Peter Pan by J.M Barrie
The story of Peter Pan has been sat on my shelf for years now waiting to be read since picking it up from a charity shop on college break. Growing up, Peter Pan, and the follow up Finding Neverland, were some my mine and my sisters favorite films, along with the 'short stories' version of the beloved childhood classic. After reading incredible, but hard hitting books for so long, this was the perfect, well timed, most heart warming break. I also saw so much in this story as an adult that i didn't necessarily see as a kid. In fact, it wasn't that i didn't see it as a kid, i took it all for granted.
By that i mean of the characters, Mary and George Darling. As a child i thought of the dad as a bit of a dick, straight forward and unloving, how dare he throw Nana outside! However, reading this book now, i have seen so much deeper into his character, yes, it may be of its time in terms of gender roles, but i finally see that he did what he did for his family and young children. He may work long hours of the week, return home grumpy, make a fuss out of everything, appear to loathe their mundane life and crave what the neighbours have. This says in itself that the world and society haves always had expectations of a 'perfect life', they may not have posted about their 'date night' away from the their perfect, well behaved kids online, yet they did it through speech, talking to one another, showing off, exaggerating and lying. Just like the world we live in online today.
They have a dog for a Nanny. So they can have a Nanny. Say they have a Nanny. Get annoyed at the Nanny, that he then realises is a dog. A dog with talent and discipline might i add.
Despite all of this, all the tensions and disappointment, this book shows that love, hope, time and imagination are they most important values to look out upon, in a life especially you don't realise was your perfect dream until it was taken away from you.
The story of children and of cheeky Peter Pan meanders through the thoughts and feeling of every child, the jealousy, the naivety, the joy and the heartache. The sense of being in awe of a character that stays with you forever, that part of you that truly, does never grow up.
Hook, on the other hand, terrified me as a kid, in my nightmares of course, not in his heart underpants. The thought of the evil sharp hook and his long demining face was forever a thought of fear as a child, it was the representation on a bad and evil adult, that was more real than just in the book. In reading this book though, your heart will warm and melt, you'll find yourself laughing at him but then realising as an adult you shouldn't do that, feeling sorry for him, until yet again you remember who he is and your eyes will tighten as you read he next line, as if not to show your new found feeling behind the scenes.
This book teaches that your imagination is what sets you free, that your loved ones will wait for you, that bullies really have their own problems, and that although we are no some what adults, we were all a child once, and that sentiment remains in us forever.
This book made me smile of memories, laugh to comparisons that all the characters can be linked to someone we do really know, and made my heart warm for the innocence of childhood. That we all still are that child, don't get me wrong with a hell of a lot more emotional baggage and hard hitting life checks, but we are still that person that was once so tiny and has now just grown. Literally grown, but do we really need to grow up from ourselves, our imagination?
Love,
Cerys x
What's your opinion?