Peter Pan - J.M. Barrie

Chalk up this unusual selection to my deck of cards. Knowing the story pretty well (and having watched the Disney version and Hook), I would have never picked this up on my own. But it actually did make for an interesting read, only because the details in the story are so much more bizarre than just the general plot. Barrie makes for a weird story-teller: oftentimes he is very cute and his writing is very silly (like Alice in Wonderland), but his writing also has an undercurrent of biting sarcasm (in the way the narrator will mock Mr. and Mrs. Darling, or call the children heartless, or deride Peter Pan). It's not something that is very pronounced but it just sounds like the narrator (who I assume is Barrie, but I suppose it could just be a made-up voice) is mean to the characters and doesn't necessarily like them.

I was surprised at how prominent the themes about motherhood and growing up without a mother actually are in the story. Peter doesn't just like Wendy a lot, he wants a mother. It's not just Peter Pan either. All the Lost Boys, and even the pirates, want a mother more than anything else. The pirates kidnap Wendy so she'll be their mother. And Peter won't admit it but the most scarring event in his life was being separated from his mother (I don't remember if the mother left him or he left his mother). It also gets complicated when Wendy does grow up and become a mother for real, because now Peter hates her for growing up but he still wants a mother so he turns to...Wendy's daughter. And then Wendy's granddaughter. And, in today's skeptical society, that sounds very odd I guess, but I think the point is that, for Peter (and, I suppose, the other motherless characters), grown-ups can't be caring and nurturing and adventurous all at the same time, but children can as long as they are "gay and innocent and heartless."

Now, the heartless part sounds weird to me, but those are the author's words. Barrie (or the narrator) is saying children are heartless because they can very easily leave their parents and go off with Peter Pan like Wendy and John and Michael and forget about their home and forget they ever had parents and not realize their parents are back home, sad and waiting. So, is he saying that's a good thing? It's also difficult to say whether he thinks growing up is a good thing or a bad thing. He writes that Neverland is this wonderful place where children don't grow up, where they will always be innocent and happy. But Neverland also makes them forget their family and so they become "heartless" and selfish (in the case of Peter, he eventually even forgets about Hook, and about Tinkerbell, and he forgets about Wendy to such an extent that he doesn't see her again for years). But then everyone (including the Lost Boys, except Peter Pan) return to England and everyone grows up and they settle down "to being as ordinary as you or me."

I think that, in the end, the point Barrie is trying to make ends up being more than just "never grow up" (which seems to be how his story is always remembered). I think what the moral of the story amounts to is that growing up is inevitable, and refusing to grow up just makes you selfish and heartless, but growing up doesn't mean you have to stop believing in innocence and adventure and wonder (even though Wendy grows up, she still remembers Peter fondly and retells his story to her own daughter).

I also have to mention that Hook is the most interesting and complex character in the story. He's not just the one-dimensional ruthless pirate. I mean, he is a pretty typical ruthless pirate, but he's also trying to be an effective and respected leader - while at the same time suffering from soul-crushing self-consciousness and doubts about his ability. He's always concerned with "good form" (with playing by the rules and with appearing to others as a gentleman who is skilled in proper social conduct) - while at the same time being a backstabber and knowing full well that much of what he does is in "bad form." Actually, I found the "good form-bad form" internal struggle Hook has surprising to read, because I thought that was just something that was thrown into the Hook movie version. After reading the story, though, I can say that Hook is the most faithful adaptation of the actual story (if you ignore that Peter Pan is played by a very grown up Robin Williams), right down to the issues about Peter's mother and Hook and many other things. Well, even the montage where we see Wendy growing up and becoming older and all that, is in the story. The Disney version just captures the silliness and the adventure (although it does do a good job of capturing Peter as a jerk...he was kind of a conceited brat). And I know I watched the new Peter Pan movie, but I mostly remember being bored with that one.

I almost want to watch Hook now.

18 down, 34 to go.