I am currently in the fourth chapter of J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan.  Peter has officially been introduced to Wendy and the reader, and it is evident that he is an arrogant and ignorant child that will never grow old. The fact that Peter will never grow old leads me to believe that Barrie is attempting to define what it means to be a child. What better opportunity is there to define a child when there exists Peter Pan, a character that literally cannot be anything but a child. On the other hand, Wendy, while she is still a child, contains characteristics of an adult. As Barrie puts it, as soon as you realize that you are going to grow old one day, you have reached the beginning of the end. I believe that Barrie has included Wendy’s characteristics to contrast the definition of childhood in Peter and adulthood in Wendy. I am curious to read more about this duo and what implications they may reveal about what it means to be a child.

 

One aspect that I do not find acceptable is the very loose line that Barrie creates that separates child from adult. For example, why does Mr. Darling trick his son, Michael, into drinking his medicine while he cannot do so himself? Is Barrie telling me that this man is not so much of a man after all? This event has caused me a great deal of confusion, all I hope for is a more defined line between existing as a child and an adult.

 

 

Comparing what I have read in these first few chapters of Peter Pan, I can tell that many aspects of the tale are going to be different from the adaptations that we all know of this beloved story. While the story still includes fantastic details that we all know, Barrie also chooses to include realistic details of the Darling family. I am anxious to see how this story will progress and how similar it will be to the other versions of the tale.

So far, I am slightly confused with Barrie’s writing style and it is going to take some time for me to begin to easily interpreting him. For example, the “Nana” for the children is supposed to be the character that takes care of the Darling children, which I did not realize was actually a dog in the second chapter. Also, I cannot tell what is supposed to be reality and fantasy. For one second, Mrs. Darling is having a dream about Peter Pan in Neverland and in the next second, she is back in reality and trapping Peter’s shadow in the window. I hope that the distinction between the two settings will be easier to differentiate between later in the book.