What is the significance of Peter Pan?

Answer 1

I think that there are many 'hidden meanings' to J.M. Barrie's book. The author really incorporated some of his childhood memories and feelings into this book. His life is very interesting; definatley worth some research. The movie "Finding Neverland" is a pretty accurate bio of J.M. Barrie. In short, I think that Barrie wrote "Peter Pan" to help purge himself of the bad memories that were still clinging to him. I feel that Barrie also wrote this book to assure that children would always have a place in which they could hide. "There is no frigate like a book"---Emily Dickinson

Answer 2

He is the symbol of abandonence and eternal childhood. He ran away as a baby because he didn't want to grow up, always remains a 4 to 5 year old little boy for in Neverland where he evetually came to live, no one ages a day, and as far as he himself believes, his mother forgot all about him and replaced him with another little boy, when he tried to return home / visit his mother, years later from when he ran away. James Matthew Barrie himself, is "Peter Pan" - he suffered his mother's ignoring after his brother died when he was little. He says he used to dress up in his dead brother's clothes just to make his mother notice him, and told his mother that the brother had gone to Neverland.

Answer 3

One of the major themes deals with Captain Hook and the crocodile. As we all know Peter cut off Hook's hand and fed it to a crocodile that had swallowed a clock, and the crocodile loved the taste so much that he wanted to eat the rest of Hook. Now Hook wants revenge on Peter, but there's more to it than that. Hook doesn't just want to kill Peter because he took his hand. The fact is Neverland is a place where you don't grow up, but Hook is an adult. He's already grown up, and as such Neverland has no real effect on him, whereas Peter will live forever. By cutting of Hook's hand Peter demonstrated that Hook was not invincible. He could have killed him but he didn't. Peter would live forever, Hook would die. Now the question we must ask ourselves is not "why does Hook fear the croc?", it's "why does Hook fear the clock?" The crocodile symbolizes the fact that time is chasing after us and will, eventually, catch us in the end via the jaws of death.

Answer 4

no