Review Of "Peter Pan"

A Little Bit Of Dirt

"and thus it will go on, so long as children are gay and innocent and heartless." J.M. Barrie, at the end of his novel "Peter Pan"

I recently finished reading "Peter Pan" and was a little surprised at how murderous the children were or were represented to be. If I ever read it as a child, it must've been some cardboard Little Golden Book version. I've gotten so used, in this century, to seeing children in children's books represented with kid gloves or as sweet little lambs, this old-fashioned Peter Pan is bit of a relief. Of course, Peter Pan isn't represented as purely mean, but he and the other Lost Boys are cutthroat. The author doesn't worry about that, though, never getting very far from the idea that this is all a children's fantasy and that, in the minds of little boys, cutting off arms isn't very real and killing pirates by the boatload isn't anything very wicked. Neither Peter nor the Lost Boys care a whit if they should kill Captain Hook or if the alligator should chew and eat the Captain whole. They climb and they fall, they slaughter and they laugh, they get caught and barely escape, the worst bunch of little boys in all of Neverland!

I'm glad I read it; those memories of the bloodless sweet natured non-threatening almost purely good Disney version of Peter Pan and Wendy and the Boys lingering in my head were too antiseptic by far. The Disney version was funny and well drawn, but a little bit of dirt and grime and chopping off of heads is good for you—any boy will tell you.

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