Peter Pan Resource Paper

J.M Barrie’s Peter Pan highlights the constant longing to remain young as shown through the relationship with Barrie’s mother, childlike experience, and the separation of gender roles. J. M. Barrie is the author of the fantasy story Peter Pan. Mr. and Mrs. Darling have three children, two boys, and one girl, all who have been having dreams of Peter Pan. Mrs. Darling caught Peter Pan’s shadow, setting a trap for when he comes back. Leaving her three children alone, not knowing if Peter Pan will come back taking his shadow, and her children tenses her up.

Peter Pan persueas Wendy to go with him to Neverland, by telling her how much they need a mother figure to take care of them. On the way to Neverland, Wendy realized that Peter is forgetful, he would leave and forget who they were. On the arival of the Neverland, we find out that Tinker Bell isn’t having it, she is jealous of Wendy and plans to get rid of her. At the time Barrie wrote Peter Pan, the British empire was at its height. In the 1900’s century The British empire was the riches country, and very successful. They also owned over 30 territories. The imperialist project reinforced ideas of British cultural and racial superiority, with the empire enlisting many messengers of such propaganda. Official government propaganda was less pervasive than that found in the military, the schools, churches, and popular entertainment.

A sense of racial superiority provided a rationale for imperialism. The eighteenth-century view that human nature was universal yielding to the view that racial differences were essential and unchanging. A brief overview of biographical context: J.M Barrie was born on May 9, 1860, in Kirriemuir, Scotland, a village located in Lowlands. The author’s relationship with his mother was unusually close and was often based in a fantasy world due to Margaret’s, his mother, bedridden condition. Their relationship is thought by many to be explicitly inspiration for the mother-worship that critics feel is central to Peter Pan. One of his most famous plays during this period was 1902’s The Admirable Crichton, a combination of fantasy and social commentary. These same elements were employed in Barries best-known work and his only play intended explicity for a young audience-Peter Pan. J.M Barrie was inspired by events that all occured in Europe, between the 1890s – 1900s century. At the time Queen Victoria ruled the country from 1837 until her death in 1901, and her influence on Great Britain was still felt in 1904 through her son Edward VII was on the throne.

The Edwardian era was extravagant for those with money, but the difference between the rich and the poor was a sharply divided line. In the adult world “both skilled and unskilled workers joined unions in record numbers to address their concerns.” “A political party often sympathetic to many of the concerns of workers and lower classes was the Liberal party.” Since the Edwardian era seperated the rich and poor, people found it extremely difficult to get good paying jobs. Growing up wasn’t all fun and games either. It was said that, “Parents believed that choosing the right school for their boys was very important… Children’s gender roles groomed them for their proper part in Britain’s large empire… Boys needed to demonstrate independence and courage; girls, as J.S. Bratton indicates “had to learn to be wife and mother to the pioneer and the soldier” (Brat-ton, p 196). I believed that these gender roles was one of the main events that influnced the writing of Peter Pan. “how we should all respect you.” She was wriggling her body in distress. It was quite as if she were trying to remain on the nursery floor. But he had no pity for her. You can say that it was like a tradition for mothers to prepare their daughters to become a wife, mother, and taker of the house. You can see that even Wendy is naturally lured into taking care of Peter Pan and the lost boys.

Here’s an example of Wendy following the path of motherhood, “Wendy,” he said, the sly one. “you could tuck us in at night.”…”None of us has ever been tucked in at night.” “Oo” and her arms went out to him. “And you could darn our clothes, and make pockets for us. None of us has any pockets.” It was said that “the Edwardians like the Victorians, were child worshippers. They elebrateed the innocence energy and creativity of childhood… Actual middleclass Edwardians children lived not in an idyll, but within a tightly ruled family and school system. At home the fathers were in charge, even if he scarcely saw his children. At school corporal punishment kept children in line.” In the Edwardian era children where put to a strict system mainly the lower class, because of how limited and restricted they were to resources. Since, London was the capital of finance and banking, and this market made up for the overall trade deficits in other areas. The national average income continued to increase, but the gap between classes continued to grow. Leaving it much harder for lower classes to enjoy themselves, and working much harder to keep food on the table. J.M. Barrie was born on May 9, 1860. In Kirriemuir, Scotland, a village located in the Lowlands. Barrie was the second youngest of ten children and one of only several to survive infancy. Barrie began his journalism career as an editorial writer for the Nottingham Journal, where he worked form January 1883 to October 1884. One of his most famous plays during this period was 1902’s The Admirable Crichton, a combination of fantasy and social commentary. Out of ten children Barrie was not the favorite, but after his thirteen-year-old brother David died of a fractured skull, Barrie strived to become the new favorite. His favorite thing doing was telling and listening to stories with his mother.

