In every mind, there is a secret place; a place where we are allowed complete freedom to be ourselves. It is a place where our deepest wishes, the most secret desires of our heart, come alive. Imagination runs rampant and creativity abounds. And in this place lives a boy, a little boy who refuses to grow up. A boy named Peter Pan.

James Matthew Barrie has captivated his audience for over a century with his creation. Since then, there have been several renditions of the play about the boy who would never grow up. The popular success of Peter Pan has proven a riddle to many. Barrie’s plays were often satirical and laughed at the antics of the rich social class as well as the world of adults (Powell). The Times once labeled him “as hard as nails, as cruel as the grave [and] as cynical as the Fiend,” yet, it was the same social class that Barrie often criticized that first fell in love with Peter Pan (Powell). What was it about Peter Pan that made high-society London fell in love, and what could be the inspiration of this great story?

To answer this question, we must first follow Barrie’s advice to remember our childhood and, “think back hard, and pressing hands to temples, think even harder,”(Powell). By using Barrie’s method of rediscovering those precious childhood years of innocence and combining it with information from encyclopedias, online biographies, and Barrie’s novel Peter Pan, I was able to conclude that Peter Pan, a story based on his life, as well as the lives of five other children, was immensely popular due to its psychological properties that transport the viewer back to a time where there was a place in the mind that contained a boy who would never grow up. A place that is as real as the flesh we wear.

Peter Pan is the story of a boy who refuses to grow up. After the play’s debut, speculation about who the real Peter was spread like wildfire. People have suspected Peter Davies to be the real Peter, while others suspect James Barrie himself. Still, others propose one of the other five Llewelyn Davies children. Barrie stated firmly however that, “I made Peter by rubbing the five of you violently together, as savages with two sticks produce a fire. That is all he is, the spark I got from you,” (Peter Pan).

After the loss of Mr. Davies, Barrie spent even more time with Mrs. Davies and her children. At one point, in 1901, Barrie accompanied them on their vacation to BlackLakeIsland, the inspiration for Neverland (Powell). While there, the “family” spent many enjoyable days acting out skits and playing pirates and Indians.

The beginnings of Peter Pan commenced with several conversations with George Llewelyn Davies, the eldest of her five children. Barrie and the kids often went and traded adventures and stories in KensingtonPark. Barrie found consolation and peace when he was with the family, for as he put it, “There never was a simpler, happier family…” (Powell). The Davies children reminded Barrie of his own childhood, a past of joy and loss. He found acceptance with them, something he never found with his mother after she lost her favorite son. He also found pieces of his childhood that he thought he’d lost.

Peter Pan also mimics Barrie’s own life. The idea of a boy who would remain a child forever comes from his older brother David who died when they were both little. Barrie’s mother was never the same, and always believed that she could still see her little boy David (Powell).

Other characters in his play are also inspired by the Davies family. Mr. Davies is closely related to Mr. Darling, the father who knew the cost of everything and was the decisive decision maker. Michael, the youngest Davies child, was also the youngest Darling child (Powell). And then there was Sylvia, the nurturing mother who hovered over children with love and confidence. His and Mrs. Davies’ improper relationship relates closely between Peter and Wendy’s in the play, for Peter “had ecstasies innumerable that other children can never know; but he was looking through the window at the one joy from which he must be for ever barred.”(Barrie)

No one can read or see Peter Pan without wondering what and where Never Neverland is. How did Barrie come up with such a place and name? Neverland, like most of the other things in the story, has a meaning behind it. Barrie “idealized childhood but took a disenchanted view of adult life” so he created a place where anything can happen (“Barrie, Sir”). He relates it with childhood because kids are freer to express themselves without being criticized. That is why it is only the kids who can know about Neverland. As knowledge, or common sense, is gained, it pushes all thoughts of imagination out, and Neverland is forgotten except for occasional dull remnants of happy memories (Barrie).

In the novel Peter Pan, Barrie says this about Neverland, “Neverland is always more or less an island, with astonishing splashes of colour here and there, and coral reefs and rakish-looking craft in the offing, and savages, and lonely lairs, and gnomes who are mostly tailors,…and one very small old lady with a hooked nose.” Neverland is the get-away place in children’s minds where they can live out their fantasies full of innocence, hope, and adventure, for “it is only the gay and innocent and heartless” who can fly to Neverland (Barrie).

However, if Neverland only exists in the mind, then how can Peter come and whisk all three darling children off? That is a question that only Barrie himself can answer, but it probably has to do with the magical mystery that envelops the whole story.

