My heart is the same, it delights in things that make it feel young. Weight of any kind can only be endured and carried for so long before it explodes from me, bursting out and being passed on to the nearest people faster than a burning lump of coal.
I enjoy leading yet loathe the responsibility that comes with it. I hate any kind of responsibility or decision making. I give that up to others as soon as it lands in my lap. Don't now confuse responsibility with honest hard work: I'm far from lazy. I am happy, more than happy to take on any jobs given to me and I'll always do them to the very best of my ability.
But ask me to decide, delegate or shepherd and I can't handle it. I'd much rather work with people than over them or under them. I suppose that's one of the many reasons why I have prided myself for years on comparing me to the principal character of this week's book.
An opening line of such potency that it is still clearly recognisable 107 years later. For those that might not know it, this is the first line from 'Peter and Wendy', better known these days as 'Peter Pan'.
Peter Pan as a character first made an appearance in 'The Little White Bird', an adult novel written by Scottish author and playwright J.M. Barrie. Not done with the character of Pan, Barrie featured him at the centre of a stage play in 1904 entitled 'Peter Pan' or 'The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up'. Such was the appeal of the story that it was then adapted to the novel we all know and love, which was first published in 1911.
The story revolves around the three Darling children: Wendy, John and Michael, who one night encounter a young boy named Peter Pan. Peter literally flies into their world, coming into their bedroom with his trusted fairy friend Tinkerbell to search for his missing shadow. It is returned to him and there's an exchange of gifts given as 'kisses' (an adorable scene in which thimbles and kisses get somewhat confused)!
Lured in by Peter's charismatic charm (not to mention his ability to fly) the children run away with him to the magical world of Neverland, a place that has existed in their dreams for ages and that suddenly appears as glorious reality. There are wild animals, redskins, mermaids and even pirates! It sounds like an adventure paradise!
But the children are soon confronted with the fact that a world of daydreams made real isn't always a good thing. Reality and fantasy are very, VERY different.
Wendy takes on the role of mother, not just to Peter, John and Micheal but also to Peter's crew of lost boys (all 6 of them). She must face the responsibility of caring for all 9 boys whilst struggling to remember her own parents and dealing with conflict from a petty, jealous Tinkerbell who is competing for Peter's affections. But there is one reality that is far scarier than playing at good housekeeping and that is dealing with pirates.
The pirates, led by the ruthless Captain James Hook, have a serious score to settle after Peter (in a previous encounter) cuts off Hook's hand and feeds it to a hungry crocodile. Curiously, the crocodile also eats a working clock, so Hook can always hear it coming and thus, is able to evade it for most of the story.
So the pirates hunt the lost boys and the crocodile hunts Captain Hook, eager to finish it's meal. Things go well for the children at first, all of whom ran away from their lives in the real world and none of whom really remember it. Life carries on quite happily until a clever plan of Hook's comes with devastating consequences.
The book is awash with universally relatable themes that all revolve around growing up. There are so many that, for ease I've simply bullet pointed a few:
- our paths and what we will become - as in Wendy leaving the nursery to become the boys' mother
- our fears of being constrained to a life of drudgery - Peter runs away from home after hearing what his parents think she should do when he grows up
- anxiety - Wendy's failing attempts to keep her parents' memory alive for her brothers as the guilt of taking them from home starts to consume her
- regret and remorse - set out in a chapter that is harrowing for parents to read, a chapter where we see Mr and Mrs Darling's heartbreak over losing their children (if only they had done things differently)
- rejection - we learn through Peter's tragic tale of returning to his home only to find his windows barred and him quite forgotten by his own mother!
- atonement - seen in Tinkerbell's gallant self sacrifice
- faith and belief - well, do you believe in fairies?
But perhaps the most important theme, the one that I could spend an age prattling on about is TIME. All through the book we are confronted with symbolism and imagery related to the fear of time. The most notable of course being the very real sound of the 'tick tock croc'.
Both Peter and Hook are terrified of time. Peter fears it because with it he stands to lose everything, especially his youth which would then make him have to be responsible. He 'thins out' (which I took to mean kills off) lost boys if they grow too much. I read this to my complete horror in chapter 4.
Hook fears it because, for him it comes with something inevitable that he can not escape no matter how hard he tries: that thing being death. This is why, bloodthirsty as he is we can still find some underlying sympathy with Hook's character.
There is not a major character in the story that I don't strongly identify with. Even Wendy, who like so many loves the fun of having children but not so much the chore of raising them. I'll hold my hand up and admit that raising children isn't the easiest job in the world. For me it's just one that is so worth doing as there is so much love to be shared.
Barrie's style of writing doesn't actually reflect it's time: it's rather ahead of it. Very short and to the point it talks to us as though it's being narrated rather than written. The vocabulary however is a definite indicator of age. There are also references that in today's world would certainly be considered to be offensive. The story could be read and analysed in a million different ways. You could write an entire thesis on it and still feel like you haven't said enough!
It's the ideas on the struggle to hold on to our youth and innocence that still resonate to this day. Take this quote from chapter 5:
" 'Some day' said Smee 'the clock will run down and then he'll get you.'
'Ay,' he (Hook) said 'that's the fear that haunts me.' "
There are very few people who have never felt the pressing of time ticking in their ears.
This theme is so genuine and it shines through the entire book. You can tell that it is rooted in the author's own tragic real life experiences. It is a beautiful fact to note that he donated the rights to Peter Pan to London's Great Ormond Street children's hospital, who still own them today.
At the heart of this story is a message to all, we can not out run time. It will come for all of us, for every second we age is a second irretrievably lost. But there is hope, keep young in mind and heart and at least, while you age you'll have an adventure. For what is growing up if not the greatest adventure we can have?
Book 38 out of my 52, a book published more than 100 years ago and a beautiful example that, while we may not live forever our ideas and adventures can!
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