Peter Pan
... threatening, but he still loves her bedtime stories and is curious about mothers. Children and adults cannot think on the same level, and this disparity affects their communication and connections. Once a person leaves childhood, her Neverland, she can never return. “Most unluckily Mr. Darling collided against [Nana], covering his trousers with hairs. They were not only new trousers, but they were the first he had ever had with brad on them, and he had to bite his lip to prevent the tears coming. Of course Mrs. Darling brushed him, but he began to talk again about its being a mistake to have a dog for a nurse” (24). “Stars are beautiful, but they may not take an active part in anything, they must just look on for ever. It is a punishment put on them for something they did so long ago that no star now knows what it was. So the older ones have become glassy-eyed and seldom speak (winking is the star language), but the little ones still wonder” (33). The stars passive and mild existence is a draining contentment. While they are not unhappy, their lack of involvement in the rest of the world and their distance has made them resign to a life of solitude. The only ray of hope in the star world are the young stars who still try to communicate with the world below, hoping that someone will understand them. “You see children know such a lot now, they soon don’t believe in fairies, and every time a child says ‘I don’t believe in fairies,’ there is a fairy somewhere that falls down dead” (43). With the rapid advancements in technology, children lose their innocence more quickly. Kids stop believing in Santa Claus early, and the Easter Bunny is a joke. The children’s lack of naivety causes them to not appreciate and believe the magic in the world. “Eventually Peter would dive through the air, and catch Michael just before he could strike the sea, and it as lovely the way he did it; but he always waited till the last moment, and you felt it was his cleverness that interested him and not the saving of human life” (60). Peter views the children as toys for his amusement. He brings Wendy to play house with him, and Michael soon becomes a human yo-yo. The only child Peter feels animosity toward is John, because John has no engaging game to occupy Peter. As quickly as Peter becomes attached to his playmates, he soon loses interest and forgets about them. Peter is unable to become emotionally involved with anyone, and he is completely self-absorbed. “Tink was not all bad: or, rather, she was all bad just now, but, on the other hand, sometimes she was all good. Fairies have to be one thing or the other, because being so small they unfortunately have room for one feeling only at a time” (74). Fairies lack compassion for humans because they are only able to be good or evil. Humans’ souls, however, are colored shades of gray, neither good nor bad but something in-between. Unlike humans, a fairy never feels internal conflict between its good and bad sides, because they cannot coexist. “The boys on the island vary, of course, in numbers, according as they get killed and so on; and when they seem to be growing up, which is against the rules, Peter thins them out; but at this time there were six of them, counting the twins as two” (76). Peter does not view any of the boys as individuals, but rather as his band of warriors. The twins are like a more light-hearted Samneric from Lord of the Flies: no one, even the twins, is sure which is which. By denying a person his individuality, one denies him his humanity. By viewing the Lost Boys as mere numbers, Peter is able to quickly forget the Boys who die or Peter are forced out of Neverland. “[Captain Hook] was never more sinister than when he was most polite, which is probably the truest test of breed; and the elegance of his diction, even when he was swearing, no less than the distinction of his demeanour, showed him one of a different caste from his crew” (81). Captain Hook is like a ruthless businessman: heartless but utterly charming. By describing Hook as upper crust and elegant, the narrator expresses his disdain for the materialistic rich. Hook is the least sympathetic character in the novel, and his actions often mirror those of the wealthy: stab someone in the back, but smile while doing so. “[The Lost Boys] talked of Cinderella, and Tootles was confident that his mother must be very like her. It was only in Peter’s absence that they could speak of mothers, the subject being forbidden by him as silly” (84). Cinderella is a fairy-tale character who runs away from love and responsibility because of her own insecurity and fears. Tootles’ mother, who hired a nurse who dropped Tootles’ from his pram, is probably like Cinderella: shying away from the responsibilities of motherhood and handing Tootles’ over to a nurse for fear of her own incompetence. Unfortunately, a fairy godmother did not rescue Tootles’ mother, and Tootles became a Lost Boy. “But I a...