Peter Pan

by J. M. Barrie

this edition designed by MinaLima

2015

I read the novel Peter Pan for the first time last week.  Finding this irresistible new version with maps and pop-outs is what convinced me to give it a try.  I’ve seen the animated Disney Peter Pan multiple times, and I’m also familiar with the stage play.  The story was originally written as a stage play in 1904 and not until 1911 did J.M. Barrie turn it into a novel.  Both versions tell the story of Peter Pan, a mischievous boy who refuses to grow up, Wendy Darling and her younger brothers John and Michael, and their adventures with the Lost Boys in Neverland.

What captured my attention most while reading the novel is the extra insight we get into the character of Tinker Bell.  In the play and movie, Tinker Bell’s voice is a delicate little bell ringing.  In the book, however, we get to hear the words she is saying, and it is often quite snarky.  In fact, her favorite insult for Peter is, “You silly ass.”  This is what she responds to Peter when he questions why she drank the poison that was meant for him.  Peter is so self-absorbed he is never aware of Tinker Bell’s love for him and doesn’t understand her selfless act.  

I love the explanation of the origin of fairies:  

“When the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.”  And now each time a baby laughs for the first time, a new fairy is born. 

I also love Barrie’s reasoning behind Tinker Bell’s mood swings.  A fairy’s body is so small that there is only room for one emotion at a time.  Thus, she is all jealousy, all anger, or all love with no capability of tempering the emotions.  

 

According to the story of Peter Pan, fairies cannot exist unless people believe in them.  Likewise, people cannot fly without fairy dust.  What have I learned from reading Peter Pan?  Growing up is all well and good.  Peter, forever a boy, was selfish and lonely.  What is not good is losing your imagination.  We need to find the perfect balance:  Feet planted firmly on the ground, with the mind and spirit able to soar.