the boy who would never grow up

In J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, we’re told the story of a boy who turns his back on adulthood in favor of the simple fun and innocence of an endless childhood.  However, it is not the plot lines or twists and turns of Peter, Wendy and the Lost Boys of Never Land that speak to the truth of what an everlasting childhood might mean.  As Jacqueline Rose argues in The Case of Peter Pan, what goes unsaid or is left to be read between the lines is what truly shines the light of inquiry on this subject.  It becomes clear that Barrie’s tale is more one of adult ideas about an idealized (even desired) childhood, than it is a story for children about some supposedly shared cultural experience called “growing up.”

Without question, Rose’s assertion that children’s fiction is a “soliciting, a chase, or even seduction” (Rose, pg. 2) is quite clearly seen in Peter Pan.  Barry creates a world that is both utterly safe and utterly adventurous, where children can remain playful, innocent, imaginative and free of adult seriousness endlessly.  Where little boys can fight pirates and catch mermaids and little girls can mother the Lost Boys of Never Land to their heart’s content.  Aside from the obvious recognition within the play that little boys and girls have gender roles to fulfill as they grow and mature, the young characters of Peter Pan are making it clear that there exists a distinct sexuality to childhood that cannot simply be ignored or trivialized (Pg. 14).  So the question of what adult audiences – or in the case of Barrie, authors – are either consciously or subconsciously trying to accomplish with this fictional “solicitation” comes to the fore.

The answer to that question seems to lie within the character of Peter Pan himself.  Pan is weightless, he cannot be touched, he has a masterful imagination, no need for memory and is the object of desire for at least 2 female characters (Tiger Lily making 3), yet can conceive of no relationship to them other than one of son to doting mother.  He can play the role of caring father as easily as the role of savior, both of which, in the eyes of Pan, pale in comparison to the childish joy of adventure and the playing of his hand made pan-pipes.  And so, as we see a boy who is hardly more than an idea, so we see the reflection of adult desires for childhood and the innocence, undeveloped sexuality, and permanence so often ascribed to it in the guise of children’s fiction.