Itâs more complicated than that. Peter is kind of a tragic hero. He chooses not to grow up, he knows he is incomplete.
I mean, he cut off Hookâs hand because he thought it was a game. He clearly doesnât know right from wrong. He also only knows the unconditional love of a mother to a child, which is why he thinks everyone wants to be his mother. He also switches sides in a fight just for fun, kill pirates for fun, and âthinsâ out the Lost Boys when they canât fit in the tree anymore.
But, like, it wasnât a cautionary tale to tell you to listen to your parents, itâs a story about death and youth. Why canât Peter grow up? One of the popular theories is that itâs because heâs dead. J.M. Barrieâs older brother died when Barrie was little and he dressed up in his brotherâs clothes to please his mom. His mom - who was always distant, whose love Barrie craved like Peter craves a mom - started crying and said something like âAt least my baby will never grow upâ and that idea stuck with Barrie forever. Then, as an adult, itâs believed he never slept with his wife because Barrie was just a kid. He was Peter Pan. He was too innocent for that. He befriended the Llewelyn-Davies boys and based Peter Pan off of them and their games. (Fun fact: The boy Peter Pan was named after, Peter Llewelyn-Davies, threw himself under a train). There was also a bunch of stuff about Barrie being in love with The Llewlyn-Davies boysâ mother, but thatâs not important here.
People think Peterâs dead because he literally cannot return home. He tried and the window was barred and his parents had replaced him with another baby. Why? Probably because they had lost Peter to the flu. Why does Peter come in through the window? Because of the joke âI once had a bird names Enza. I opened up the window and âinfluenzaâ.â Because lots of babies died back then form the flu. The Lost Boys are children who fell out of their prams. Odds are babies could not survive falling out of their prams. Peter is liked the pied piper ferrying the souls of young children to the neverland/afterlife. Barrie believed that all children were âgay and heartlessâ but he didnât think that was a bad thing.
Also, Hook and his crew are not old lost boys trying to kill Peter. Hook was once a British gentlemen (hinted at to be associated with Charles II and attended Elton) and he is afraid of growing old. His biggest fear is growing old and dying - that is why his nemesis is the embodiment of eternal youth. That is why the crocodile that chases him swallowed a clock and ticks. That is why when Peter finally decided âItâs Hook of me this timeâ the crocodile has stopped ticking and Peter started (heâs trying to trick them into thinking heâs the croc). At that moment - Peter is time and time has ran out for Hook.
Also, itâs not so much that Peter is omnipotent. All kids basically are in the Neverland. Like, it states that the island looks different to every kid because itâs the land of their dreams and stuff. Also, the island legit freezes when Peter leaves and thaws when he comes back. Heâs been there so long heâs not human anymore - but fey. (keep in mind being fey isnât good, just chaotic neutral). Peter even secretes pixie dust now. The island is so fine tuned with him because heâs one of the only people that stay, that it caters to him. Most likely any child that stayed as long as he did would become omnipotent to an extent.
As for Tinker Bell, the above stated is true. Fairies are so tiny they can only have one emotion at a time - âTink wasnât all badâ - and they also have really short lifespans so, like, Tinker Bell isnât even that important to Peter Pan. He forgets all about her and Hook by the time Wendy is grown up.And the orgies thing is because in the legends fey are known for their revelries.Â
And it wasnât so much that Peter was a dick, he just doesnât know when to stop. Heâs a child. He doesnât know right from wrong. He doesnât know when to stop playing -cutting Hooks hand off was a game to him. He also has the memory of a child, so odds are he just forgot to teach kids how to stop flying or how to imagine food, etc. He is just carefree, like all children. Everything is a game to him, because he never learned anything else.
But like, no, Peter Pan is not a cautionary tale. Barrie loved his character and the story and brought up a lot of good things in it. He wrote Peter as an exaggeration of a cocky overconfident boy, but, like, Peter wasnât afraid of death. It says âhe felt scared, yet he felt only one shudder run through him when any other person would have felt scared up until death. With his blithe attitude towards death, he says, âTo die will be an awfully big adventureâ.â and with that Barrie is showing us both a naivety and bravery we possess as children but lose as adults and is basically telling us that we shouldnât let that go. Like, the point is growing up is inevitable but you donât have to lose everything.
And so yeahâŚ.Iâm really passionate about Peter Pan.
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