The Psycology of peter pan

Fear of growing up

J. M. Barrie the author of Peter Pan or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up led a life almost as magical and interesting as his famous creation, Peter.

Barrie never had children with his wife, however he became extremely close to the five young boys of the Llewelyn Davies family, of which he finally became guardian and father when they were orphaned.

J.M Barrie wrote Peter Pan, for the boys to help them get through the deaths of their parents, he didn’t want them to enter the grown up world and loose their childhood too soon, something which was already an issue with some of them. Barrie’s conscious also played a role as he himself found that he would need to mature and take on responsibilities to help these children, and had to face his fears of doing so.

The play's subtitle "The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up" underscores the primary theme: the conflict between the innocence of childhood and the responsibility of adulthood. Peter has literally chosen not to make the transition from one to the other, and encourages the other children to do the same. However, the opening line, "All children, except one, grow up," and the conclusion of the story indicates that this wish is unrealistic, and there is an element of tragedy in the alternative.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875 –1961) developed a school of thought called analytical psychology, (often called "Jungian psychology") the puer aeternus (Inner Child) is an example of what Jung called an archetype, one of the "primordial, structural elements of the human psyche". the puer is bi-polar, and in this case appears as the Divine Child who symbolizes newness, potential for growth, hope for the future. He also foreshadows the hero that he sometimes becomes or the child-man who refuses to grow up and meet the challenges of life face on, waiting instead for his ship to come in and solve all his problems.

We can see a clear example of this where Peter Pan has a nonchalant, devil-may-care attitude, and is fearlessly cocky when it comes to putting himself in danger. He lives day to day with his blissful unawareness of the tragedy of death, "To die will be an awfully big adventure".

But Peter really isn’t so light-hearted, is he? Pan has issues; Barrie’s story explores Peter’s co-dependent relationship with his archenemy, Captain Hook and Peter’s overwhelming desire to shut out grown-up thoughts, feelings and responsibilities.

To be Peter Pan would be fun for a day or a year, but would it be fun forever? Peter is trapped, repeating the same adventures, forever faced with the tiresome Captain Hook, and always tied to Tinker Bell, who means well but would get on my nerves if I spent more than a few days with her.

In the story Wendy asks Peter, "What are your real feelings?" There is a latent sexuality between the two characters, and Peter is a little scared of that and is unable to face his real feeling thus chooses to run away from them, However when confronted by Hook about Wendy growing up, marrying and eventually "shutting the window" on Peter, he becomes very depressed and finally loses the will to fight, this is when we truly start to see the conflict Peter has with his fear of growing up.

At the end of Barrie’s story Peter flies back to Neverland, he make this sound like a victory, though this can also be viewed as a defeat as Peter gives in to his fears, and looses his chance of love and happiness, Showing us the perfect example of the Puer Aeternus archetype

I believe the life Peter Pan lives is very tempting, and if it where possible many living day adults would make the same choice as Peter does. This life can seem ideal at a first glance but when seen clearly it would be more of a punishment.

In the end, the act of growing up and feeling is a much bigger adventure than even pirates.

Andrew Birkin, 2003, J.M. Barrie and the Lost Boys: The real story behind Peter Pan, US: Yale University Press

Von Franz, M, L,2000, The Problem of the Puer Aeternus, Toronto:Inner City Books

Peter And Wendy, Wikipedia [online], available from <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Pan,_or_The_Boy_Who_Wouldn%27t_Grow_Up#Major_themes>