This is how Peter describes himself. He is the embodiment of youth. He is the part of every child that longs to remain young, longs to remain safe, secure, and happy, and if you are not as wise as an adult, it does not bother you because you don’t have their cares and burdens; you’re free!

But the question still remains; how did James Barrie come up with the name Peter Pan? When Barrie began his relationship with George Davies, they would spend hours in KensingtonPark trading stories (Powell). Most of these stories dealt with the littlest Davies brother at that time, Peter. So Barrie created a story about an infant named Peter that flew out of his perambulator, and later, when he heard his parents talking about what he should be when he grew up, he ran off to Neverland (Barrie). That is how Peter received his first name.

Pan is the name of the Greek god that ruled all natural forces. He was god over forests, flocks of animals, and their keepers, like shepherds and herders, and was “represented with the head, chest, and arms of a man and the legs, horns, and ears of a goat. Pan belongs to the pastoral world…”(Powell)

By combining the infant’s name Peter with the Greek god Pan, Barrie created Peter Pan, a boy with a contradicting name and personality. Half of Peter, the Peter part, is the boy who can have fun. He loves adventures and stories, and himself (for he is rather cocky). He wants to stay a boy forever because he sees and understands with a child’s innocence (and from J.M. Barrie’s disenchanted view of adult life). “I don’t want to go to school and learn solemn things,” he told Mrs. Darling (Barrie).

But then there is the Pan side, the magical side. It is because he is Pan that he can stay a boy forever and have only a child’s mind and cares, but it is also the Pan side that lets this innocent boy shoot and kill pirates without a second thought. It is Peter who longs for a mother’s love, but Pan who longs for more. Perhaps that is why Peter Pan can only exist in Never Neverland, a place where impossibilities become realities.

Barrie started the Peter Pan stories in 1900. By 1902 he introduced Peter to the world in a book called The Little White Bird (Berrowitz). Two years later he turned the adventures of Peter Pan into a three-act play called Peter Pan, the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up. Add another two years and the early version of the novel was published (Merrit). By 1911 a longer version, Peter and Wendy, was published that included the extra chapter “When Wendy Grew Up.” Finally, in 1928, the final, popular version that we all know and love debuted.

Since then, there have been several stage and movie renditions including the 1954 Broadway play starring Mary Martin as Peter Pan. In fact, until the Disney version in 1953, a lady has always played the role of Peter Pan, a tradition started by Barrie’s original production. However, along with the turning of time, so has the part turned more and more over to male actors. Peter Pan has recently been played by Robin Williams in Hook, and Jeremy Sumpters in the 2003 version of Peter Pan.

It has been over a century now since Barrie first introduced Peter Pan to the world, but Pan is still remembered.  He is remembered for his cockiness, for his costume of greenery, for his crow, for his shadow, and for his victory over the villainous Captain Hook, but alas, the true meaning and symbolism is starting to fade.  Unfortunately, people lose their childhood at an even younger age because they get wrapped up in tomorrow and forget about having fun today. 

For me, I enjoyed the research. I was able to read J. M. Barrie’s book for the first time, and I was mesmerized by his writing. His words have the power to hold one captive and never let go, and yet, they also make you think. You have to read between, behind, above, and below the lines to figure out some of his meanings, and even now I am still puzzled about parts. I believe he has challenged me as a writer (especially in this essay) to find words that can match the description of Peter Pan and Neverland.

I was fascinated with his history. Barrie put his life, feelings, heart and mind into his stories, and when I went back to compare it is really amazing to find all the parallels.

James Matthew Barrie could not have written anything quite as wonderful as Peter Pan, and I can only end with Wendy’s sigh of regret when she told Peter, “If only I could go with you.” (Barrie)

1. Barrie, James Matthew. Peter Pan. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1911.
   
   
2. "Barrie, Sir James Baronet." Encyclopedia Britanica. 2005. Encyclopedia Britannica Online School Edition. 18 Feb. 2005 <http://school.eb.com>.
   
   
3. Berrowitz, Gerald, M.. "Barrie, Sir James Matthew." The World Book Encyclopedia. 2000 ed
   
4. Merrit, James Douglas. "Peter Pan." The World Encyclopedia. 2000 ed.
   
5. Peter Pan: or, the boy who wouldn't grow up. Salem Press. 24 Feb. 2005 <http://search.epnet.com>.
6. Powell, Michelle. An Awfully Big Adventure. American Repertory Theatre. Feb. 26, 2005 <http://www.amrep.org/past/peter/peter1.html>.