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Essay / Perpetual Childhood in Peter Pan
Almost all children start out in this world dreaming of fairy tales. She imagines a princess like Ariel or Disney's Sleeping Beauty: singing, radiating beauty and living happily ever after. But when this child grows up, she realizes that Disney fairy tales are only watered down versions of true stories: the tales of the Brothers Grimm. She discovers that Ariel never wins over Prince Eric and instead becomes sea foam; she learns that Prince Phillip is raping Sleeping Beauty instead of saving her. In other words, she discovers the harshness of reality. Although readers tend to think of Peter Pan as simply a children's tale, Barrie actually comments on the nature of childhood in his work. If Peter Pan represents the eternal child par excellence, then his characterization shows the naivety of children with regard to justice: they do not have the capacity to approach the subject logically. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Although the novel centers on the adventures of many children, Peter Pan is the only ideal and eternal child among them. The simplest proof of this fact is that Pierre never ages physically; every second child, including the Lost Boys of Neverland, becomes an adult by the end. When Wendy is a mother and Peter visits her, he seems unchanged and still has "his first teeth". (Barrie 155). Although the years have passed and Wendy has married, Peter is still a boy. Even the former lost boys, whom Peter forbids from growing up, have matured; Nibs and Curly take office jobs, lightly marry a lady, and Tootles becomes a judge (153). Additionally, the only human who flies throughout the book is Peter. Adults can no longer do this because “only the gay, the innocent, and the heartless can steal” (154). Once a child loses his ability to be “gay, innocent, and heartless,” he grows up. However, Peter never loses this ability and continues to teach new generations of children, like Jane and Margaret, to fly for the rest of eternity. Additionally, Barrie constantly distinguishes Peter from the Lost Boys, the only other children who initially appear immortal. For example, Peter cannot distinguish imagined scenarios from reality, whereas the other Lost Boys can (64). So it's logical to assume that they are more mature and adult than him. Additionally, Peter dresses in skeleton leaves while the other boys dress in bear skins (15, 49). Peter's clothes symbolize death, as these leaves have only their fibrous structure left and resemble skeletons. While the other boys can grow up, Peter may be stuck as a child because he died and can't grow anymore. In this case, the reader should consider the fact that Peter Pan may be based on Barrie's older brother, David, who died at a young age in an accident. Although the main characters in the book are mostly children, Peter is the only one who remains one until the end. By examining the novel through a Freudian lens, the reader discovers that Neverland becomes a metaphor for a child's identity, thus reinforcing the idea of Peter as the ideal child. Barrie describes several Neverlands as maps of children's minds. More precisely, “he situates Neverland [as] a poetic version of the Freudian id” (Egan 44). A child's identity is the innate and primitive part of their psyche. As Peter Pan emerges victorious from Barrie's adventures in Peter's domain, it becomes clear that Peter is the child living within his own identity. It represents the eternal child who perpetually returns to the gamethe most immature part of his psyche: in this case, Neverland. Throughout the book, Peter has erroneous views about fairness; he only believes in justice in certain situations. Remarkably, he treats Hook with the utmost courtesy as he considers the pirate a worthy enemy. At the beginning of the story, Peter indignantly tells John that he would never kill Hook in his sleep (Barrie 45). Later, when fighting Hook on higher ground, Peter realizes that continuing "wouldn't have been a fair fight." He gave [Hook] a hand to help him up” (84). Then, although Hook betrayed Peter's trust in this previous scene, the boy once again shows his fairness to the captain. On the pirate ship, when Hook drops his weapon, “with a magnificent gesture Peter invites his adversary to pick up the sword” (135). Every time Hook almost loses, Peter makes sure they are on equal footing before continuing the fight. Deviating from this nobility, Peter is incredibly unfair to those he considers inferior to him. On the same pirate ship, Peter hides in a cabin "black as a pit" and mercilessly kills Hook's lowly crew while at a disadvantage (130). Peter doesn't feel the need to level the playing field in this situation by giving up the advantage of surprise or allowing the pirates to see him; he simply kills them while they ignore him. The boy even mistreats his own crew; he rules as their absolute ruler and treats “[the Lost Boys] like dogs… He lightly received a dozen [lashes] for appearing perplexed when asked to take polls” (140). After defeating Hook, Peter assumes the persona of the cruel pirate and treats the lost boys like slaves, even whipping them. When readers look at Peter again through the Freudian lens, they will see that Peter always wins in Neverland, his own world of primitive logic. His final victory over Hook “and the iconic crocodile are linked in many ways. First, of course, Hook eventually perishes in its jaws” (Egan 52). Peter triumphs over both Hook and the crocodile which symbolizes time. The boy beats time because he never needs to grow up, while Hook "perishes in the jaws of [time]." Later, the adult Wendy discovers that Peter considers victory inconsequential and has already forgotten it and moved on to other exciting conquests. For Peter, an essential and logical element of fairness is his own triumph above all else. Having considered Peter Pan as the ideal child, the reader can use Peter's reactions to unfair experiences in relation to child psychology to understand how children deal with the problem. reality of equity. For example, injustice always shocks Peter, and he never really understands that the world is unfair. After helping Hook hang the rock, Hook attacks Peter. It is the injustice of the action, not its pain, that stuns Peter; in fact, “every child is affected this way the first time he or she is treated unfairly” (Barrie 84). Peter treats Hook fairly but Hook betrays him in response. In turn, Peter is naively hurt by the injustice because he expects the gesture to be returned but, even in his own world of Neverland, the world is an unfair place. Not surprisingly, this type of experience is common in the real world, as all children "have complained at one time or another, 'It's not fair.' To which the adults respond: “Life isn’t fair”…[with] the understanding that a vital lesson is being imparted” (Diski 52). Every child intrinsically believes in their naive idea of fairness and feels betrayed when life proves otherwise. However, adults.