can be flying together and she can still tell the amusing things to other stars. She is astonished about flying. She seeks to know from r Peter whether he can teach both her and their siblings how to fly. All these are happening within the night. Nana notices a few commotions in the nursery but could not access the room because it has been tied and locked up. It stopped barking and was now attentive to follow what was going on in the children’s room. Afterwards Nana leads Liza into the nursery to confirm the disorder. Liza’s character is depicted here as of bad temper and one who could not recognize that Nana is in humiliation. As soon as the children learnt of their intrusion into the flying ordeal, they let off lights and go back to their former deep sleep. Almost immediately, they went back to their soaring nightmare. This time all of them awake. Peter Pan gave instructions on how to fly starting with Wendy. For sometime, this seemed possible, but they became conscious that they have not moved an edge. Peter would later explain to them that they could not fly unless the fairy powder has been puffed on them. He had messed this dust in his hands and he blustered some on each of them. Soon they were all laughter as they fly in all directions in the room. Now, all wild thoughts triggered into their minds. The pirates, mermaids and caves filled their oblongata. According to Peter Pan, this is the joy that fills the body and soul when one is forever young and he insists that nothing can take away this kind of feelings, not even the age (McCaughrean & Scott, 2006, p56). The real fantasies in the flight They were destined to Neverland and they trusted Peter Pan absolutely for this. As they enjoyed the flight propelled by themselves all seemed to be well and excitement all through. This notion was short lived when Wendy was acutely disturbed by the fact that for how long they would keep flying. It had seemed easy and fun while they flew in the rooms but this was totally another arena. They were higher up and could see the sea, tall storey buildings, churches, hills and mountains. Occasionally it was dark and then light would show up. Now and again coldness alternated with warmth but what really disturbed them again was whether they were hungry or just pretending to be hungry. Peter Pan had his plans that whenever this occurred they would soar faster past the birds of the space, snatch human foods from them, and fill their stomachs with it. In this setup, many things happened. John at one point fell asleep and nearly fell if it were not for the swiftness of Peter Pan (Barrie & Michael, 2003, p48). They played games and Peter shown his prowess in all these tactics. He would go ahead or even leave them altogether. Wendy’s brothers began to get worried about when they would return home. She urged them to be more patient with him and illustrate their politeness. Later they were joined by Tinker Bell whom they have not been able to see all along but they could now feel her presence. Together with Peter Pan, Tinker Bell led the pack to Neverland. There appeared yellow arrows in millions indicating the direction for them to follow and it was not long before they landed on Neverland. They saw all sorts of good things and creatures. Lagoons, cave, boat, brushwood, turtles, flamingoes, wolfs and whelps. In addition, just athwart there was the baffling river. This was an island come true The Island Neverland had woken back to life with the feeling that Peter was back. With his absence, this place becomes silence with fairies taking one hour longer than usual in the morning. From here, many episodes took place. Wendy and brothers joined the creatures of all nature. They too kept on changing their forms more often to suit the circumstances. They become formidable force to fight against all odds to survive. At times, they are victorious while other times they find themselves on the losing side. Peter Pan seemingly continues to command the Island and rarely does any creature go against him or his directives (Yeoman, 1998, p71). At times, he even grabbed other people’s ideas to make his own just because they were good and viable. With the help of his friends like Hook, Peter planned to make hollow trees for Wendy and her brothers, John and Michael. These hollow trees were to permit them to do things without having ideas about how they occur. The idea was to be considered carefully to ensure that each fitted his or her tree. It was a pleasure to Wendy since this would keep the whole family in an ideal form. These became their underground houses and with them life had to continue. Wendy had extraordinarily busy schedules where she had to ensure that her brothers are well kept and feed. Occasionally she would think of her parents but being a shadow, she believed that they will leave a window open for her to go in. Her big worry became her brothers who had begun to have vague memories of their parents. When the children later own came back to their senses and realized that they were grown ups, they were not three but six. They had come with others who Mrs. Darling had to adopt. Wendy gave their fascinating story about everything. Their parents, especially their father was a bit repulsive in welcoming and accommodating them. He had demanded that his authority be sort before such a thing could happen. Just before they could settle, Peter appeared and this time Mrs. Darling noticed him before long. She told him that she had agreed to adopt the other boys and if Peter was willing, she could adopt her too. This conversation ended with Peter arguing that he can accept anything including being taken to school but not something that would make him a man. Mrs. Darling kept an eye on the children especially Wendy lest she fly again with Peter Pan. The others were now grown ups and moved to their own places. Overall, Peter kept coming for different members of his family and taking them to the Neverland where they explore the gifts and the beauty of being always young. He kept on being a child taking up, first his sister, to be his mother after his mother. Later he would take up her sister’s daughter to be his mother with continued trips to the Neverland. Forever a child, Peter Pan smiled at his fans (Barrie, & Robert, 2004, p304). List of References Barrie, JM & Robert RI 2004, Peter Pan and Wendy, Orchard Books, New York. Print. Barrie, JM & Michael, H 2003, Peter Pan, Centennial ed., Henry Holt and Co., New York. Print. McCaughrean, G & Scott, MF 2006, Peter Pan in scarlet, Margaret K. McElderry Books, New York. Print. Yeoman, A 1998, Now or Neverland Peter Pan and the myth of eternal youth: a psychological perspective on a cultural icon, Inner City Books, Toronto. Print Read More