Peter Pan

Peter watches the water as it rises around him. He notices something in the water and wonders if it is part of the kite. Whatever it is, Peter realizes that it is fighting the tide. “Peter, always sympathetic to the weaker side, could not help clapping” (88). The something in the water turns out to be a bird in her nest. The bird calls out to Peter, and he calls out to the bird, “but of course neither of them understood the other’s language. In fanciful stories people can talk to the birds freely, and I wish for the moment I could pretend that this was such a story” (88-9).

Peter finds a hat on the rock and uses it to secure the bird’s eggs. Then, he takes the nest and floats home. Everyone is excited when Peter returns home, but Wendy rushes everyone to bed.

Because Peter saved Tiger Lily, the Indians swear to do anything for him. “They called Peter the Great White Father, prostrating themselves before him; and he liked this tremendously, so that it was not really good for him” (91). The lost boys become annoyed with him, and although Wendy agrees with them, “she was far too loyal a housewife to listen to any complaints against father” (91). Wendy continues to take care of the boys, even when they become rowdy. She takes her role seriously, sometimes wondering if spinsters are to be envied, and insisting someone stay in a cradle because it “is such a homely thing to have about a house” (93).

Wendy goes so far as to argue with Peter about which of the lost boys has his nose. She laments, “Dear Peter…with such a large family, of course, I have now passed my best, but you don’t want to change me, do you?” (95). Peter comments, “You are so queer…and Tiger Lily is just the same. There is something she wants to be to me, but she says it is not my mother” (95).

“And then at last they all got into bed for Wendy’s story, the story they loved best, the story Peter hated. Usually when she began to tell this story, he left the room….But to-night he remained on his stool; and we shall see what happened” (96).

Wendy tells the boys a story about her parents. She goes through the whole story of how she and her brothers came to Neverland: Mr. Darling tying Nana up and the children flying away. She tells them that a mother’s love can remove any fear. “She had now come to the part that Peter hated” (99). Wendy tells the boys that her mother kept the window open for the children at all times. They ask her if the children ever returned, and she speculates that, in the future, she, Michael, and John will return home. Peter groans. “Wendy, you are wrong about mothers” (100). He tells everyone he thought his mother would keep the window open, too, but when he went back, it was closed. “I am not sure that this was true, but Peter thought it was true, and it scared them” (101).

The children ask to return home that night. Peter does not show much emotion at Wendy’s request to leave. “But of course he cared very much; and he was full of wrath against grown-ups, who, as usual, were spoiling everything, that as soon as he got inside his tree he breathed intentionally quick short breaths at the rate of about five to a second” (101). He refuses to make Wendy stay because he would never keep her against her will. The children are excited to leave, but sad that Peter won’t come, too. “If you find your mothers…I hope you like them” (104), he says to them. “The awful cynicism of this made an uncomfortable impression, and most of them began to look rather doubtful. After all, their faces said, were they not noodles to want to go” (104). They prepare to leave, but before they can go, they hear the pirates attacking the Indians above.

Although the Indians knew the pirates were on the island, they didn’t know how close they were. “From the accounts afterwards supplied by such of the scouts as escaped the carnage, [Hook] does not seem even to have paused at the rising ground…no thought of waiting to be attacked appears from first to last to have visited his subtle mind; he would not even hold off till the night was nearly spent” (107). It was too late when the Indians finally reached for their weapons.

“Elation must have been in his heart, but his face did not reflect it: ever a dark and solitary enigma, he stood aloof from his followers in spirit as in substance” (109). After his victory against the Indians, Hook thinks about his ultimate plan: to kill Peter Pan. He wonders, for a moment, why he hates Peter. He realizes it is Peter’s cockiness he hates. The pirates listen for the boys below while Peter tells everyone that the Indians will beat the tom-tom in victory. Hook signals for his men to do so. When Peter hears it, everyone says their goodbyes to him.

Everyone except Peter goes up their trees. Wendy comes last. “With ironical politeness Hook raised his hat to her, and, offering her his arm, escorted her to the spot where the others were being gagged. He did it with such an air, he was so frightfully distingue, that she was too fascinated to cry out. She was only a little girl” (111). The pirates put the children into the house built for Wendy to transport them.

Peter does not know what has happened above so he and continues with his evening, playing the pipes, and then going to bed. “Sometimes, though not often, he had dreams, and they were more painful than the dreams of other boys” (115). Hook enters and looks at Peter from across the room. “The man was not wholly evil; he loved flowers (I have been told) and sweet music (he was himself no mean performer on the harpsichord); and, let it be frankly admitted, the idyllic nature of the scene shook him profoundly” (115).

Hook poisons Peter’s water, but unbeknownst to him, Tinker Bell sees him do so. Hook leaves and Tinker Bell wakes Peter and tells him what happened to the others. He tries to drink his water, but she jumps in front of his lips and drains the cup herself. She explains that it was poisoned; she will die. He cries out, asking the world if they believe in fairies. People’s belief keeps Tinker Bell alive. Peter leaves, ready to find the others and Hook. He vows that it is “Hook or me this time” (119).