The time he spent telling and listening to stories with his mother help him form the fundamental of his premature tasks in journalism and two collections of short stories. “He wrote in his mother’s biography Margaret Ogilvy that after these early ventures in writing, “my mind was made up; there could be no hum-dreadful-drum profession for me; literature was my game.” This is why Barrie started writing. Some brief information on Peter Pan chapter 1-4, is that the action takes place in London is focused in the nursery of the Darling household, located in the borough of Bloomsbury transitioning to the Neverland. Now, the Darling family was doing superb, and now the problem that is arising is that Peter Pan, have become intrigued with Mr. and Mrs. Darling’s children. Slithering his way into their dreams, then slithering hope, and joy of a new world, a better world. He is taking Mr. and Mrs. Darling children away, athough he mainly just want Wendy, for the motherhood figure. The main and present characters during the first four chapters are Peter Pan (main charater of the book, a boy whose mind has been fixed every since his younger childhood day, on never growing up. Taking on the responsiblites his parents planned for him. Not even Wendy can change that). Mr. and Mrs. Darling (The parents of Wendy, Micheal and John Darling). Wendy (daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Darling and future mother of Peter Pan, and the Lost Boys). Micheal and John Darling (Wendy’s younger brothers), and Tinker Bell(want to be fairy for Peter Pan, who is also jealous of the thought of Wendy and Peter Pan together).

The first night Peter Pan have actually stepped a foot into the Darling’s home he was caught, by Mrs. Darling. Mrs. Darling was not startled not one bit, for Peter was like the kiss that Mrs. Darling kept locked away so tight not even her husband nor Wendy could get it. Unforntually, Peter got away, however, Nana, the nurse dog, snagged his shadow. Mrs. Darling kept Peter’s shawdow as a trap, knowing that he will return for it. In the present climate, Mrs. Darling has to leave her children alone at the house. Having knowledge of knowing that Peter Pan is going to come back for his shadow, and possibly taking her babies with him. “Some themes that I have discovered between chapter three through four were, motherhood, fantasy, and youth. A piece of evidence that I have found supporting the theme of youth says, “Her romantic mind was like the tiny boxes, one within the other, that come from the puzzling East, however many you discover there is always one more; and her sweet mocking mouth had on kiss on it that Wendy could never get…She started up with a cry, and saw the boy, and somehow she knew at once that he was Peter Pan. If you or I or Wendy had been there we should have seen that he was very like Mrs. Darling’s kiss” (J.M Barrie). Mrs. Darling’s kiss is like Peter Pan, beccause he symbolizes the enerity of youth, freedom, imagination, trouble free. Apart of Mrs. Darling that remains untouched by her husband, daughter, Wendy, and everyone else have been conserved.

Part of her wants to be free exploring the world just like Peter. Verification that motherhood is a good theme says, “It is the nightly custom of every good mother after her children are asleep to rummage in their minds and put thing straight for next morning, repacking into their proper places the many articles that have wandered during the day’…’how we should all respect you.’ She was wriggling her body in distress. It was quite as if she were trying to remain on the nursery floor. But he had no pity for her. ‘Wendy,’ he said, the sly one. ‘you could tuck us in at night.’..’None of us has ever been tucked in at night.’ ‘Oo’ and her arms went out to him. ‘And you could darn our clothes, and make pockets for us. None of us has any pockets.” Wendy is learning from her mom all the responsiblities and qualties and good mother possess, and now she believes that she is not to young to inherit those responsiblites, not just by taking care of Peter, but every lost boy in the Neverlands. Fantasy is almost like a wild imagination, and I do not know not one person who imagination runs wild. It is said that a person’s mind is a map, it can be intriguing. However, a child’s mind in quit different, it’s like zizag lines going out of a tornado In Wendy’s, Micheal’s, and John’s mind, which are “probably roads in the island, for the Neverland is always more or less an island, with astonishing splashes of colour here and there, and coral reefs and rakish-looking craft in the offing, and savages and lonely lairs, and gnomes who are mostly tailors, [etc]”. The fantasy of an island that has never been seen by their own eyes, with all types of creators. Peter Pan is that of the unnamed narrator. Peter Pan narrator has remained nameless. It is all told in third-person.

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