Is never learning anything a necessary condition of remaining a child? J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan and Philippa Pearce's Tom's Midnight Garden
Peter Pan is the main protagonist of J.M. Barrie’s novel Peter & Wendy. He is introduced as a boy who refuses to grow up and therefore remains a child forever, roaming the mythical Neverland with his companions. One of his essential traits is his forgetfulness – he is never able to recall past actions or even his friends. Margaret Hourihan argues that, due to said forgetfulness, Peter can only ever live in the moment and thus never learns anything, which she considers the “necessary condition of remaining a child.” This essay will discuss in how far this is an accurate description of Peter Pan, and, focusing on both J.M. Barrie’s Peter and Wendy as well as Philippa Pearce’s Tom’s Midnight Garden, will try to determine whether never learning anything really is the necessary condition of remaining a child.
A number of scenes in Peter and Wendy portray Peter Pan as a boy who, despite his perpetual youth, finds himself in situations not fit for a child. For example, he saves Tiger Lily from the pirates and fights his arch-enemy Captain Hook, barely escaping death. On the other hand, Peter is also responsible for the death of many pirates, and he is the one that ultimately kills Hook. Under normal circumstances, experiences such as these would be too much to bear for any child. In Peter’s case, however, they do not hold much significance because they are merely fleeting moments that he eventually forgets: Barrie explains that “Peter had seen many tragedies, but he had forgotten them all.” In fact, he cannot even remember Captain Hook, let alone the other pirates, stating that “[he] forget[s] them after [he] kill[s] them.” Since he has no recollection of them, Peter does not feel remorse or regret for his actions, nor does he derive any knowledge from them, which would corrupt his childlike state of mind that he wishes to stay in forever. Forgetting his personal tragedies is essential for him since the alternative of gaining life experience and assuming
A number of scenes in Peter and Wendy portray Peter Pan as a boy who, despite his perpetual youth, finds himself in situations not fit for a child. For example, he saves Tiger Lily from the pirates and fights his arch-enemy Captain Hook, barely escaping death. On the other hand, Peter is also responsible for the death of many pirates, and he is the one that ultimately kills Hook. Under normal circumstances, experiences such as these would be too much to bear for any child. In Peter’s case, however, they do not hold much significance because they are merely fleeting moments that he eventually forgets: Barrie explains that “Peter had seen many tragedies, but he had forgotten them all.” In fact, he cannot even remember Captain Hook, let alone the other pirates, stating that “[he] forget[s] them after [he] kill[s] them.” Since he has no recollection of them, Peter does not feel remorse or regret for his actions, nor does he derive any knowledge from them, which would corrupt his childlike state of mind that he wishes to stay in forever. Forgetting his personal tragedies is essential for him since the alternative of gaining life experience and assuming